were pre-omicron. thanks to all of you for getting up for way too early with us on this thursday morning. "morning joe" starts right now. ♪♪ >> translator: greetings, world. it is me, vladimir putin. you may not recognize me because my nipples are covered. i know the international community is skeptical that russia is withdrawing troops, so i app here today to provide evidence. first, as you can see, our military men are retreating from the border. second, we are also removing our equipment as this official footage clearly shows. so there you have it, world. i hope you are happy. ♪♪ >> well, i mean seriously,

willie, what else do you need? look at that view of washington, d.c., a town that is assured by vladimir putin's assurances once again. willie, yeah, it seems that president putin's guarantees aren't exactly rock solid, that far from withdrawing troops what do we have? maybe 7,000 more going to the border? >> yeah, those multiple grains of salt we've been talking about for every story we report for vladimir putin have turned out to be true, which is to say that the secretary of state on this show said, no, actually they're not withdrawing troops. we're seeing more troops come in. it appears, believe it or not, this may be propaganda from vladimir putin and russia about a withdrawal. >> yeah, shocking. absolutely shocking. to talk through this and a whole lot more we have the host of "way too early" and white house bureau treef at "politico", jonathan lemire. also former u.s. censor, now nbc

news and msnbc political analyst, someone who would agree the best teams weren't actually the ones you saw in super bowl, claire mccaskill. a member of "the new york times" editorial board, mara gay. mika has the morning off so we can talk sports most of the morning. why don't we start with that, claire mccaskey? claire mccaskill? i know you agree with me that the best teams didn't make it to the super bowl. >> i think that true. i would love to see them change the rules and move the bills/chiefs game into the super bowl because it was the game of the century. it was the most entertaining, the best quarterbacks, the best overall teams, and you couldn't make a game more exciting, especially with the way it turned out. so i'm just considering that our

super bowl for the year, and for the first time in three years i was home for the super bowl instead of cheering my chiefs. >> yeah. i'll tell you what, willie, either one of those teams i think would have beaten the rams, but that's not the way it works. that certainly was probably the game of the year. >> claire is sounding utterly trumpian, we lost so change the rules. there's one problem with the argument, too. the cincinnati bengals beat the kansas city chiefs at their place. came back in the second half and beat them. >> details, details, details. >> we don't need to relitigate those games. let's dive into the news. new york attorney general letitia james is hitting back donald trump's defense of his financial records. he put out a statement saying his long-term accounting firm cut ties with him.

she responded in a letter saying, it is not unusual for parties to a legal proceeding to disagree about the facts. but it is truly rare for a party to publicly disagree with statements submitted by his own attorneys in a signed pleading, let alone one day after the pleading was filed. later this morning lawyers for trump will appear as part of an ongoing fight to avoid a subpoena. also in that statement from donald trump in response to the allegations that he inflated his wealth, the former president inflated his wealth, claiming, quote, we have a great company with fantastic assets that are unique, extremely valuable and, in many cases, far more valuable than what was listed in our financial statements. so there you have it, joe, another confession from donald trump. >> another confession. as heilemann said years ago, everything donald trump said is either projection or confession. i think is guy is a little slow on the take on this one.

he doesn't get it. he has been exaggerating his entire life, as the lead "new york times" story says this morning. that is just what he has been doing. he started by claiming he was worth $8 billion in his presidential campaign. then he sent out a sweet in all caps, i'm worth over $10 billion, and it was $5.7 billion. usually it has been investors and, you know, the teaming masses that are thrown off by these false claims. now he has a lot of investigations that are ongoing and he still doesn't get the fact that this could land him in really hot legal water. >> yeah. i mean the problem is that he has been doing this, engaging in this bragadociousness since the '80s. he rarely paid a price for it. even when he went bankrupt he came back. then he went on to become

president, of course, while lying and bragging, so he has never paid a price for all of this. i think we still don't really know yet and won't know for sometime whether he actually will be held accountable legally, but i do think that if you are his lawyer or his accountant -- well, we know his accountants don't want to be his accountants anymore. but can you imagine what a nightmare this would have to be? i think this is a pathological need obviously to appear bigger than he is, to appear wealthier than he might be and to have more assets than he may have. but i think this is not going to serve him well in the new york justice system. >> no. >> this is not -- he's not just, you know, trying to curry favor with his supporters here. we know he is eyeing a run for the presidency again. this is not going to help him in his legal peril that he's in. i also have to wonder if you

are, again, you know, somebody who maybe worked behind the scenes on his behalf, this is not exactly encouraging behavior. i mean he's essentially daring people to come after him. so he's not sorry. he's not repentant. i think we will see what happens, you know, as this case plays out. but he's in a lot of legal trouble. this isn't going to help. i mean they tell you even in criminal court back in the day when i was a young cub reporter, you know, judges will tell you, please don't talk about these cases. they don't want you to, you know, actually make things worse for yourself. that's what trump is doing here. >> yeah. >> he's not running for election. i think he may have forgotten himself. >> maybe so. but, you know, claire mccaskill, whether he is running for election or whether he is running his business, the actions are so consistent. you know, there have been all of these psychological profiles of vladimir putin and also sort of the russian outlook on

governing. the bottom line is the ends just fire the means. a lie is okay. nothing wrong, nothing immoral what lie if you are vladimir putin or if you are the russians or if you were the soviets because the ends always justify the means. so you spew out disinformation and fire hose will falsehoods, and it works for them. that's been donald trump, and the consistency -- really, it is raise how consistent he has been from what he did in business for 40 years, always lying about how much money he had, to his election, always lying about how many votes he got. it wasn't just here. it wasn't just in 2020 when he lied about the so-called stolen election, it was also in 2016. remember, he was lying. he said, oh, a golfer in line heard that somebody voted illegally and i actually won the 2016 campaign. so he was inflating the number of votes he got in 2016, lying about that.

his first contest against ted cruz in iowa when ted cruz beat him in iowa, he lied about that. this is what he does. this is the psychological profile. lying about votes is so, so very easy for him because he has been doing it about money for 40 years, and now it is all catching up to him, whether you are talking about what is happening in georgia where he was bested on the telephone saying "steal me 11,000 votes" or whether you are looking at all of these financial cases against him in new york. it is all catching up to him. >> the interesting thing is he and putin have so much in common in terms of how they view things. the difference is though donald trump is still in the united states of america where we have court systems that are not going to accept his lies like they do in russia. the court system is not going to accept his lying. now, i will tell you who i -- i

thought maybe the worst job was maybe being his accounting firm. they have now jumped off the titanic, but maybe the even more horrible job is his lawyers. >> oh, would be terrible. >> can you imagine filing a pleaing and saying one day, you can't depose this man because he knows nothing and then the very next day your client goes public for five pages and says, "i know everything"? they've got a horrible situation where their best shot is to divorce him from the company in terms of decisions that were made, but he is not going to allow that because at his essence the company is just him. he's the only one who can know everything, do everything, be everything. so, yeah, i never believed when i was a kid in grade school learning about how you don't lie and as a young candidate saying the worst sin you could possibly do running for office was to lie that we would get to the point where a third of the country and

most of the united states senate that have an "r" behind their name are worshipping a liar. >> yeah, and supporting his claim that he actually won the election. it is extraordinary. meanwhile, donald trump is trying his best to brand the durham investigation as another watergate, that is the investigation into the origins of the russian investigation that culminated in the mueller report. last week trump called this bigger than watergate. now he is claiming there was a, quote, espionage campaign of the democrats breaking into the white house and my new york city apartment. you might remember we thoroughly fact checked this on tuesday's show over the course of half an hour. there was no break in, of course. durham accuses a tech executive of using legally obtained access of white house computers to look for, quote, derogatory information on donald trump, and there have been no charges filed against that executive. meanwhile, hillary clinton tweeted this yesterday. trump and fox are desperately spinning up a fake scandal to distract from his real ones.

so it is a day that ends in why. she wrote, the more his misdeeds are exposed the more they lie. clinton also included a link to a "vanity fair" art that she says includes a debunking. jonathan lemire, you were with us when we ticked through this point by point. there were charged brought by john durham of illegal wire tapping. you would think if it occurred it would be included in charges there. also, a lot took place in obama administration. it began in 2014. >> yeah, very little of what the former president said is true, but we almost can just leave it right there. diving into this a little deeper, i think it is useful to go back into the origins of the durham report, which is something that was always conceived of by trump and his allies as a counterbalance, a countermeasure to the mueller russia investigation and one

that donald trump while in office had pinned very high hopes on, that he thought this would really be a game changing, whether he truly believed it or not remains to be seen. but he was under the belief he could at least sell the idea that the government was working against him, that it was spying on him. we all remember his tweet claiming that president obama wire trapped the trump tower. that wasn't true. and during his time he thought this would be the smoking gun he could use to really detonate the democrats ahead of his 2020 reelection campaign. it was a source of great frustration and friction between himself and attorney general william barr because barr said, look, the report is not ready yet, this is durham's show, he has free rein here. it is a lengthy and expensive process to get it done. there was a sense as the 2020 election year went on and the election started to slip away as the coronavirus surged and his handling of it was so widely disapproved it, he recognize it

it wasn't going to be all he thought it was. it ended up being a huge disappointment and didn't come out in time to save the election anyway. now that we are getting pieces of it, he is trying to distill it into something that it is not and some of those in the conservative immediate yu are trying to go along with it but it doesn't seem to be much there. >> not much there and we're seeing a lot of backing away from the breathlessness. all we heard over the weekend, why isn't the mainstream corporate media talking about it. we started talking about it and all of a sudden most people have gone quiet, except those who want to make complete, total asses of themselves. speaking of that, claire mccaskill, durham, here is a guy that spent a good bit of his career respected. he is humiliating himself. this thing has dragged on for three years, investigating the

investigators has gone on longer than the investigation. as i said a couple of days ago, if they were actually doing things i would say, okay, go as long as you want, get to the bottom of this. whatever it takes, i want to know what all of the agencies have been doing. if there was something that was done wrong in the investigation, americans need to know about it. well, here we are three years into it. he puts out a pleading that is just indecipherable. it allows crackpots to lie to their audiences that something is amiss, and you dig into it and, again, there was no wire tapping. in fact, no data was collected illegally. everything durham admits was collected legally. nobody is charged with anything. hillary clinton, there's not even any suggestion that hillary clinton had anything to do with any of this. they have sussman, a guy everybody in washington, d.c. knew was connected to the dnc and hillary clinton including

republicans on the hill. i mean i could go on and on and on. the fact is durham after three years has this one charge against a lawyer that is not going to stick. you look at the facts behind that one charge, it is preposterous. yet merrick garland, i guess merrick garland has to let him continue to go on, but three years and all he is doing is churning up a bunch of nothing and it just continues. what is the plan inside of doj? are they going to let this guy go three more years and just launch a conspiracy theory with a poorly written pleading every 18 months or so? >> well, first of all, i think in a way it works to the benefit of the truth that durham has independent control, that merrick garland is not controlling him. because if there was all kinds of bad actors trying to hurt the

guy in mar-a-lago, then bring on the grand jury and the indictments, but there's nothing. >> exactly. >> other than saying -- there's nothing other than saying a lawyer didn't tell us that his firm had done some work and that he was billing hillary clinton for some of his time. that's it. that's it. the notion that somehow this guy -- you know, he kind of did a plea where he twisted the facts like a pretzel to throw a bone to the right wing. of course, they've taken this little bitty bone and they've tried to make it into a side of beef, and it is not and they're not going to be able to make it a side of beef. so in a way it is almost better to have him out there by himself with independent ability to bring -- because if, in fact, merrick garland shut it down it would forever be, oh, look what happened, you know, he was on the verge of finding that

hillary clinton was, you know, in the trump tower looking under trump's bed. but if in fact this keeps going the way it is going, he is going to twist in the wind and eventually die and go away and there will be no there there as you said. so i don't think it is so bad to let him keep going. i think it was an utter fail. the people who believe what they're saying on that one cable news channel, they're going to believe it if they say donald trump lost 150 pounds and is trying out for the gymnastic team. >> there's a visual for you, donald trump on the uneven bars. by the way, as we pointed out the other day, you have three years now we are coming up on, three years of the durham investigation. the mueller investigation itself took less than two years. we'll continue to cover this story. also ahead on "morning joe" as we mentioned at the top of the hour, russia's military presence along the border of ukraine appears to be growing despite moscow saying this week troops are being pulled back. we will talk to foreign

relations committee member senator chris murphy about that development plus, with covid cases dropping across the country the cdc says now it is reviewing guidelines for mask wearing. could the agency finally be catching up with changes made by many blue state governors and republicans, of course, across the country as well? also ahead, a member of former trump's cabinet facing new accusations of misusing his public office for private game. and bob saget's death records will remain private for now. we will tell you what a judge in florida said about that case. you are watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. "morning j. "morning j. we'll be right back.q3. yeah...uhhh... doug? [children laughing] sorry about that. umm...what...it's uhh... you alright? [loud exhale] [ding] never settle with power e*trade.

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hey google. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ a florida judge has temporarily halted the release of records in the investigation into the death of actor bob saget. nbc news national correspondent gabe gutierrez has details.

>> reporter: a florida judge sided with bob saget's family, blocking the release of records related to the comedian's death, the judge writing, "the court finds that plaintiffs will suffer irreparable harm in the form of severe mental pain, anguish and emotional suggest if the injunction is not dead." america's beloved tv dead was found dead in an orlando hotel room. on tuesday his family sued to stop release of information because they quote, graphically depict saget. in response the orange county's sheriff's office says while we are sensitive to the family's concerns about the right to privacy, that must be balanced with our commitment to transparency. last week saget's family revealed his cause of death as accidental head trauma. in the autopsy the florida

medical examiner confirmed that adding the 65 year old likely fell backwards, causing injury to the back of his head, causing bleeding to the brain and multiple fractures on his head and around the eyes. still, experts said it was so badly injured it is unlikely he would have ignored. >> it based on the injuries in the autopsy and severe the injuries are, it is hard to imagine him walking anywhere and having a thought process going on. >> gabe gutierrez reporting there. remind you the autopsy report found no evidence of foul play or illicit drugs in saget's system. a follow up to another story we reported on yesterday. parent in san francisco overwhelmingly recalling three school board members. nbc news correspondent jake ward has more on the reasons why they did that and what comes next. >> reporter: students in san francisco arriving the morning after a historic vote. three school board commissioners ousted in a once-in-a-generation recall. the city sued the board over a

lack of a clear reopening plan following pandemic closures, and parents say their frustration grew when the board chose to focus on renaming a third of the city's schools including this one. the flashpoint for many was when the board decided to change the admissions at this, the city's most prestigious high school, from a merit-based system to a lottery-based system. the majority of students here are asian-americans and it seems to have drawn in first time voters. >> we signed up many voters in the last six weeks. >> across the country schools have become a political battleground. last fall glenn youngkin rode concerns over critical race theory to the governor's mansion. >> it is my honor. >> reporter: he signed a bill outlawing school mask mandates. in san francisco opponents to the recall say it is the fight

for social justice that got them in trouble. >> i think these three have been pushing to make san francisco a unified, better, more equitable place, which is uncomfortable, right. >> reporter: in the end more than 72 percent of the vote went against the commissioners. >> when selecting new school board members we will be asking a lot of hard questions. >> reporter: organizers here say the message to whoever the mayor appoints next is clear. >> pay attention to education first and only. no politics. >> reporter: though the two seem more entwined than ever. >> that's jake ward reporting for us from san francisco. joe, if you talk to parents and san francisco, this actually wasn't that complicated, this landslide vote of 70 percent to 75% to recall those members. it is their kids were sitting at home remote learning, battling the challenges that have come with that in terms of mental health and everything else while their school was opening. they were watching other school districts open, private schools

open and they watched their school board debate name changes instead of fighting to open the doors to the schools. >> you had three things going on, willie, i think are three key issues that democrats not only will be talking about in general election campaigns but what we are seeing in primary campaigns and even in liberal bastions like san francisco. mara, those three are obviously covid, whether the schools open or not, what sort of mandates there are inside the school. parents are watching this closely from north carolina to san francisco. you have the woke politics, the renaming of the schools, the proposed renaming of the cools, which even got the mayor involved in saying they needed to worry about opening the schools instead of renaming it. and then the third has to do with affirmative action but sort of affirmative action with a twist. we are seeing this all over the country, too, with asian americans starting to feel they're being punished because

they are asian americans and they're not allowed into schools based on merit just because of over representation. in the san francisco case, it is so fascinating on so many fronts, and it seems these are three issues we will be hearing for at least the next six to nine months in the campaigns. >> that's right. i think that democrats, and not just democrats but all of us frankly, would be wise to focus most of the energy here on making sure that schools can safely reopen to serve students. i'm not a parent yet but i can only imagine the anger and frustration and concern of parents as they see movie theaters, sports arenas, restaurants, bars reopening, but yet in so many cases like in san francisco are still watching their kids at home in front of a screen, wondering, you know, what kind of education they're

getting and what kind of educational losses they may be enduring, not to mention the social aspect and the emotional and psychological aspect of what this pandemic has borne on children. so much of this has been prolonged because of the refusal of parts of this country to get vaccinated, but there's also leadership question in school boards, school districts across the country. we really needed to prioritize this, and the fact that we haven't done so in any methodical way or a uniform way, i should say. some districts have done a great job, i what to be clear, is a source of deep anger and concern. there are so many years of education we are losing and, of course, it is the most vulnerable kids who will be most harmed by this. then you have layered on top of that the culture wars that you are talking about, and in some cases the debates over affirmative action that really never ended.

i went to the university of michigan in 2004. i am dating myself there, but i was there the year after the affirmative action decision at the supreme court, and i can tell you that battle wasn't over. it defined my college years, and trying to understand what it is going to look like with the new supreme court -- i mean we are going to be having that conversation for years to come. >> yeah. oh, no doubt about it. obviously the supreme court is going to be talking about it, too. by the way, mara, you're not really dating yourself by graduating in 2004. i think i was celebrating like my 85th birthday in 2004. >> congratulations. >> so, clair mccaskill, you know, mara -- i know you understand this better than all of us because you have been elected to office, represented the state of missouri, mara is right.

at the end of the day it comes down to schools, it comes down to kids. parents will prioritize kids over everything else. you can talk to them about capital gains rates all day long, if you got it wrong on the kids you are out of luck. people like scott gottlieb always got this right, by was when we need mandates, when we need mask mandates, when we need to shut down schools, we shut down schools. but when we can open them up, let's open them up, get kids back in school, get rid of the mandates. then the delta surge comes, we can react to that. the delta surge leaves, we can react to that. but people have not been -- the government has not, certainly over the last six months, they have not been handling this with much subtlety at all in some of these districts, and have you mainly democratic candidates who are paying for it. >> yeah. by the way, in virginia what youngkin did was he recognized something that's really

important, and that is right now, maybe more so than any time in my adult life, it is time for everyone running for office to show deference to parents as it relates to the education of their children. not politicize what is going on, but rather just prioritize parents and recognize their frustration and feel their anger. you know, they may be bs about crt and there may be ridiculous right-wing attempts to ban books, but if everyone stays focused on the rights of parents to feel scared, angry, confused over what they've had to go through over the last two years they're going to lose votes. listen, you know the definition of out of touch, joe? let me give you the definition of out of touch. in the middle of the pandemic someone on a school board somewhere saying, you know, it is a good idea in order to protect children we have to take abraham lincoln's name off a

high school. >> oh. >> that's the definition of out of touch. >> you know what else is out of touch? when you have people that are disconnected from leaders who think they are too elite and then you have parents complaining about things that are going on in their children's schools, and then you have elites saying, oh, that's not going on in your children's school. maybe crt is not going on in their children's school per se, but something is going on in their children's schools we have to get to the bottom of. it is like the german investigation. we have to know what is going on. instead of elites saying, oh, these parents, they're stupid and they're having politicians manipulating them and they don't know what they're talking about. actually, they do. they have children coming home from school. i know this, again, as an

85-year-old guy with 79 kids -- or four, sometimes it feels like 79. hey, what happened in school today? you stay connected. those parents know what is happening to their kids every day in school. they don't need politicians running for governor or president telling them they don't know what they're talking about, claire. that's a real disconnect and a real warning. if a parent tells you something is going on inside the school, yes, there are bad faith actors out there. if you keep hearing it, as you know, if you keep hearing it from one town hall meeting after another town hall meeting after another town hall meeting, when you are knocking on doors, when you are shaking hands, you know something is going on out there and they need to look into it. >> yeah. and maybe the thing that i'm most worried about now is the idea that we're going to hyper-politicize school board elections. that's not good. traditionally people that have run for school board have been parents who have been very active in the school, and by and large -- not in every school

district, but by and large i think school boards in this country have operated the way they were intended to operate. now we have a backdrop where there's a calcified polarization of who is running to the school board and who is controlling it and are you trump enough or are you anti-trump enough. you know, let's back off, and as democratic politicians just say, we care deeply about the power of parents to control their kids' education and supporting public education. if they could just keep it simple on those two things, they could shh wart the effort of the far right to really, frankly, distort the educational process in this country. >> i was going to say the last thing we need is hyper-politicized school boards and that's the direction a lot of communities seem to be going. jonathan lemire, let me ask you, what is on the cover of "morning joe's" paper of record?

i mean at least when we agree with it. >> yeah, there's no update on david lee roth, which i know has been -- the "new york post" has been your number one source on that. >> he retired! >> i heard that. >> he retired. >> but we have this. i'll hold it up here. "the woke revolt." parents in san francisco, yes, san francisco, kick out school board members for being too left. the "new york post" happily joining on this story here and the coverage inside details what we were discussing, the idea that so many of these parents said that the priorities of the school board were misplaced during the pandemic. the "new york post" has a study which, this will come as a shock to you, there were a rating of uber passengers and those in new york city were deemed the rudest. >> what a surprise. i'm shocked, shocked. so, willie, you know, a lot of times when we are talking about issues like this i will have people say, oh, you're a

republican. well, i'm not actually a republican. and they talk just like that. it is kind of weird. how am i supposed to follow that? anyway, i will say i'm not talking about republicans. i am talking about democrats debating democrats. this is sort of a -- this is a democratic city, obviously. but you look at what has happened over the past six months, you look what happened in the elections from last year. people like eric adams won. so here you have a guy who ran as a conservative/moderate and he wins in the new york city primary, democratic primary. he takes, as i have said before, brooklyn, bronx, queens, staten island, loses, of course, manhattan. you look at what happened up in buffalo. you look what happened in minneapolis. you look at all of these democratic primaries and time and time again, and this starter with joe biden, you have democratic voters, rank and file voters, deciding to go a more moderate direction than a lot of

politicians in the democratic party nationally and a lot of the fundraisers in the democratic party, where they line up. i think in san francisco here is yet another example. we have been warning about it for sometime. i have been warning about the fact that i have heard one lifelong liberal after another lifelong liberal complain about this issue, and a lot of issue makers just sort of slough it off. we have the head of the dccc coming in at the top of 8:00 to say, man, the polls are showing we're in big trouble on these cultural issues and we have to start fighting back. >> yeah, and there's been a lot of sneering at the parents. there's been a lot of sneering at democratic voters on these issues around schools, and they're paying the price. you are right, san francisco is a snapshot. i can't think of a more progressive city in america, and that vote wasn't close. as i said, it was up into the 70 percentile of people who wanted to recall those three board members. frankly, it was just a case of progressive activists versus

democratic voters and the democratic voters said, wait a minute, my kid now has for a year been sitting at home at school while other schools are opening and you're debating whether or not paul revere's name or abraham lincoln's name should be on the side of the school? we just want our elected officials, our leaders in government to get things done. we want them to do their jobs, and never more than ever has it come to light during the pandemic where we need these people to actually do their jobs. we will see where it goes from here. coming up this morning, the latest in the racial discrimination lawsuit against the nfl. the league just hired a very high-profile foreign to help with its defense. we'll tell you who it is. plus, russian doping allegations are holding up medal ceremonies for american figure skaters but they're getting a consolation prize from the ioc. we will explain next on "morning joe." we will explain next on "morning joe.

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i'm standing here in this city that knows nothing but championships. all i know, get back to work, let's run it back. >> run it became! run it back! run it back! >> we're the champion! >> i'm happy to be standing up here with you guys, celebrating this [ bleep ]. come on. let's go, y'all! i'm going to bring a little southern hospitality to this. i appreciate y'all so much. you guys have been unbelievable. unbelievable all year. you know what? we appreciate you. let's go. >> they're having some fun in l.a. yesterday. not quite tom brady throwing the

lombardi trophy off a boat fun, but close. cooper kupp, sean mcvay, aaron donald, matthew stafford, the rest of the rams celebrating their super bowl victory yesterday with a victory parade where shirts were optional available. tom braiding tweeting, mix in a water, matt. trust me. referring to his performance at that boat parade last year. meanwhile, former u.s. attorney general loretta lynch will be among the lawyers representing the nfl in its defense against the racial discrimination lawsuit filed by former miami dolphins' head coach brian flores. the league's spokesman confirmed to nbc news the nfl retained the firm for which lynch is a partner in the litigation department and that she will be one of the two attorneys leading the defense of the nfl. major league baseball spring training camps are empty but

talks will resume today. they notified management yesterday they were ready to respond since the first work stoppage since 1994 enters the 78th day today, one day after spring training schedules were to begin. it is unlikely a deal will be reached before the start of exhibition games on february 26th and the lockout soon will threaten opening day scheduled for march 31st. joining us, msnbc contributor mike barnicle. it is written, voices in baseball have seemed angrier than any time since the lockout began. not a good omen from peter. >> no, and accurate, too. both sides seemingly despise one another. look, willie, we all know the story. well, we don't all know the story. those of us who are baseball fanatics know the story. the walkout began, was

instituted on december 2nd. this is february 17th now and the two sides have met exactly five times in that period of time to negotiate a new settlement. that's not serious negotiating and everybody knows it. both sides know it. but every time they do sit down together and we'll find out what happens today and the rest of the week, the anger seems to go up on both sides. so the prospect of major league baseball starting on time, opening day, march 31st, the trigger date i'm told is march 1st, the end of february obviously. if they don't have something resolved by then, we are going to see a few games delayed, postponed and not a full major league baseball season. that's sad. >> yeah. mike, why such contempt for the fans? why do these billionaires and millionaires who have what they have because of the fans that come out, who actually work all year and maybe can afford four or five tickets a year, who spend money at the concessions, who watch the tv games every night, why do these people,

these billionaires and these millionaires have such contempt for these baseball fans that they only meet five times in their off-season? >> you know, the easy answer, joe -- and it is probably too simplistic an answer, but it is all about money. i mean major league baseball, while quality professional sports are swimming in an ocean of money, both sides, both the players and the team owners. the team owners are obviously billionaires, you're not going to own a team unless you have a lot of money. the players feel they've been screwed badly over the last five or six years based on the last accomplishment they had putting together a pact, a contract. now they want to make up for it. in the service time they're talking about eliminating one-year of service before the players become a free agent and the owners think it will cost too much money. jonathan, i don't know about you, but the money factor here is sickening.

>> yes, and it comes at a time when the american people will have no patience for this. >> none. >> emerging from a pandemic. we know there's an economic hardship among so many americans, americans who frankly have far more entertainment options at their disposal than in 1994. baseball goes out and they lose time it will be harder to come back than it was even then. we know it took years then an it needed ripken and the home run chase and all of this. claire, there doesn't seem to be a lot of good news and hope around the horizon. you are a cardinal's fan. give us a sense there. it is a passionate fan base, people love baseball. how upset are folks? it feels like the extended nfl playoffs gave them a little cover, but it is over and now people will be looking around going, hey, where is my baseball. >> yeah. if you live in st. louis and this happens, if there is an actual stoppage and games don't

occur, if opening day, which is a big deal in st. louis, doesn't happen when it is supposed to, it will have a huge impact. let my file this one under out of touch. you know, it was out of touch for semiconductor members to think it was a good idea to take abraham lincoln and paul revere's names off schools in san francisco. it is way out of touch for these players and owners to not understand how disrespectful they're truly being to the fans. you know, if i were a very young woman and had a lot of financial energy and time on my hands, there's ways on social media to organize protests, to ask fans to let it be known they're tired of people arguing over whether they make $250 million this year or $150 million this year or arguing whether or not they're going to make $15 million in their career or $12 million in

their career. it is really bad that they are so out of touch that they -- i mean all you have to hear is they've only met five times. talk about a slam in the face. get busy. get this worked out. quit being greedy. >> and you would think there would be somebody inside major league baseball who was around in 1994 and saw the damage to the game that this did and how long it took baseball to dig out from under that, who might be able to intervene here. so far no luck with that. still ahead this morning, we will show you what happened on the senate floor yesterday after a republican tried to blame democrats for a bipartisan bill signed into law by donald trump. "morning joe" is coming right back. " is coming right back

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mara, as we look at new york city, costs a lot to run that town. $98 billion budget that was released yesterday by eric adams. interestingly enough, as "the new york times" reports, there were a lot of cuts for a lot of different departments but no cuts for the nypd. what does the budget tell you about eric adams' priorities as well as where new york city voters seem to want to go? >> yep. so we saw the budget only modestly increase. i think it was about 2.5% increase over last year. so this is much smaller than the gains that we saw under bill de blasio, those increases. so, you know, there were some budget hawks yesterday who were happy to see that. adams has essentially kept the spending overall flat, but he is spending more on city services

and planning to rein in spending on the workforce, which grew enormously under former mayor bill de blasio. in the long run he is hoping to shave that workforce by at least 10,000 workers. so that is going to really help offset the city's long-term expenses, because workers in new york are expensive because it is a union town. those are renegotiated and they include pensions and other expensive things for taxpayers. i think it makes sense to keep spending at a robust level at a time when so many new yorkers are suffering. when you are talking about year-to-year spending you can be nimble with that, and eric adams knows it is not the time to cut back, not only on policing but he avoided a cut to the health department. he asked other agencies to cut about 3% from their budget but

you didn't do it with the department of health or the department of law enforcement dealing with a crisis at rikers island. the secret will be in the sauce as we see the budget negotiated with the city council. we have 51 members of the city council. we are talking about school boards, can you imagine the towns in america having to negotiate budgets with 51 members of their city council? it happens here. >> that is chaos, chaos waiting to happen. thank you so much for being with us. appreciate it. coming up, despite fears of war breaking out in eastern europe, senator chris murphy says a russian invasion of ukraine is putin's last resort. the committee member joins to explain that straight ahead. we will be back in 90 seconds. k.

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>> yes, it is true that president trump signed the first step act. the first step act was the worst mistake of the trump administration. yes, it is true a number of republican senators voted for it. they were wrong. >> but, wait a second, i thought it was the democrats' fault. i'm so confused. you see, i'm just a southern state school guy. i'm not a harvard boy like tom cotton. i didn't go to harvard law school. i didn't go to harvard undergrad. i am a plain, country lawyer, but it seems to me that, willie, what -- what that high falutin' senator don't understand, it was donald trump, jared kushner, the koch corporation pushing that. they were the ones championing that. a lot of people on both sides

were pushing it, god bless them. last time i checked, they were all republicans, conservatives. the bill never would have passed without donald trump and jared kushner pushing it so far. so if tom cotton has a problem, he has a problem with the republican president and a lot of fellow republicans that are in -- i don't understand how -- he knows that's the truth. do they teach you to talk that way at harvard? again, i'm a simple man. a simple man, a dumb country lawyer, but it just seems to me he would know he would get caught in that lie. >> famously bipartisan piece of legislation, famously negotiated, as you said, by jared kushner and the koch family as you said. it is an example not just of what we see in congress but on tv shows and everywhere else,

which is a rewriting in thinks r history, and a hope that there's been so much going on in the last years that you won't remember who or who is responsible for what that you can rewrite the case. but in that case a senator fact checked it. >> we have senator murphy from connecticut. let me bring you in here. man, there was a rush from republicans as well as democrats to get out there and, again, i say it on the show all the time, you know, i got people coming up to me going, i used to like you when you were conservative. i'm a really conservative guy. i didn't like this idea because they said let's not do this when crime is at a 50-year low. let's wait a couple of years and see. but i can tell you, the trump white house, as you know, they were out front on this. jared kushner was working the hill nonstop. republicans were working the hill nonstop. charles koch, the koch organization was working it not stop.

i got e-mails from friends in the koch organization every morning talking about the criminal justice and get on board. i just would keep going back, no thank you. of course, they say that just to upset half the audience out there probably. but for a republican to blame democrats for criminal justice reform is so rich. it is like republicans don't understand we have videotape on them. >> and this was a priority of the trump administration and republicans in the senate. it was one of the rare moments of bipartisanship under president trump's presidency. i think tom cotton didn't think there were going to be democrats on the floor to call him out. it is stunning to see somebody go down to the floor and in a five-minute span say it was all the democrats who did this and

then when they get caught on it draw it back and say, oh, yeah, right, it was the republicans. i think it is over hyped to say that the first step act, which allowed for a handful of nonviolent drug offenders to get out of long prison sentences a little early is what caused the murder rate in this country to go up by 40% in 2020 and 2021. there's a lot of complicating factors there, most importantly a pandemic which left people very desperate, led to a dramatic rise in the purchase of firearms in this country. it is a bit more complicated story. >> right. it certainly is. and senator mccaskill, you and senator murphy know better than all of us that politicians on both sides have often shaded the truth, sometimes have just outright lied. i must say though it gets

exhausting. during the trump years it does see that the republicans have adopted the russian fire hose of falsehood, a lot of them have, fire hose of falsehood strategy, just to keep coming at you and lying in defense of donald trump, attacking democrats when the facts are not on their side. there's tom cotton saying we can't really have a debate about crime because he would be there all day because democrats pushed a bill that, again, the trump administration and jared kushner and charles koch and others associated with the right were on the forefront of pushing every day. >> yeah. you know, the interesting thing, the harvard law degree also left out an important fact, and chris knows this. we spend a lot of time in washington talking about crime and law enforcement. 99.5% of all violent crime in this country doesn't have anything to do with federal

government. it is all state and local. so the notion that a bill that deals with a very small percentage of drug offenders in the country, which are federal drug offenders, very small. the vast majority of all of these offenders aren't even touched by the first step act. so it is so disingenuous for tom cotton to make that argument when he full well knows it has nothing to do with what the crime rate is right now. he knows that. he went to a law school, i think a pretty good one. chris may have an opinion on that. which one was it, chris? >> we have a couple of good law schools in connecticut, claire. let's remember why tom cotton was on the floor yesterday. tom cotton was on the floor yesterday objecting to votes on federal prosecutors. now, it used to be we would never take votes on u.s.

attorneys. these were nominations made by the president. they would sail through because we knew you can't enforce law if you don't have superintendent attorneys on the job that are actually going after the criminals. tom cotton was on the floor yesterday objecting to the confirmation of u.s. attorneys, as he has all year. so it is just completely disingenuous to be on the floor claiming it is democrats that are responsible for increases in crime when you, in fact, are the one that is blocking the appointment of the most important law enforcements in the federal system today. so just remember that's what that speech was all about yesterday, blocking the enforcement of law in multiple states around the country. >> and let me just say, willie geist, some other left-wind radicals that supported this legislation, vice president mike pence, senator ted cruz from texas, hell, even kanye and kim

supported it. >> this clearly was pushed and driven by the white house so senator cotton got his facts wrong and it was corrected. i want to ask you to put on your hat here, russian troops have not been withdrawn from the border despite russia's claim to the contrary. we know it was false, said a senior official last night, adding that russia has added as many as 7,000 troops to the 150,000 stationed near the border in recent days. the official warned moscow could launch a false pretext to invade ukraine at any moment. here is press secretary jen sakie. >> those could include but not be limited to the report you just referenced, claims of fabrication, claims of false media reports, you should keep your eyes open and be aware of fake videos of attacks on

russian soldiers that have not occurred. >> in a bid to back up the claims of withdrawal, the russian defense ministry released video of tanks being transported by train which the ministry says are returning to their point of permanent deployment after exercises. that's a government video. ukrainians held a national day of unity yesterday. they waved flags in the streets and hundreds unfolded a 650-foot flag at kyiv's olympic stadium. senator murphy, what is your assessment of where we are right now? we heard the claims from russia they're backing away. again, it was government claims, government video of tanks on trains purportedly showing a pull back, but u.s. intelligence appears to tell a different story. what can you tell us this morning? >> this is quintessential putin playbook. it is what he did in 2008 in

georgia. he made a very big deal about ten days before he invaded georgia about his withdrawal of a limited number of forces that were present in and near the country. he wants to get international credit right before the invasion. he wants to be able to show he is open to diplomacy while at the same time as a matter of fact actually speeding up the preparations for invasion. listen, there's a temptation to look at putin as some kind of world dominating mastermind. he isn't. he is panicking. he has been trying for ten years to get ukraine back under his thumb, and he is hoping that these troops on the border can shake the zelensky government into collapse, can perhaps convince joe biden to capitulate to sign a deal with putin giving away ukraine sovereigty. none of that has happened. as you have seen, the ukrainian people are uniting. they're readying for a fight. we shouldn't view it as a moment of strength coming from the

kremlin. this is a moment of desperate weakness in which they have absolutely no options left other than what likely will be a disastrous invasion. he may still going through it, but there's no way out for him once he gets inside the country. there will be a long-term, bloody, costly insurgency. this will be the biggest mistake putin makes in his time in power if he goes through it. >> senator murphy, good morning. it is jonathan lemire. i wanted to get you on two things related to this. first there was bipartisan energy in the senate for sanctions against russia. that has fallen apart. there have been gop-led sanctions and i want to get your take on that. president zelensky in ukraine said safety was his primary interest for his country and he thought nato might be the only way for it to happen, entry into nato might be the only way for that to happen. what do you think of ukraine's

entry into that alliance? >> i think there's a chance we can pass sanctions in the senate. i don't know how much authority the president needs. he has standing authority to do some of the most significant and impactful sanctions. i think we have agreement on about 95% of this bill. we are just having trouble getting the finishing touch but we'll continue to work through the rest of the week and weekend to see if we can come up with something. on nato, listen, it is up to nato members and to ukraine as to whether ukraine joins. it is no secret, ukraine is not ready right now. ukraine still has to make some significant reforms domestically, some anti-corruption forms to qualify for nato membership, but it is absolutely possible within the next five to ten years nato will be ready to bring ukraine into the alliance. of course, just important to remind vladimir putin, nato is not an offensive alliance. it is a defensive alliance. we have absolutely no designs to

send a single troop on to russian soil. this threat that putin cuts of ukraine joining nato is illusory. it is made up. there is absolutely no threat posed to russia by existing members of nato or any enlargement of nato. >> senator murphy, let's talk about domestic issues or a domestic issue. there was a pretty good victory against remington, the gun manufacturer last week in the horrendous sandy hook massacre that you are intimately familiar with and still live with each and every day in connecticut. why is it so difficult to sue gun manufacturers, liability on gun manufacturers? why is it so difficult and takes such an enormous amount of time and energy? >> so this is an enormously important settlement, $73 million going from remington, the maker of the ar-15 style

weapon that shot those kids, going to the families. back in the 2000s when congress passed anything the nra requested, one of the bills that passed was legislation that effectively gave broad product liability immunity to the gun industry, such that today the maker of a toy gun has more liability for their product than the maker of a real gun. but what these families proved is that that liability protection is not total. in fact, remington knew they were going to lose this case because they had been intentionally marketing this gun to very dangerous individuals like adam lanza. they had been trumping up the military usages of a gun that they were selling to civilians. remington ended up settling for an amount that was the maximum that they were allowed to pay under their insurance contract, and they also agreed to make public a whole treasure trophy of documents showing how they had marketed these guns to

people like adam lanza. those documents are going to be released in coming months and be devastating. it will also call the insurance industry to likely to raise rates on gun manufacturers that put these guns on to the market and to manufacturers who continue to sell these weapons to people that shouldn't have their hands on it. i'm so proud of these families sticking to the lawsuit and it will have big consequences. >> the insurers now for the bankrupt remington owing $87 million dollars to the family of those hurt and killed in the attack coming up on ten years ago. senator chris murphy, thank you for being with us. we appreciate it. a new development, the latest annual foreign intelligence report from estonia warns russian armed forces are ready for a full-scale military operation against ukraine in the second half of the month. the estonia intelligence agency,

the equivalent of the cia there, says there are concrete indications war exercises with belarus last september were done to prepare for attacks against nato states. included in the report is a map of military targets in ukraine identified by russian intelligence. estonia reports russia has similar lists for other european countries. joining us now is the former president of estonia, tomas ilvas. he served from 2016 to 2016. with us founding partner and washington correspondent for puck, julia yoffe. good morning to you both. mr. president, i will begin with you. if you can flesh out for us further this intelligence report coming from estonia, which i believe is three countries to the north of ukraine and shares a border with russia. what more can you tell us about the report? >> well, this has been going on -- we have been putting this report out for a decade already, summarizing our findings in the

spirit of as much transparency as possible, and this kind of information does not do much good if it remains within a booq bureaucracy or shared with other nato intelligence agencies. the idea is to put it out so people have an understanding of where things are going. >> good morning. it is jonathan lemire. give us your assessment as to where we are right now. it is certainly not unusual for the russians to put out disinformation via their state media. we heard from u.s. officials last night that's what moscow is doing and, in fact, they're not withdrawing troops, rather adding to some at the european border. what is your assessment of the current threat? do you think putin is on the verge of going on? >> well, the reports this morning here of an attack on a

nursing school in the russian-occupied parts of ukraine fit exactly into the standard plan of saying we are afraid of provocation. now we know the ukrainians have been warned by western allies that whatever you do, do not do anything that could be even interpreted as a provocation. but the russian media is filled with pictures of a blown-up or a shelled nursing school. so this, i think most people fear, could be turned into a reason to invade even though it much more fits the character of -- well, it was how the nazis attacked poland by shooting up their own radio station and just

a few months later the soviets shelled their own people as a reason or a cause to attack finland. so there is a long tradition of this. you shoot your own and say the other side did it and therefore we have to start a war. i think that's a big worry right now. >> all right. thank you so much, mr. president. we greatly appreciate you being with us. obviously much to be concerned about regarding these false flag operations that we've been warned about by the cia. thank you so much. julia yoffe, i'm just curious. let me ask you the $64,000 question. what does vladimir putin want? what has he wanted from the beginning? is he getting what he has wanted or has it backfired against him? >> yes and no. yes, that is the $64,000, although with inflation it is

what, i don't know, $80,000. >> probably. >> at least. >> i think he has been pretty clear actually about what he wants and what he has wanted for basically his entire tenure now as president. in the west we talk about the cold war as a bad thing and its ending as a good thing whereas vladimir putin sees it as the opposite. at the munich security conference coming up this weekend, in 2007 he laid this out very clearly. he said, we would like a return to the cold war because there were two superpowers and they balanced each other out, and they saw it as kind of providing security to the world because it was always kind of balanced between two superpowers. of course, that neatly allays all of the bloody wars fought in

angola, et cetera. that's what he is seeking to return to. he sees russia and the u.s. as the two main guarantors of security or insecurity in europe. he thinks that russia should be at the table for all security questions as they pertain to europe. that's what they mean by a collective security agreement. he wants to be taken seriously. i think the biden administration came in to office understanding, i think correctly, that there would be no change for the better in russia while putin is still in power. so they tried basically to park russia and do enough to appease vladimir putin so they could pivot to asia, which in my mind is like every administration's new year's resolution, we're going to pivot to asia.

>> right. >> and russia doesn't want to be part. putin thinking that russia is a super power and should be at the table for all of these decisions, should be consulted and should be at the center of u.s. attention, the same way that russia is at -- america is at the center of russia's attention. >> right. julia, we have talked in media circles in the west for at least a decade or so about how russian foreign policy is driven by resentment, resentment from losing the cold war. i have talked about the 25, 26, 27 million russians that were killed in world war ii because of an invasion, and obviously that also hangs in the russian psyche. i'm just curious. how connected is vladimir putin with the psyche of russians, whether it is on the resentment of america issue or whether it is on the fear of once again

being encircled instead of by germany but in putin's mind and in russia's mind by a nato alliance that is expanding eastward by the year? >> well, as any pollster in russia will tell you, it is very difficult to measure public opinion in russia, especially when the government dominates the media space as thoroughly as it does in russia. so pollsters will tell you they're basically not measuring public opinion. they're measuring the successfulness of propaganda. there have been polls that show on one hand russians feel positively toward ukrainians, which is different than what we saw after 2015 when there was this jingoism whipped up. but at the same time half of

russians fear that a big war is coming and is inevitable. two, they fear the government and its lawlessness. three, they feel -- they fear mass repressions are coming. so, you know, he has effectively i think scared his population into submission. whether he is connected to them or not doesn't really matter because they don't have enough say in the matter. i will say though on a trip back to russia in 2018 i made up with a friend who was part of the kremlin press pool. super connected guy who really knows what is going on and is a normal person who kind of sees what reality looks like. he said even then in 2018 that the people at the top have no idea how bad it is for a lot of russian people. they think everything is going great. there's not a lot of good information going up and getting to putin and that was in 2018. that doesn't count, you know, the pandemic where he's been very physically isolated until

all of this crisis where he has been seeing a lot of people in person. the president of kazakhstan had to quarantine for two weeks to see putin. so that circle has gotten smaller and smaller and more kind of warped. so on one hand he is trying to influence public opinion, but he is also getting high on his own supply and has been for a long time. >> okay. julia ioffe, thank you so much. getting high on his own supply. we'll write that one down. greatly appreciate you being here, as always. willie. >> same rules for mike barnicle, by the way. two weeks quarantine and do a background check before you can see him. >> exactly. >> i immediate a putin-esque sized table.

it was part of the requirement for sitting next to barnacle. we'll have to take care of that. the faa says dozens of cases involving unruly passengers will be referred to the fbi. a look at the growing debate whether they should be placed on a no-fly case. plus, the russian figure skater accused of doping will take to the ice once more today. the latest on that controversy playing out in beijing. you are watching "morning joe." we will be right back. g joe. we will be right back. ♪ ♪ ♪ hey google. ♪ ♪ ♪

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passengers. this comes as the faa is sending dozens of incidents to the fbi for possible criminal prosecution. nbc news correspondent tom costello has details. >> stay down! >> reporter: after a record number of disruptive and dangerous incidents on board commercial airliners, the faa is sending 43 more cases to the fbi for criminal review, bringing the total to 80 since the start of 2021, including all-out fistfights. >> you're going to jail! >> reporter: flight attendants assaulted, even restraining violent travelers. >> we would like all -- males to the front of the aircraft to handle the problem. >> reporter: after nearly 6,000 reports of unruly behavior last year, so far this year nearly 400 reports, roughly two-thirds related to the on-board mask mandate. the texas attorney general sued the biden administration to overturn the mask mandate in airports and on planes, but for the past year the faa has come

down hard on bad behavior, rolling out a national public information campaign. >> these events need to stop and we are working very hard to do that. >> reporter: delta airlines and the nation's biggest flight attendant's union have called for a single no-fly list that would ban people from traveling on any u.s. airline if convicted of an on-board disruption. >> i have to be really clear it is not something we can accept as a new normal. >> reporter: a group republican senators while condemning the bad behavior opposes the no-list, saying it would equate them to terrorists. but delta says they want to ensure that individuals who have endangered the safety and security of our people do not go on to do so on another carrier. >> tom costello reporting. a reminder from us, be extra kind to your flight attendant as you are in the skies. it is always a tough job, but especially now as they're taking

self-defense courses to go to work. the international olympic committee will not hold medal ceremonies for any events involving star russian figure skater kamila valiyeva. but sources say that the ioc has offered olympic sovereigns as they await the outcome of the case. the court of arbitration for sport ruled valiyeva still could compete in this week's women's events. it was a controversial decision. she leads now after monday's short program. while her case will make its way through the anti-doping system. the case ultimately will determine the status of the medals. the silver medal-winning u.s. figure skating team could end up with the gold if valiyeva is

disqualified. in the meantime, they'll have to settle for the complimentary torches. coming up next here, an underground journey with afghan refugees. we will explain that. new reporting and an extraordinary story next on "morning joe." "morning joe."e resumes on inded match your job criteria. visit indeed.com/hire and get started today.

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joining us now is "new york times" magazine and "new yorker" contributor matthew aikens. he is out this week with a new book entitled "the naked don't fear the water, an underground journey with afghan refugees." in it he describes how he posed as an afghan refugee to help his interpreter escape the war-torn country in 2016 at the height of the refugee crisis. mike barnicle, i understand we have a little audio problem from my end to you. i will let you take it away and ask matthew the first question. >> first of all, willie, it is an extraordinary story. it is matthew's own story from years of reporting out of kabul and afghanistan, and it revolves around you leaving afghanistan

with one of the interpreters, someone who was of great assistance to you covering the war in afghanistan, omar. the story is extraordinary. on foot you and omar -- well, tell us the story. >> so omar was an interpreter, not just with me but he was with the american military as well, and he had long wanted to immigrate to the west. he applied for one of these special immigrant visas and was denied because he didn't have the right paper work. so he decided, you know, when that happened to escape on the smuggler's road to europe. this was during the european migration crisis when ail of those people were crossing in those little yellow boats. so i decided to go with him was to go undercover as an afghan refugee myself, and i was able to do that because i speak persian from living in the area so long and i look afghan. >> yeah, you do. but the danger involved in this. this is not walking down ooh

road, up a mountain and back down the mountain. the danger, the perils of that journey, i mean did you not -- obviously you thought about it, but the danger that was presented to you on an hourly basis, how do you live with that? how do you travel with that? >> yeah, i mean absolutely. we were crossing the deserts and mountains with smugglers. we had to put ourselves into the hands of criminals basically. but, you know, i worked in war zones in syria and afghanistan and i have to say that being on the front lines is even more dangerous, and that kind of explains why people are willing to risk their lives to flee across these violent borders is because they're escaping wars that are, you know, much more dangerous. >> so we've been seeing a lot of that, actually the u.s. withdrawal from afghanistan last summer, people that you got to know there, do you have a sense of their experiences, their plight? how many made the same quest? what was it like for you as somebody that spent so much time in the region to such such tumult in the early days of the u.s. withdrawal?

>> i was back there in june and almost like everybody else i wasn't expecting things to fall apart so quickly, but they did. it was the whole new wave of afghan migrations happening now, refugees fleeing. i was at the border with iran this november talking to smugglers in some of the same places omar and i had gone five years earlier and they're saying it is just a huge new wave of people. it is heartbreaking really to see, but i'm very glad my friend made it out. >> what are you seeing there after the first six months of taliban rule? you said you were there in november. the people you talked to that are still there, what is lifelike on a daily basis? how has it changed? >> it is very grim because the country is facing a dire economic catastrophe. you know, there's half of the population that's at risk of starvation. we created a state that was almost completely dependent on foreign aid over the last 20 years, so the sudden cut-off of the aid had very predictable consequences which is that the country on headed for economic

collapse. >> you're going back to kabul? >> yes. >> when? >> i'm not sure when. but there's a lot of work to be done there. we need to bring the story of afghans to the world. >> what is the future for young men and women in kabul today? >> it is very bleak. they were raised to expect they would be given all of these opportunities, given access to schooling. the taliban still haven't brought back girls to high school and, you know, in a proper way. so it is very disappointing given the hopes that they had for, you know, a more equal, democratic society. >> willie, this story, this book, mathieu's book is an incredible read, an incredible journey. the journey we walk as a nation each and every day still to this day. >> yeah. it is almost cinematic when you read through the story that matthieu writes about, the way he tells it and presents it of kind of going underground, undercover, not being able to use the diplomatic channels to get where he wants to go, to get where his interpreter wants to

go. it is the stuff of movies, frankly. matthieu, i was going to ask you about the title as well, "the naked don't fear the water." if you could talk about that just a little bit and explain how arduous this journey really is and what compels people to make it despite the dangers that come. >> yes, the title is a persian proverb, "the naked don't fear the water." it means if you have nothing to lose you have nothing to fear. so that's really the condition that people sometimes find themselves in where they're risking everything and, you know, in the hopes of finding a better life, finding refuge in the west. unfortunately, they're blocked. there are violent borders, defenses that are put up. we can't forget until very recently the west was trying to keep out afghans, you know. >> it is an extraordinary story, must-read, called "the naked don't fear the water."

matthieu aikens, thank you for writing it and being here. coming up, updating the cdc guidance on the mask wearing. we will talk to a top member of the covid response team about that and much more. "morning joe" is coming back in a moment. coming back in a moment ♪♪ pedialyte powder packs. feel better fast.

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♪ former interior secretary brian zinke allegedly broke ethic roles to advance a development project if his hometown of whitefish, montana, the inspector general says he worked through a non-profit foundation despite committing to end eggring that work when he took office, they report he lied to investigators when asked about his involvement.

the washington post is reporting this morning e-mail and text message exchanges show zinke communicated with those developers 64 times between august, 2017 and july 2018 to discuss the project's design, the use of his foundation's land as a parking lot and his own interests in operating a brewery on the site. zinke resigned from the superior department in 2018 after a series of ethics investigation. he is running for congress in montana. he called it a political hit job. the inspector general, we should note, was appointed during trump administration. jurors in sarah palin's defamation suit reports in the "new york times" they received push notifications on her to phones, the judge would dismiss the case regardless of the verdict, that was while they were deliberating. they said in open court, without the jury present, he planned to dismiss the case regardless of the jury's decision because

palin failed to prove the "times another withhold actual malice. he wrote several jurors told his clerk late on tuesday they had, in fact, received the phone notifications of the judge's interpretations despite quote aciduously adhering to the court's instruction to avoid media coverage of the trial. the message popped up on their phones. the jurors did assure his clerk the notifications did not play any role in their deliberation. the judge's filing added if any party to the case is concerned, it should let him know promptly. palin could successfully have the verdict overturned if she proves coverage of the dismissal influenced juror's deliberations. both the attorney and her paper declined to comment. still ahead, from critical race theory, to dccc is warning democrats about confronting what it calls alarmingly potent

attacks during the mid-terms. the house campaign arm head sean patrick maloney joins us next on "morning joe." y joins us next on "morning joe." ♪ i see trees of green ♪ ♪ red roses too ♪ ♪ i see them bloom for me and you ♪ (music) ♪ so i think to myself ♪ ♪ oh what a wonderful world ♪ if you have type 2 diabetes or high blood pressure...

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nlz. welcome back to "morning joe", on this february 17th, jonathan lemire and claire mccaskill still with us. >> can i interrupt you? i know we have politics, can we get that music back up for a second? this is what americans want to talk aboutt. you hear this music, there is this question about if people that are my age or barack obama's age, whether they're baby boomers or gen xers or

whatever, like, you know, barnical, you know, he was smoking dope in the '60s he was listening to the beetles, what were people like me doing? we seen this song in "ferris buehler's day off." i am a shallow generation, a gen xer and ferris buehler's day off is our movie. >> we walked into 1967, 1968. >> that's my frame of reference. everything i do, all day. >> we know that. we know that. chair, what about you? what year are you locked into in. >> i'm probably a motown girl. i, you know kind of spending

time if i can dance in my mirror in the bedroom to motown, aretha, the temptations, all of them. i am a motown girl. the question is, did barnacle get high on his own supply, that itself the question. >> well, look, willie has already told us that he has. mike, you want to comment on that? >> well, the statute has long expired. yeah, i was a grower. man, i, you know. >> c'mon. especially was importing the stuff from taiwan and saigon and everything else. it was huge. >> i don't -- you're oversharing again. okay. we gave mika the day off. i thought oversharing would be sitting on the bench today. here you are talking about growing. that's what i'm saying. okay. i was in high school. reagan got elected president. okay. we looked down our noses at people like barnacle.

we went to the big chill and laughed through the whole thing. we thought it was a parody if barnical's year was 19 sfemp 67. my movie was ferris bowler's day off or '86. i can't remember which year, what was your year, what was your movie? >> the only movie i am thinking is "blow." i think johnny depp was playing mike barnacle in and out of south america, dropping packages, landing on dirt landing strips. >> i didn't know that about you, mike. that's fascinating. >> i did not, either. >> i'll go '91, which is high school. my movie was "boys in the hood." hip-hop, nirvana was coming in. pearl jam was on the horizon

removing away from motley crue with hip hob ascendled. that was sort of my time there. >> never mind, it just changed music. also we had so much, cluck clauseterman said it changed the culture, got us into the '90s, jonathan lemire, what were you like, 2009, 2010? what was your movie? >> i will echo to say the influence of '91, the nirvana and octune and rem's out of time that year. that was a significant year. and music in terms of years, yeah, i guess it would be a little later than that for me. i'm not quite as old as mike barnical. a few are. i will steal his answer right there. it comes down to sports, 2004 and the red sox winning it more so than any movie, that changed

me more than anything else. >> i got to say, 19, octune baby one of those albums, the first note that comes in. yeah, it was the year of the nirvana. since we're on this topic. we know you want us to talk about this much more than donald trump lying to forbes about his net worth. let's bring in gene robinson, gene, we're talking about years. again, if you haven't heard, mike barnacle's year was '67. the movie was "the graduate." mine was '85, or '86, movie "ferris buehler's day off." willie's was '91, the movie "boys in the hood." lemire, the red sox winning. what was your year, what was your movie? >> gee, my year was probably about 1970. my movie was a little bit later

than that. because the movie that still sticks with me is apock limbs now. >> yeah. >> it was about 1970. and i was, you know, i was buying from barnical, what can i say? >> oh my lord. i think we better just stop right there. let me just say, mike barnacle's dialogue sponsored by mediaite and other media blockers. you can catch mike barnacle throughout the day talking about how he got high on his own supply and grew and it appears to be, women lip, just admitted to transporting across not only state lines but across international borders. >> he didn't go too much further than this it seems inefficient from a business stand point to bring it all the way from taiwan

when you have those resources at the southern border, you can go drop it in the water from south florida, from a plane, there are better ways to do it, pike. we can talk offline. >> yeah. >> okay. >> we'll leave it there. let's turn to some real news. we have an esteemed member of the united states congress standing by. the dccc is warning the party how vulnerable house democrats may be ahead of the mid-terms. it shows the party's own research indicating battleground voters find democrats preachy and focused on culture wamplts attacks on critical race theory and de-funding the police were alarmingly potent. the research shows how close to losing the majority democrats really are. it wasn't all bleak, though, the data showed democrats could mostly regain the ground lost to republicans, if they offered a strong rebuttal to those political hits.

democrats don't answer republican attacks, the party orientives warned the gop's lead on generic ballot balloons to 14 points from four points. the dismal prediction for democrats when republicans only need to win five seats to take back the majority. let's bring in the chairman of the dccc democratic congressman sean patrick maloney of new york. you can mention your year and your movie or completely take a pass and talk us through this report and what it tells you. >> well, look, first, i think there may be some mistake. when i used the term alarmingly potent, i was talking about barnacle locker. to be clear, i'm going with '84 bruce string steen born in the usa, painting houses was probably the height of my pressure career at that moment. the happiest best tan i've ever had, some lifeguarding on the side. but i would also go with 19 years worst year from the red

sox, the mba was really pure. and rem. i went all kind of places that only mike barnacle might appreciate. >> wow. okay. >> so much sharing this morning. so much sharing. so, let's talk about this, chairman. >> just being honest. >> what it finds, we noted from you, in particular, just last week talking covid restrictions and mandates, you said it's time to give people their lives back. that felt like a pivot. we seen the dominos fall in blue states, starting with new jersey and governor murphy getting rid of the mask mandates. what has changed for you? what do you see ahead? >> it's not a pivot. it's an inflexion point. it's that we are at the point with very good vaccine coverage in new york, with people boosted. we got therapeutics with a surge in healthcare resources, with available testing, we are at a point where mandates and that's the point, right, not mask wearing, mandates are no longer necessary.

so i agree with the governor's decision if new york. it is science-based. look at the numbers in new york. it's really encouraging. the point is we as democrats should fought be falling in love with mandates when they're not necessary. we should get rid of them as quickly as we responsely can. i think that's what's happening in new york and a bunch of ought states, thank god, it's about time. >> you know, congress owe i'm sorry, go ahead. >> the state of the union is coming up, congressman. there has been a lot of talk, a lot of criticism from some democrats about the messaging from the white house in terms of the accomplishments that have been achieved, not enough talk act them. stuff like that. what would you like to see in the state of the union with regard to american families waiting to hear from the president? >> well, you got to sell. you have to assume that no one knows anything. you need to in clear simple terms like a human being tell

them what the heck we have been doing. it's good stuff. we will rebuild roads, bridges, water systems, give broadband to kids that don't have it. get every lead drinking water pipe out of every system in america my goodness, we're investing in our own country, a bipartisan investment in bringing our supply chains and our manufacturing jobs back to america in the industries of the future. and how about the rescue plan? my goodness, you saved every small business in america. you surged support to our cops and our firefighters with a rescue plan. no republicans voted for that, by the way, you supported the help for schools that are now allowing parents to be in control of their kids' education, to going to get back to normal. all of those things didn't just happen. it's a hat trick of historic measures that the democratic congress and this president had done in just one year and my goodness, go out and tell people

about it. joe biden is good at that. he should go tell the story. >> it sounds like you outlined what members on the democratic house will run on ahead for the mid-terms. we were talking before the cameras start rolling. we have a bit of a diversion in terms of conversation about the upcoming year. we know there are historic him head winds, the party out of power pick up seats. they thought the redistricting would hand them a majority before it was tasked. it didn't give us that play. tell us about you feel your party's plan in the december next? >> i think it's wrong how conventional wisdom, a lot of people said we were going to lose 10 seats, 15 seats, i read 20 seats. everyone was sure we would lose it on the basis of redistricting. we're not finished. we are far down the field, 36 states are finished. it turns out we're not going to lose those seats or majority, we

will probably gain two or three seats in redistricting. by the way, we beat them by 4.7 million votes in the house races in 2020 and lost 13 seats f. the house doesn't reflect the majority vote what the heck is it? it tell us how gerrymander the republicans had the maps. so we're arguing for fair maps. in the process, we're doing better. the point is, we'll have a battlefield we can win on. i think it's a great example of the whole tortoise and hare notion where the republicans are so far ahead and there are all this talk i hear about how kevin mccarthy is measuring the drapes in the speaker's office, good. we will keep working. just like redistricting, we may surprise you. >> congressman, this is gene robinson, what do you counsel candidates, members of congress, democrats, two are running again or democrats who are running for the first time, what do you counsel them to say when voters ask them about inflation and ask

them about the economy? what do you say they should say when they're asked about gas prices? >> don't talk about nobody emlaureats, no one cares. talk about the price of a gallon of milk, the price of a gallon of gas. what's the pound of a hamburger costs, if you don't get the groceries and gas down, it's a problem. there is no excuse when are you in power. so we got to do something about that. the good news is and the research shows most people know that inflation wasn't caused by anything, anybody in washington did. it was the pandemic, we shut down the world economy and restarted it. there is really strong demand, which is a good thing, by the way. we got very strong growth in jobs and in business starts and in the economy. but we've got to get those prices down, you bet. there's things we should do about it, we should do them. >> sean, this is claire mccaskill. you know, i watched the twitter feeds of members of congress, they're all over the map.

there is really a problem with discipline in terms of our caucus in bo eft both the senate side and what are you and pelosi and schumer doing to begin to get everyone on the same message, simple. the things you are talking about, the economic victories that this majority has had? we have been have busy arguing about the filibuster and playing into the culture wars that we have left that message on the table and i know people get tired of saying the same simple thing over and over again. as you well know, as you said this morning, that's how we win. >> look, i think the biggest mistake we can make is to think that an election this election, in particular, is about only issues. we know people agree on this on what we're doing. they like pre-school for every 3 and 4-year-old in america and love the idea having the child care capped at 7% of their

income in build back better. they love the measures we'll take to save the climate. electrification of our fleet, charging stations, creating millions of jobs through clean drink water, better roads, they love it all. this is at least about attributes as it is about issues. up got to pass what i call the maloney brother's tests, when i got home, my brothers said he's already talking like an ass you know what. the point is, people go to washington and they lose that thread of how they talk to their families around the kitchen tame, don't. the key is to be in relationship with voters. and then they'll give you per mission to disagree on one thing or the other they think are you one of them, if they think you are fighting for them. you have to have a record and show up, here's what i did with the time you gave me. deep just think it's about issues. it's about who we are. what we stand for. >> that is such a critical point

that if you just go home and talk about we passed this and this. how does it connect with things that hit them in the gut? i will say, we talked about this before. in the 2020 election, republicans were going out, they were talking about defunding the police. they were talking about socialism. what i loved about your report here is, yes, that sounds like nonsense to a lot of democrats who will say, no, actually socialism is when the government controls means of production. no but that's not veteran think. they see the government creeping into their lie. they call it socialism. i think a lot of times democrats didn't respond to those charges and they paid dearly for it. and so this is why your report is critical. it's not just data, it's what goes to here heart.

on that front, they're going to be talking about crime. they're going to be talking about cost of living inflation. they're going to be talking about covid restrictions. those are the three cs that we're talking about on this show. that seems to be what voters are really focused on. my question to you is, beyond the cultural issues, are democrats ready to fight on the three cs, on crime, on covid restrictions and on cost of living? >> yes. absolutely. and excuse me, you are so right, joe, i think if powerpoints could vote, we would win in a sland slide. we want to give you the 16 bullet points and 14 slides and what the guy on the table next to you in the diner wants to know what the hell are you guys dock and what are you going to do about it on the things that are bugging me, mostly, what itself in your heart.

on those subjects, i think we can predict we will be in a better place come early fall. that will be so good for our country. i think you will see that lift a lot of votes as that tide comes in. i don't think how beaten down we are by two years of this terrible pandemic,home how many people lost loved ones, the pressure on parents, that's huge. we need something we stand for. should we be denying it? it's real. we need to take seriously public safety. by we can reject the false choice between public safety and fighting for racial justice. we believe we got to do both in this country. we don't want to go back to mass incarceration and locking up a lot of people of color blindly because we don't have any good ideas on how to actually intervene in a way that makes our streets safer. look what eric adams is doing in new york. a pretty good template, by the way. on cost of living, my goodness, hit them with everything we got. i want to see the president make

it easier to release the strategic petroleum reserve. we ought to look at public plans in the united states and do things that signal to people, we will take short-term measures in the context of after long-term climate policy, which is serious, to bring down those costs for people. we can do that and on the price of groceries and the supply chain. i think we can get results in time to show people that we've got a plan and we take their concerns seriously. >> mr. chairman, stay with us. we will continue to talk on this topic and we're going to be bringing in tom ronlers in a minute to talk about the socialism label attached to democrats and how tom rogers says democrats should respond appropriately. first we have breaking news. >> yeah, we are getting significant breaking news, secretary of state antony blinken is set to speak today, he is expected to say, evidence on the ground now shows russia is moving towards a quote

imminent invasion of ukraine. the u.s. calling it a crucial moment. the goal of blinken's address we hear will be to convey the gravity of the situation so congressman, you serve on the house permit select committee on intelligence. obviously, this is just breaking. we are getting this from the u.n. ambassador to the u.n., linda thomas greenfield asked secretary blinken to come speak to the u.n. security council calling this an imminent invasion. >> it's the worst news, i am going on a plane to munich for the security conference. a lot of us have been following this very closely. this is as serious as it gets. we're talking a world war ii style invasion of a massive land area in central europe. you are talking about tanks, ballistic missiles, amphibious landings. if they go for kyiv from belarus, you are talking

thousands of casualties, innocent people dike, huge disruptions in the world economy and for nothing. this is pure naked aggression by a corrupt dictator in moscow. i give the president high marks for having a steel spine on this and rallying the allies saying this is unacceptable. we will make you pay a price. we are not defenseless. we will do it in a way that's smart and we have the advantage. are you going to regret doing this, a lot of people will get killed. it will be a disaster if he takes this decision. god willing there is time to avert it. >> the president is being briefed as we speak. i want to get your ae recollection to this defense secretary austin is at nato. he said talking to the u.n. they see intelligence russian forces are inching closer and stocking up on blood supplies, which, of course, is an ominous sign for a potential invasion at the 11th hour here. is there anything else

diplomatically the u.s. and its allies can do to ward this off? what would you recommend? >> well, at every step of this crisis, i think the west and the u.s. and allies in nato have been one step ahead of vladimir putin in terms of disclosing that kind of information so that we take the advantage away from him. so i think that's very important. that's a very ominous sign, by the way, those plasma and blood supplies are perishable. it's not a drill. it's they're doing it in a, it can't be much longer they leave it there. you worry about a sign like that. i am sure secretary blinken is giving those results for a reason. look, i this what i the administration has said is that you got 65%, i believe, of your bankable assets in two banks. we make it impossible for them to work in denominated assets, we will blow a hole in your economy. you had 95% of your direct foreign investment flee after

you invaded crimea, you are driving russia down a path that has no exit. this is a dead end for the russian people. inbelieve ultimately for this dictator. but so many innocent people will be hurt in the meantime that we have to continue to make absolutely clear to the russians that, you know, in a united way with our allies, we stand up to this. not on day one or day two, but for as long as it takes. when all the dut dust settles and the innocent people have been buried, the russians will regret this decision if they take it. >> congressman, you are on the way to security conference, vice president harris is leading the unit. what does it say about nato, the eu, about european security if there is, indeed, an invasion or incursion by russia into ukraine during this conference when all the great thinkers about

european security are gathered? >> well, first of all, it says that nato matters a great deal f. you look at the strength of that alliance with former soviet republics, the role the baltic nations are playing, poland, romania are playing, you see the wisdom of strengthening that alliance this is a function that ukraine desperately wants to be a part of a successful peaceful europe. it looks west, not east to moscow. it is that fear that is driving with a paranoia and a disregard for human life that's driving the decision of vladimir putin if he takes it to invade this country. and so what it says to me is that it's the trans-atlantic alliance is as important as it has ever been and there are realities on the ground. we are not omni potent. if you have ten or 12 division on ukraine's border, you can invade and create great damage. we will have to respond?

a way that is thoughtful and long term. but forceful as we can be because in the end, in the end, we have to win this conversation, right. because that itself what it is. it's a debate between two systems and nato represents one that is free and prosperous and moscow represents something that is violent and dictatorial and ultimately a dead end and the ukrainian people need to know we will be with them for them over the long term. >> we will be following this, obviously, over the next 90 minutes leading up to the 10:00 a.m. address by secretary of state antony blinken at the united nations as russia appears to be based on reports out of this white house appears to be on the verge of invading ukraine. we're going to ask the chairman to put his campaign hat back on and get back into the political battles that we have been talking about. it's not just culture war attacks that democrats will be

facing in 2022. republicans also continue to label the party as socialists for whatever they do, but as our next guest quotes, if the socialism label is going to be thrown around in a silly fashion and apply to federal policies intended to benefit those who need most help, let's make sure socialism is called out everywhere it applies and that, mcconnell is clearly understood as being the biggest socialism advocate of all. with us now to explain his argument, cnbc founder and contribute editor at large at "news week." why mitch mcconnell? why are you looking at mcconnell, specifically? >> joe, this column really ties together the two things you have just been talking about, putin's ambitions to recreate the ussr, the union of social soviet

republics what i think is a new ussr here in the united states that goes unrecognized. the union of socialist states of red. mcconnell and kentucky are a perfect example of this that what it really comes to redistribution of wealth and taxing higher wealth to benefit other areas, red states are really the ones that are the beneficiaries of that kind of what republicans call socialism, that kind of redistribution. and kentucky is number one on the list, comrade mcconnell's kentucky gets $63 billion more in 2019 that it got from the federal government that its citizens paid in. on the other hand, the state of new york over five years paid in there are 142 billion dollars

more to if federal government than its citizens put back to put that in context, that's about two-thirds of the entire bucket of new york state. and so what we have going on here is really what the republicans claim to disdain, socialism. everything about biden and all the components of the build back better bill were supposedly socialist policies because of higher tax that was going to be redistributed to people most in need. what we have going on here is wealthier blue states, new york, california, connect, getting taxed in a way that they contribute far more to the federal government than they get back and the red states, even big economy red states like texas and ted cruz one of the big bomb growers of the socialist label, they get back more from the federal government than they pay in. so we ought to call out redistribution and socialism by the republican's own definition

where it is and it is amazing to me how difficult the democrats have time in deflecting this attack when there is such a long-standing obvious way to go with in in terms of whathippo critic at about. >> rand paul may be the better to look at, mitch was going on talking about the importance of the infrastructure bill. he was there with covid relief, constantly talking about vaccines. you listen to rand paul, though, a supposed libertarian, go through the socialist label around on absolutely everything and here's a guy who votes against relief, hurricane relief and flood relief and every other state but his own. then he wants that. heultall the money coming

back to kentucky. he gets one-tenth per capita. >> kentucky gets $14,000 back per citizen more than it pays in. i picked on mcconnell because he came up with the permanent socialism quote that was going to be the result of any of the components of build back better being instated. but you are absolutely right. rand paul deserves to be pushed back on this as much as anybody. >> all right. tom rogers, thank you so much. a compelling argument. we appreciate you being here. i am interested in congressman, what are your thoughts about the fact that so many members of the house that you work with who come from red states who get a lot more money from the federal government than they send to the

federal government are the first once screeching socialism at the top of their lungs when actually they're the biggest beneficiaries that the federal government passes out. >> right. my job not to whine about it. my job is to win. look at ashley henson in iowa, she took credit for the infrastructure money she voted against, within an hour we lit her up on social media. we set up a whole team spring-loaded. we generated a bunch of stories in her local media and in national media about henson the hip criticism within a few showers you voted against it was trending on twitter. so my job is to make sure when you hear about these republicans voting no and taking the dough and trying to take credit for it, we're going to take them down for it. and we're going to hold them accountable. we put in a plan to do that. results are going to speak for themselves. >> well, i tell you what, the

lexiconcontinues to grow, get high on your own supply regarding vladimir putin. note no and take the dough. congressman, that actually does apply to way too many republicans. thank you so much for being with us. chairman of the dccc congressman sean patrick maloney. thank you very much. donald trump responds to allegations he inflated his wealth. how did he do that? by inflating his wealth. we'll talk about that and the guy that just never learning next on "morning joe." just nevg just nevg next oerty butchemel... cut. liberty mu... line? cut. liberty mutual customizes your car insurance so you only pay for what you need. cut. liben "morning joe." am i allowed to riff? what if i come out of the water? liberty biberty... cut. we'll dub it. liberty mutual customizes your car insurance so you only pay for what you need. only pay for what you need.

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. new york attorney general is hitting back at former president trump's defense of his company's financial record. trump put out a long statement on tuesday claiming his long-time accounting firm cut ties with him following quote intimidation tactics by james and the manhattan district

attorney. james responded in a letter writing, in part, it is not unusual for parties to a legal proceeding to disagree about the facts. but it is truly rare to disagree by statements submitted by his own attorneys one day after the pleading was filed. he will appear in an ongoing fight to avoid a subpoena for his testimony in the civil investigation into the trump family business dealings. also if that statement from donald trump in response to the allegations that he inflated his wealth, the former president inflated his wealth claiming, quote, we have a great company with fantastic assets that are unique, extremely valuable and, in many cases, far more valuable than what was listed in our financial statements. there you have it, another confession from donald trump. >> another confession as hyman said years ago, everything donald trump says is either projection or confession. he just, i this i this guy is a

little slow on the take on this, when he doesn't get it, he's been exaggerating his entire life as the late new york time's story says this morning, that it's just what he has been dock. he started by claiming he was worth $8 billion in his presidential campaign and sent out a tweet in all caps, i'm worth over $10 billion. it was 5.7 become. so usually it's been investors and, you know, the teaming masses that are thrown off by these false claims, but now he's got a lot of investigations that are ongoing and he still doesn't get the fact that this could land him in really hot legal water. >> yeah. i mean, the problem is that he's been doing this, engaging in this bragadovousness since the 1980s he's rarely paid a price for it. when he went bankrupt, he came

back and came back to become president lying and bragging. he's never paid a price for all this i this i we still don't really know yet and won't know for some time whether he actually will be held accountable legally. but i do think if you are his lawyer or his account apt, we know his accountants don't want to be his accountants anymore. you can imagine? this is a pathologic cal need to appear wealthier than he may be or have more assets than me may have. this is not going to serve him well in the new york justice system. this is not, he's not just trying to curry favor with his supporters here. we know he is eyeing a run for the presidency again.

this will not help him. i wonder if are you again somebody who maybe worked behind the scenes. this is not encouraging behavior, essentially daring people to come after him. so he's not sorry. he's not repenting. i think we will see as this plays out. this isn't going to help. they tell you in criminal court, judges will tell you, please don't talk about these cases him they don't want you to, you know, actually make things worse for yourself. that's what trump is doing here he's not running for election. me may have forgotten himself.

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. we know you have many questions regarding what pre investigation strategies are necessary for this moment. we will soon put guidance in place that is relevant and encourages prevention measures when they are most needed to protects public health and our hospitals. if and when we update our guidance, we will communicate that clearly. it will be based on the data and the science. >> as a result of all this congress and the tools we now have, we are moving toward a time when covid isn't a crisis but is something we can protect against and treat. >> white house covid response team preparing for the next phase of the pandemic as omicron-related cases decline. the senior policy adviser for testing do. tom englesby, thank you for being with us. your focus is on testing. let me ask you this program to rom out a billion home tests is going, are they getting into people's hands? are you seeing an impact on how

we hand testimony pandemic and cases and hospitalizations? >> yes, first of all, good morning, willie. it's great to be with you all. yes, i think we are in a good place, a much better place on testing. maybe taking a step back for a moment. when we started the administration, there were no at-home tests available on the u.s. market and it was clear it was financial to be a major part of our strategy. so over the year, we set up an fda process to accelerate tests, use the defense production act. the president announced a commitment to secure a billion tests in december and this program covidtest.gov is a big part of that announcement. we are now 50 million households have now received tests from that program more than 2 million since the program started. within about a week, everyone who made an initial order will

be getting their tests. so we're very incredible enthusiasm, it's an unprecedented effort. the postal service has been amazing. health and human services as well. >> good morning, doctor, jonathan lemire as we think of the next phase of the pandemic, two questions, one are there particular areas of concern still in the u.s. where veers cases are higher than you would like to see. secondly, are omicron came and sort of changed how we were responding to the pandemic. are there any new variants out there you are watching around nervous about? >> so i think there are counties slower to come down. we are seeing a dramatic fall in every state. that's great news and cdc is watching that carefully, seeing hospitalizations come down around the country. unfortunately, still a number of deaths that's far too high.

we expect that will begin to fall as hospitalizations fall. so it's all good news, but we absolutely need to be prepared for any future variant. we are taking all fess precautions and we are tracking as you mention any variants that might emerge and around the world, at this point we're not particularly concerned with what we're seeing. we're not taking air foot off the gas. we will be prepared for when it arises. >> doctor, i think most of vous learned to live with the virus or learning to live with the virus. most of us know the virus is going to do what the virus is going to do. so my question to you is, a year from today, do you think we will still be taking tests? >> i think what the president said is we are moving to a time when covid will no lomger be a crisis and disrupt our lives in the way it has.

we will be working to prevent outbreaks to protect the most vulnerable and to treat people if they get sick. i do think that surfside testing will be an important part of our program for the foreseeable future. i think next winter, covid tests will continue to be important. we hope the level of disease will be much lower than it was this winter. but we're financial to be prepared for that. testing will remain important. if you have covid symptoms or have been exposed to someone with covid or around people that are vulnerable, covid tests will be important for the for seeable future. >> you mentioned deaths are too high. more than 2300 covid deaths in the united states we will push up in the next couple of months. dr. tom everythingmentsby, thank you so much. we appreciate it. as the omicron wave washed over the recent month, the ap reports muslims of individual american's immune systems

recognize the virus and are prime to fight it off if they encounter omicron or another variant. the ap continue to half of americans have received booster shots. there have been 80 million confirmed infections overall. many more infections have never been reported. one influential model uses those factors and others to estimate 73% of americans are for now immune to omicron. the dominant variant and that could rise to 80% by mid-march. that's an extraordinary number, joe, eight in ten americans potentially immune to omicron. >> yeah, i tell you what, between vaccines and the infections, we're in pretty good shape right now. pretty food shape, way too many people are dying every day. it seems to pe you hear another tragedy every day from a friend or acquaintance or somebody else. i will say this, though, i look at the way china has been addressing this, with a zero

covid tolerance policy. my gosh, they put themselves in a position where they're going to be fighting this for quite some time. because they haven't built up the immunity that this country has built up. yeah, the infections have been high. a lot of people have died. it's come at a horrific cost, a horrific personal cost to so many americans. at the same time right now those numbers, willie, those are good numbers to see for a country that is desperate to get back to work, get back to school and get back to their lives. so, as we go to break, some more details ahead hoff secretary of state antony blinken's upcoming address. speak ac short time ago, a senior state official framed russia's boarder is quote perhaps the most perilous moment for peace and security since the

end of the cold war. u.s. intelligence is showing russia moving toward an imminent invasion of ukraine. we'll one u run through all of that, check the facts when we return on "morning joe." of that, check the facts when we return o run through all of that, check the facts when we return on "morning joe." run thr that, check the facts when we return on "morning joe." when we return on "morning joe." run thrf that, check the facts when we return on "morning joe." it's still the eat fresh refresh™, and subway's refreshing everything like the new baja turkey avocado with smashed avocado, oven-roasted turkey, and baja chipotle sauce. it's three great things together. wait! who else is known for nailing threes? hmm. can't think of anyone! subway keeps refreshing and re-

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again, you don't know what putin will do until he does it. but one thing we do know is that wars are a lot easier to start than to stop. and we don't know what direction we'll take. >> we're expecting to hear from the secretary of state in about an hour's time and what the the latest element of a clear u.s. strategy to sort of flood the zone with as much information as they possibly can about what putin may be thinking and doing, in part, i'm told, to rattle the former intelligence agent, the former ex-kgb, and say, hey, we' v know what you're up to, and also it's an effort for deterrence. we heard the secretary of defense talk about more troops heading to the ukrainian border as well as blood supplies, an ominous sign, because that can

only last so long. maybe the indication that invasion is imminent. >> joe, just 24 hours ago on this show when secretary of state blinken said no, actually, the reports of russia pulling back are wrong. we're seeing more troops this morning, diverting, supposed to go to munich, now coming to new york to address the u.n. security council and what they are calling now an imminent war. that's coming from the state department. >> from the state department, if that proves to be the case, this will be obviously the most significant action in europe as far as war goes since the end of world war ii. it still just doesn't seem to make any sense economically for russia, doesn't seem to make any sense militarily for russia or geopolitically for russia, but we will see. vladimir putin will do what vladimir putin will do. the 9:00 a.m. hour is going to have full coverage of these

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