have a balance between public safety and criminal justice reform. we're excited about it, and it is all free and it's here. even on a rainy day, people are ready to get going. >> pleased to be part of the media panel tomorrow. reverend al sharpton, thank you for being here and good luck with the convention. thanks to all of you for getting up way too early on this wednesday morning. "morning joe" starts right now. >> vice president biden. vice president, it was a joke. i heard some changes have been made by the current president since i was last here. apparently, secret service agents have to wear aviator glasses now. the navy mess has been replaced by a baskin-robbins. >> president obama returns to the white house for the first time since he left office.

he came back with jokes and a message to the democrats. we'll have that just ahead. plus, the other headlines we're following. more inflammatory rhetoric by republicans against the president's supreme court nominee for her work as a public defender. another republican house member who voted to impeach donald trump announces retirement. tiger woods going for another green jacket. >> willie, going to do that, huh? >> he's playing. as we predicted, he's going to play. >> thinks he is going to play. >> less than 18 months away from an accident that, first look, was bad. almost lost his leg. it is an uphip climbuphill clim >> he believes he can win it. >> i like the attitude. >> never missed a cut at the masters. certainly, i wouldn't bet against him. as you say, uphill climb.

that he is there at all is an extraordinary story. for golf fans, he transcends the sport. sports fans will be into augusta. >> we don't talk about baseball much, but season starts tomorrow. >> overshadowed by tiger woods' opening day tomorrow. maybe not in the bronx. our red sox play willie's yankees. forecast, rain, rain, and rain. this rain might be called today, to postpone opening day festivities. baseball is back, though. joe, how you feeling? >> glad it is going to rain tomorrow and the game is called off. if we can delay the inevitable, here's my prediction. >> let's hear it. >> the yankees, first place. get this, it is historic, they win first place this year by 17.5 games. >> wow. >> okay. >> this yankees team is incredible. we, we end up in fourth, going to the final weekend. >> why are you saying this? >> between the orioles and us.

we pull it out. >> jockeying for -- >> a half game. >> sandbagging for you starts in july. >> we're doing it early. >> early april? >> i like to be within ten games of the bluejays. >> the jays are really good. the prediction may be true for both of us. >> the rainout preserves the zero in the loss column for one more day. joe, let's tell bill karins, make it rain as much as we can. >> make it rain. >> it'll be a long year. >> really quickly, the end of the season as we went into the playoffs, i was really glad we were playing you guys. you guys were really glad you were playing us. >> yes. >> the bluejays, as we went to the playoffs last year, they were the best team in baseball. they were hot. they were scary good. they've only gotten better over the postseason. i really do, i mean, i would not be surprised, actually, if we're sitting here talking, of course

course, about the yankees and red sox. i wouldn't be surprised if this was a dogfight to the end between the bluejays and the race. >> the reality is, we talk about the red sox and yankees, and that'sbeen the division. but the last years, the jays, the rays, no money, no stadium, no fans, have been the class. >> give them the credit with the payroll. toronto added pitching. they have another advantage. american players who aren't vaccinated can't play games in toronto right now. >> wow. >> both our teams have players who are reportedly not vaccinated. the bluejays will be on the field, full squads. >> let's do the west coast now. >> 9:00 a.m. eastern time. >> dodgers. >> okay. >> good morning, everyone. >> welcome. baseball coming up. let me tell you something. the dodger, you have to love the dodgers. i think it'll be the dodgers and

the giants. those two teams are stacked. they're loaded. who can beat the dodgers? >> best lineup maybe in the league, pitching is good. but padres. >> who else? >> don't turn your back. >> arizona, denver. >> vegas have a -- >> they need one. >> they need baseball. good morning, everyone. with us, we have the host of "way too early." he was punchy today on his show. i watched. >> were you watching? >> you were getting all twisted up. it happens on wednesday. >> really? >> you got twisted up? >> i'll show you. >> i didn't see him twisted. >> maybe straighten your tie. >> it happens. >> come on. >> you're fine. white house bureau chief -- >> what does that mean? >> i don't know. >> i don't get it. >> jonathan lemire. >> he'll think about it all day. >> he won't. >> retired four-star navy admiral james stavridis.

>> not twisted up there. >> also with us this morning, u.s. national editor at the "financial times," ed luce. we have a number of new developments we're following with ukraine this morning. the country is set to get another $100 million worth of javelin missiles from the u.s. the state department says that brings the total of u.s. security assistance in ukraine to $1.7 billion since the invasion and $2.4 billion since the start of the biden administration. the u.s. continues to train ukrainians on some of the weapon systems it's supplied but would not give details. >> the biden administration also is set to announce new sanctions on russia for the civilian massacre in bucha, targeting kremlin officials and their family members. the package taken in coordination with the eu and other g7 nations will ban activities in russia.

it targets those who fund vladimir putin's war. earlier this week, the biden administration prevents russia from withdrawing from american banks to pay its debt. the move could push russia to default, making it more expensive for the kremlin to borrow. the eu is introducing its own set of sanctions, targeting russian coal imports in response to the scenes out of bucha. the move was announced yesterday. those proposed sanctions will now be debated before the eu ambassadors who could decide on details such as phasing out russian coal instead of cutting ties all at once. ursula working on more sanctions, including a possible ban on russian oil. volodymyr zelenskyy is calling out the united nations to its face in a virtual speech to the group's security council yesterday. zelenskyy issued a scathing rebuke of the u.n., accusing it from failing to stop human rights violations in ukraine and

around the world. >> translator: it is obvious that the key institution of the world, which must ensure the correction of any aggression to peace, simply cannot world effectively. the united nations can be simply closed. are you ready to close the u.n.? do you think the time of international law is gone? if your answer is no, then you need to act immediately. the massacre from syria to somalia, from afghanistan to yemen and libya, that should have been stopped long time ago, to tell you the truth. if tyranny had at least once received such a response to the war raged, it would have ceased to exist. >> just as he did in his address to congress recently, zelenskyy paused during the speech at the u.n. yesterday to show a graphic

video displaying the horrors of russia's invasion. also pointing out, mika, the irony of russia sitting on the security council and making decisions about its own invasion. >> meanwhile, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff is warning the war in ukraine could go on for years. >> but i do think this is a protracted conflict and measured in at least years. i don't know about decade but years for sure. this is an extended conflict russia initiated, and i think that nato, the united states, ukraine, and all the allies and partners supporting ukraine are going to be involved in this for quite some time. >> i feel like that's the key soundbite of the day yesterday, given the fact that this could start escalating and this could spin out of control beyond the borders of ukraine. >> yeah. admiral, let's talk about that. obviously, i think like most

americans, freedom-loving people across the world, i want, i'm sure just like you, want to see as many weapons get into the hands of the ukrainians as possible, as many powerful weapons so they can push the russians back. when i start hearing language like that, though, i think about the guns of august. i think of us stumbling into something where, you know, everybody rushes into war, cheering crowds across europe, then you have the battle where 1 million men die in one battle. you know, people keep seeing the images on television every night thinking, well, things can't get worse. things can get worse. tactical nuclear weapons, chemical weapons, and i'm just curious, your thoughts. i'm not so sure vladimir putin is not baiting the united states and nato to go in there.

right now, he is being humiliated. his military is being humiliated. his regime is being humiliated by ukrainians. he needs to make this a fight against the united states, doesn't he? >> he does. particularly, joe, he's got base to worry about inside russia. he will play to that base. we've seen that playbook in other places in the world, other authoritarian leaders. he's got an internal challenge. then externally, he wants to play to the nations that have not signed onto team democracy, if you will. so china, india, for example, although a democracy has not really condemned this invasion. so he's got two audiences he is working. joe, you're right to worry about the risk of escalation. world war i is a pretty good example. single assassin's bullet takes out crown prince of the

austro-hungarian empire in 1914. by 1918, the austro-hungarian empire is gone. the ottoman empire is gone. the russian empire is gone. so big doors can swing on small hinges, and, thus, we ought to be concerned about escalation, certainly. but we cannot be frightened of our shadows here and say to ourselves, we're not going to lean in where appropriate. so the president has a kind of narrow sea to sail here. i think the administration has done a pretty good job pushing the military equipment forward. we just talked about that. there's more they can do. we talked about fighters, for example. we talked about cyber. we can talk about anti-ship missiles to prevent an amphibious assault. there's more that can be done diplomatically. i think president zelenskyy is right to push so hard on so many different fronts.

we need to address this as an international world, these war crimes unfolding in front of us. again, economically, more work to do there. sanction the oil. you need to look at sanctioning gas from russia to europe. that's under consideration. sanctions on russian shipping around the world. finally, it's all about the information, the videos, telling the story coherently, globally. all of those together, i think, are the plan. i think we need to push hard on it, recognizing the risk of escalation that you pointed out up front. >> and if everyone -- if the consensus is, admiral, that the plan is russia wants ukraine, is the plan changing? i'm thinking of not just the point joe just made, but the president's visit. he sends missiles into lviv, nearby. senators are visiting, and there are missiles hitting 15 miles

away. is this unusual to you, that he would sort of push the envelope? >> not unusual. we're going to see putin continue to do that. he's got a big bad of dirty tricks back behind him that he is going to continue to reach into. you saw a sample of it from the video out of bucha, terrorizing the population. he is going to send in czechians, syrians, the wagner group, a group of mercenaries. he may try an amphibious assault. at the dark end of the spectrum, cyber, maybe a chemical weapon. he has a lot of dark cards to play from a deck of dirty tricks, and we need to be ready to respond as we go. >> ed luce, let's talk about the moves europe is making or not making. we heard just this morning, german officials saying we can't turn off the spigot of russian oil and gas as quickly as

volodymyr zelenskyy wants us to. we respect his plight and want to help, but we can't do it. the eu is going to ban russian coal among the new sanctions. how much further can europe go to honor the request made by president zelenskyy? >> well, one of the predicaments is if germany shut off its gas supply, it is gas that really matters. oil, you know, is more liquid, more fungible. they can find replacements and phase that out quicker. gas requires a whole sort of infrastructure of terminals and so forth. what are the consequences if it was shut off now? germany would go into deep recession straightaway. they are looking at other -- the german official position is shifting, quite rapidly, on this. italy, which is the other huge gas importer in europe, has shifted. it is now talking about a ban. it is moving quicker than even a

week ago, you would have thought. i'm sure the images from bucha and other suburbs of kyiv have driven that. but there is another really important obstacle to collective eu embargo on russia. that is hungary. as you know, viktor orban has been returned to power, and the eu operates by -- hungary is not only refusing to agree to sanction russian gas, it is agreeing to pay russian gas in rubles, which helps the russian currency and helps putin. the hungarian foreign minister summoned ukraine's ambassador in for a dressing down today, saying, tell zelenskyy to stop insulting our country, to stop insulting our leader. so we have a very serious problem here within nato, within the eu, of a putin -- essentially a putin proxy attempting to stymie action.

i think that issue is going to come to a head in europe. europe has been turning a blind eye and ignoring orban, tolerating him, and keeping this spigot of subsiies on for so many years. i suspect that's going to come to a head in this horrific war situation, in which hungary is acting as the proxy for putin. >> hungary also dramatically reducing the number of ukrainian refugees they're taking in in recent days. admiral, we heard from chairman milley, suggesting this could be months, perhaps years. with the focus, its seems, on the donbas region. walk us through, from your experience, what that would look like, what it could be if, indeed, a war there went on for years. >> well, let's start with three words that tell you everything you need to know. which is, i don't know.

in other words, war is unpredictable, and i think chairman milley, who i know well and is a terrific officer, is correct in the sense of, let's look at how the dark end of the spectrum could play out. there are a lot of other scenarios here, but let's go down the one chairman milley correctly points us toward. the long-term conflict would look like the following. russia controls the donbas, a land bridge that runs from russia through what's left of mariupol, and there won't be much left, down to crimea, which is firmly in his control. it has been annexed already. the russian forces are going to simply dig in and hold that. the ukrainians, if they are unwilling to give up control, and i think that's likely that they're going to be unwilling to simply cede that territory, they will establish defensive barriers. we'll continue to supply them. the conflict will turn into what is sometimes called a frozen

conflict. similar to what is in georgia right now with russia holding territory. or between armenia and azerbaijan, territory held there by the other side. that kind of frozen conflict can, in fact, go on for decades. on the other hand, i think there are possibilities for negotiations. boy, we're not at a point to talk seriously about negotiation, as we watch these videos coming out of bucha. >> ed luce, what are you hearing from europe as far as alliance? does the alliance stay together if this is a long war? will germany stand shoulder to shoulder with the rest of the eu, other than, obviously, hungary? >> yeah, i think the alliance, you know, we've all been seeing the same images of the war crimes taking place and getting

reports of many more that have yet to be presented photographically, visually. so i don't think there's been a greater sense of unity or revulsion in europe over this. even since the war began, it's gotten more intense. the concern if we're looking ahead about unity is the french presidential election, which is a two-stage thing. it starts the first round this weekend, then the second round two weeks from now. marine le pen, the far right anti-immigrant, anti-nato candidate, is neck-in-neck with macron in the polls. she's neck-and-neck with him. before february 24th, marine le pen has 2 million election

booklets printed. in the booklets was a picture of her with putin. russia has funded her party. there have been loans they've taken over the years. orban funds her party, too. there are hungarian loans on its books. if the polls are right and she comes anywhere near defeating macron in this presidential election, this would be an extraordinary propaganda coup for putin. i was mention in the context of hungary and russia, that cpac, cpac next month are holding their conference in budapest. the keynote speaker will be viktor orban. you have to repeat that to yourself. just to understand how important and how chilling it is in this context, that there are large chunks of the republican right that see orban and putin as a

hero. that hasn't changed. >> the white house, to the point, joe, so hardened by european unity to this point, but worries there could be pressure points down the road. also, if this is a protracted war, keeping americans rally bed hind it if gas prices stay high. we have reports of deutsche bank warning of good points. admiral, i have to gohungary, o people who claimed to once be conservatives and cold warriors, embracing a man who hates western democracy, who hates liberal democracy as much as orban does. now, a man who is doing everything he can to help vladimir putin, a war criminal. yet, these so-called conservatives embracing him, and cpac going to hungary. by the way, they knew exactly

who he was, even before he embraced putin in this war. >> putin is going to go down in history as the butcher of bucha. anyone who comes into his orbit is going to have to carry that as part of their life and reputation. i don't think the light is going to go on for viktor orban anytime soon, but i think the alliance together, and i say this as a former supreme allied commander, the alliance is holding together very strongly. very strongly. i do not see that cracking. by the way, next door, poland has become an absolute anchor for the east of the alliance. germany doubled their defense budget. overall, there will be political shifts. ed luce is right to point those out to us, and we ought to worry about those and be concerned. i think that the alliance is

going to continue to face this and has come away vitalized from watching bucha and watching ukraine and, above all, watching president putin. >> vitvitalized, energized, uni. there is the exception, hungary. here we are. it is fascinating we grew up and, of course, there were apologists on the far left for the soviets. there were even in the '40s and '50s apologists on the far left for stalin. some of these same people who are now embracing putin, some of these same people who are trying to run resistance for putin, for orban, they're now on -- i wouldn't even say the far right -- they're on the trump right. they will look just as foolish for people looking back as those who embraced stalin, those who

embraced the soviet union in american. >> i don't know how they can't see it now. >> they do see it. >> they know it. >> they hate western democracy. they hate liberal democracy. they've said as much. they're writing books saying that they hate liberal democracy. anyway, they're a shrinking number, even inside the republican party, thank god. >> retired admiral james stavridis and ed luce, thank you, both, very much for coming on the show this morning. still ahead on "morning joe," a solution in search of a problem. we'll tell you about the new controversial elections bill just passed by georgia lawmakers. speaking of elections, the man who is leading the dnc into the midterms, jaime harrison, janes us in just a few minutes. and a little later this morning, nina khrushcheva, will join us and talk about the war

in ukraine. was we go to break, we don't have interest in giving clowns in congress any time on this show, but in this case, might be worth it, just to get this look from defense secretary lloyd austin staring down within of them on capitol hill. >> i guess i'm wondering, what in the $773 billion you're requesting today is going to help you make assessments that are accurate in the face of so many blown calls? >> you've seen what's in our budget. you've seen how the budget matches the strategy. i'll let that speak for itself.

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lawmakers in georgia passed an election bill on monday that

gives the state bureau of investigations more power over elections. the bill authorizes the gbi to launch investigations into allegations of election fraud. potentially putting the results of an election in limbo. the agency would also have subpoena power over election-related documents. voting rights advocates argue it could intimidate voters. governor kemp is expected to sign this into law. >> they had, like, 12 counts in georgia. what are you going to do? first thing you have to do, oh, we have to change the voting laws to make them less effective. >> they keep digging on this. they have their own problems, republicans, with some of the senate candidates running down there. people are concerned about. >> you speak of heisman trophy winner herschel walker. >> georgia bulldog great

herschel walker. >> where is he from? >> might be texas, which is not georgia, the state he is running. >> how is that going there? >> that is the least of his problems. democrats are about to tell the voters of georgia. jetblue is offering to buy spirit airlines for $3.6 billion. in a statement, jetblue said the merger could lead to lower airfares. this as it tries to compete against the four largest in the nation, american, delta, united, southwest. in february, spirit agreed to merge with frontier airlines. another republican lawmaker who voted to impeach president trump following the january 6th attack is retiring. fred upton, who has represented southwest michigan for more than 35 years, announced his retirement yesterday on the house floor. upton has a long record of bipartisan legislation and is well respected on both sides of the aisle. here is part of his emotional speech.

>> even the best stories has a last chapter. this is it for me. i've done the zillions of air line miles, cast more votes than anyone in the chamber, and on most counts, succeeded in making a difference with unfinished work yet to come. arthur brooks wrote three traits most important in life, honesty, compassion, and faith. i'd like to think those yardsticks were passed along by my parents watching on c-span now. someone asked my wife, amy, what would be the next chapter? she said, and they lived happily ever after. indeed, we will. >> upton says the latest redistricting map was the key factor in his decision to retire. not the backlash over his impeachment vote. of the ten house republicans who

voted to impeach the president are not seeking re-election. >> fred was a great guy. >> it was beautiful. >> willing to work with anyone on either side of the aisle. a really, really good guy. we wish him luck. >> yeah. >> you know, it's not the same place it was when he got to congress. it's not even the same place it was when i left congress. it's changed radically. >> he is a vanishing breed. as mika pointed out, ten republicans voted to impeach trump. four of them, including young guys who could be around a while, kinzinger, decided to step away. former president obama returns to the white house for the first time since leaving office. we'll have his comments on health care, and his message for democrats ahead of the midterms. plus, dnc chairman jaime harrison is standing by. he is right here, actually. he joins to discuss the game

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[ applause ] >> now, i'm going to sign an executive order, and, barack, let me remind you, it's a hot mic. [ applause ] >> former president barack obama returned to the white house yesterday to promote changes to the affordable care act. there were exchanges and inside jokes there. obama also gave democrats some advice when asked about the upcoming midterms. >> mr. president, what do you say to democrats worried about the midterms? what do you tell democrats worried about the midterms? >> we have a story to tell. just have to tell it. >> joining us now, chairman of the national democratic committee, jaime harrison. we have a story to tell, we just have to tell it. >> it was so good to see bo and joe together again. they bring a smile to your face.

it's about politics and focusing on the american people. that's what joe biden and kamala harris are focused on right now, and we have to tell the story. >> what is the story? >> the contrast is an important one, because, joe, as you know, elections are about contrast. you had a president come into the office where we didn't have vaccines available. schools were shut down. people were losing their jobs and getting kicked out of their homes. he rolled up his sleeves and said, i'm willing to work with republicans but i am going to do what is necessary to deliver for the american people. we got vaccines in arms. we put money in people's pockets. we delivered for the american people. this economy has -- i mean, 3.6% unemployment. 8 million jobs in 14 months. we made sure that the schools were let open. the reason why we could get through omicron wave and not close schools, or most schools stayed open, is because of the money joe biden and democrats put into preparing our schools

to deal with that. so we have so much to tell. >> so the question that -- >> democrats have delivered, and we're going to continue. >> the question that ho hovers the price of food, gas. yes, it's never been easier to find a job. unemployment is 3.6%. president biden rallied the west against russia. all those things are true. when push comes to shove and somebody squeezes the trigger at the gas station, it is rolling up to 100 bucks, that's what people see in front of them. what can the president and democrats do about that? >> they're releasing reserves to try to bring down the cost, as well. but this is the thing, joe biden has an actual plan in order to bring down costs. making sure that we are producing more things at home, and also looking at, what are the other major expenses that people have in their lives right now that they need to drop down? we just had a bill on the floor

of the house to bring down the cost of insulin from $4,000 a month to $35 a month. 193 republicans voted no. the last -- you know, i live in the diabetic belt of the country in north carolina. republicans, independents, democrats, purple people, blue people, they all have diabetes and have to suffer through the high costs. why in the world is the republican party going to stand in the way of that? we have plans. republicans are trying to block that, but joe biden is hell bent on doing all he can. >> one of my sons is diabetic, and people who know he is talk about not being able to afford insulin. the price skyrocketed. it is the same insulin it was a decade ago. >> yes. >> health care costs certainly are at the center of the event, which brought president obama to

the white house yesterday. there are outside forces that make it difficult for democrats. we were talking about how the war in ukraine could last years, and that's probably going to keep energy prices up, if that's the case. we have a warning from deutsche bank this morning, suggesting they're predicting a recession in the united states next year. how do democrats get by those? >> i think we continue to focus on ways we can bring down the costs. we continue to fight out how we can create more jobs. good paying jobs, union jobs in this country. so the alleviate the pressure off the american people. that has to be the focus. that is the focus of joe biden. i was just with him at the white house a few weeks ago, invited lunch. my wife told me, she said, now, you got an invitation knot white house. don't get a big head about it. there hasn't been a president i've seen so focused. he talked the entire time, i know the people in pennsylvania. it is hard for them.

we have to find ways to alleviate the pressure. i know he's focused on that. he's also focused on ukraine. i think he has done a good job thus far in that leadership. >> jaime, here is what republican senator tom cotton said about judge ketanji brown jackson on the senate floor yesterday. >> judge jackson represented four terrorists as a public defender, one whom she continues to represent in private practice voluntarily. she claimed the terrorists never had affiliation with the taliban and al qaeda. she accused the bush administration and american soldiers of war crimes. one of her clients designed the prototype shoe bomb used in an unsuccessful attempt to blow up a passenger airplane. another planned and executed a rocket attack on u.s. forces in afghanistan. a third was arrested and arraigned on an al qaeda's explosives training camp.

every case, she claimed none had anything to do with terrorism. totally innocent. goat herders picked up by american troops. you know, the last judge jackson left the supreme court to go to prosecute the case against, and this judge jackson protected them. >> made the ghost of mccarthy blush. >> to use a nazi analogy as a twisted way to attack judge ketanji brown jackson is reprehensible. we've said it and we'll say it again, stop trivializing the holocaust for political gain. >> republicans repeatedly questioned judge jackson about the work she did over a decade ago in defending four men once held at gitmo. as she noted, he didn't choose to represent the detainees but

was assigned their cases while employed as a federal public defender. from 2005 to 2007, according to the "ap," quote, jackson never traveled to gitmo to meet the men. instead, her role was research and writing. the "ap" continue, the four men jackson represented were alleged to have been al qaeda bomb experts, taliban intelligent officer, a man trained to fight forces in afghanistan, and a farmer associated with the taliban. none was tried, much less convicted by the military commissions set up to deal with detainees. even those who were eventually charged has those charges dropped. all were eventually released. jackson initially was assigned to gitmo cases as a public defender. she has said, she continued to work on one of the cases when she moveivate practice

when her firm was assigned to represent the man. that's how it works in a constitutional republic, folks. if you don't know that, guess what? you can be forgiven for that because you're not a lawyer. but guess what? in the case of tom cotton, he has no excuse. >> yeah. >> he is twisting this so out of context. it is a wretched display for yet another ivy league guy. another ivy leaguer who went to harvard law school, lying to you, acting stupid about what happens when you're a public defender. assigned a case. you know why you're assigned those cases? because the constitution of the united states of america, which republicans like tom cotton claim to defend, they carry it

around in their pocket, hold up their little pocket-sized constitutions, but don't really give a damn about what's inside of it. because if tom cotton did, he'd understand that she was doing what the constitution of the united states guarantees every american that lawyers will do and that lawyers have done since the beginning of this republic. he knows better. that's what makes it so absolutely, positively shameful. last week, the republican attacks was talked about against one of america's bedrock constitutional principles. >> judge jackson is attacked for defending people at gitmo, because she was a public defender. wasn't even her choice. the government assigned this. we have this principle in this country, everybody gets a lawyer. john adams, second president of the country, defended the

british soldiers at the boston center. nazis were given a hearing. i thought we understood this. feels we're forgetting this. >> i guess so. your thoughts on tom cotton? >> when there is lindsey graham in a senate, tom cotton is the lowest of the low. when barack obama was the president of the united states, there was a person he appointed to be an ambassador to the bahamas. sandra butts. she was brilliant. she had lleukemia. she was up for confirmation, and tom cotton blocked her confirmation. 835 days she waited to be confirmed, ambassador to the bahamas. when asked why he was holding up her confirmation, he said, because he wanted to hurt barack obama. it shows you who this little

maggot-infested man is. he does not deserve to have that pen. he doesn't deserve to be in the united states senate, representing the good people of arkansas. he doesn't deserve and doesn't know. joe hit the nail on the head, he put his hand on the bible, took an oath of office to protect and defend the constitution naft of the united states, and he use it as a play toy. that is the republican party we see today. it is a party built on fraud, fear, and fascism. they don't deserve to be in power. not because democrats should, but because they don't deserve to be in power of this great nation. >> and the nomination of -- >> she died waiting to be confirmed. >> dnc chairman jaime harrison, thank you very much for being on this morning to talk about the state of our politics today. still ahead, ukraine's president calls out the u.n. in the aftermath of the massacre in bucha. also ahead, ivanka trump spends hours answering questions

about january 6th. what the chair of the select committee had to say about her testimony. "morning joe" is coming right back. ♪ "how bizarre" by omc ♪ no annual fee on any discover card. ♪ ♪ medusa lived with a hideous curse. uhh, i mean the whole turning people to stone thing was a bit of a buzz kill, right? so she ordered sunglasses with prime, one day delivery. ♪♪ clever girl. people realized she's actually hilarious once you get to know her. eugh. as if. ♪♪ well, he was asking for it. prime changes everything.

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♪♪ welcome back to "morning joe." you know, it's one of the things that's so disconcerting about the trump years. i've known a lot of these people, like tom cotton. like tom, like a lot of other people, obviously, we thought what he did was disgusting, about nuremberg. jaime also upset because of the choice of ambassador who he held us while she was dying of leukemia. certainly understand the passion of it. we were talking at break. i thought he said maga-infested

man. it was harsher than that. >> maggot, yeah. >> oh, my. >> he was echoing a tweet he wrote last night about tom cotton. obviously, what tom cotton said yesterday, especially in the context. let's go back to the beginning of the trials when lindsey graham said, this is going to be respectful. we're not going to treat you how democrats treated judge kavanaugh. grassley said the same thing, we're not going to the gutter like democrats. now, united states senators suggesting the next supreme court justice, a historic one at that, would have defended nazis at nuremberg, wouldn't have prosecuted nazis at nuremberg. then the other line of argument is anyone who votes for her is somehow in support of child pornography. that is the somehow respectful, staying out of the gutter path for the republicans with this nominee. >> critical of both sides to pull back from that any way they

can. this isn't both side-ism, but it is important at times to call out what you see. keep it to a certain level. >> you'd like to think so. >> of decorum. >> there is certainly no sign of that. the accusations are straight out of the qanon playbook. it got uglier as it went on. we have senator lindsey graham suggesting if the republicans control the senate, they wouldn't even give a hearing to the nominee of a democratic president's choice. it is only going to get uglier, endangering the fabric of the supreme court. >> so much at stake. >> again, willie, you bring up the great point. you know, republicans for so self-righteous at the beginning, saying, look what they did to amy coney barrett and brett kavanaugh. we're not going to do that. we'll be more respectful.

here we are at the end of it all. tom cotton saying she would defend nazis. then you have them basically saying she's a supporter of pedophiles. again, they're playing to the qanon crowd. >> they've gone as far as you can go. can anyone think of going further than defending nazis and accusing her of supporting child pornography? >> no. >> in a hearing where they said they'd be respectful, they went that war. senators like tom cotton, ivy league guys know so much better. >> they know it. >> they're playing down and hoping to win some over. stay with us. a full hour of "morning joe" is straight ahead. ♪ you know how i feel ♪ (coughing) ♪ breeze driftin' on by ♪ ♪ you know how i feel ♪ copd may have gotten you here, but you decide what's next. start a new day with trelegy.

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it was all great until the end, when everyone gathered around obama and there was no one for joe. [ laughter ] >> is that not the saddest thing you've ever seen in your life? >> i would have gone to joe. i would have. that's just terrible. >> he hadn't been there for a long time. you want to see the guy and welcome him back. >> the obama frenzy. welcome back to "morning joe." it is wednesday, april 6th.

joining the table, we have msnbc contributor mike barnicle. former u.s. senator, now an nbc news and msnbc political analyst, claire mccaskill. and editor of the "new yorker," david remnick joins us. >> david doesn't know much about the russians, but we invited him anyway. >> appreciate it. new develops with ukraine. the country is set to get another $100 million worth of javelin missiles from the u.s. the state department says that brings the total u.s. security assistance to ukraine to 1. -- $1.7 billion since the invasion and $2.4 billion since the start of the biden administration. ukrainians are being trained on the weapons systems supplied. the biden administration is set to announce additional sanctions on russia for the attacks in bucha. the package, taken in

coordination with the eu and other g7 nations, also will ban new investment in russia and state-owned enterprises. the white house says the sanctions target those funding vladimir putin's war. >> meanwhile, volodymyr zelenskyy, ukraine's president, is calling out the united nations in a virtual speech to the security council yesterday. zelenskyy issued a scathing rebuke of the u.n., accusing it of failing to stop human rights violations in ukraine and around the world. >> translator: it is obvious that the key institution of the world, which must ensure the correction of any aggressor to peace, simply cannot work effectively. the united nations can be simply closed. ladies and gentlemen, are you ready to close the u.n.? do you think that the time of international law is gone? if your answer is no, then you need to act immediately. the massacre from syria to

somalia, from afghanistan to yemen and libya, that should have been stopped long time ago. to tell you the truth, if tyranny had at least once received such a response to the war raged, it would have ceased to exist. >> zelenskyy effectively saying, why do you exist, if not to do something in this moment, u.n. security council? >> it is a good question. >> of course, the dilemma is russia is a permanent member of the u.n. security council, so nothing gets out of there on this issue. >> and china. >> yeah. >> and it's been that way for quite some time. since it was formed. david, what does the united nations do? what does nato do? what does the west do? every night, seeing mass atrocities just streaming across our televisions, across our phones, across our ipads. what do we do? >> you'll see more.

>> yeah. >> you're going to see more. the more the russians retreat from areas like bucha, you will see the human -- the horrendous scenes of human beings slaughtered in cold blood as vengeance. vengeance. at the same time, our reporter there has also seen notes left behind. i'm sorry i did this. you know, there's this terrible position these soldiers have been put in. at the same time, there have been people who acted like butchers, all in the name of vladimir putin. >> the order is coming from above. one of those messages intercepted on the radios actually was russian troops leaving a village. as they were leaving the village, the command came in, evacuate the village, then bomb it. >> obliterate it. >> kill everybody. >> the person receiving the message said, "come again? what'd you say?"

they repeated the instruction. these actually are orders coming from the very top. kill the civilians. >> we've seen this strategy before. i think it's been pointed out more than once that the way -- look, warfare is horrendous. let's stipulate that. it is not as if any country who has gone to war has been free of, you know -- this is not played by the queensbury rules. horrible things happen in war, intentionally and unintentionally. this is above and beyond, but there is historical precedence. in the '90s, putin played the same playbook in chechnya. it is going to get worse. the most alarming thing i saw on your program is the report from the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, that this is going to be prolonged. this is not a minor episode.

at the same time, one of the horrendous things to know is how this is being played in russia. they're saying, in russia, 24 hours a day on television, that these scenes you're seeing right now on msnbc and around the world are faked. the same way that franco told spain and the world that the mass bombing of the village of gernica was fake. the same way in bosnia, the killing of people in a grocery line was fake. the reason this was faked was to get international sympathy. this is the oldest move in the book. deny photographic evidence. deny truth. right? if nothing is true, everything is possible, as they say in russia. >> claire, what does the president do? what do nato leaders do? when passions are running as high as they are in europe every bit as much in america, and

people want us to do more. want us to do more. want no fly zones. want troops to go in. when it starts world war 3, there are lines we cannot cross. people don't want to hear that, obviously, when you're watching these atrocities coming across your screens every day and every night. >> i think one of the things that has to happen is we've got to make sure that everyone knows how much we're doing. let's put it in context, what we've given to ukraine. their annual defense budget is $6 billion. we've given them $2.4 billion. >> but what do they hear from zelenskyy? you're not doing anything. >> it's true. zelenskyy is always going to do that. what zelenskyy is doing with a genius capability is trying to keep this at the top of our consciousness. because as long as the world is paying close attention every day, then he can win this.

and this is, i think, one of the things where putin made many miscalculations, but maybe the biggest one, is that all of us would watch it in real time. we would see the evidence. this is the first time. i mean, we didn't watch chechnya. we didn't watch what was going on in syria. we haven't watched on the ground a war in process like we have this one. >> right. >> ever in the history of mankind. so this is a new beginning of eyes on a war, and putin did not figure that he would be this isolated this quickly and this totally. so it is really a problem, and that's why it is going to be protracted. what i worry about most is that we all quit paying attention. >> i completely agree with claire's assessment. putin never realized that we were going to be watching this closely. i do wonder at this point, though, willie, with his troops being humiliated every day, the military being humiliated, and

it's ukraine that's humiliating russia, whether at some point he really starts trying to bait us. whether he tries to bait nato to go in. whether he tries to bait the united states in. >> that's what i think. >> for putin, it's critical for every reason in the world, that this battle is between russia and the united states, who he says has been trying to destroy russia for 20 years. >> that'd feed into his narrative. that's what i was going to ask you, david, as a student of russia, and you wrote "lennon's tomb," about the end of the soviet empire. put it into some context if you can for our viewers, what vladimir putin is after here. i think it'll inform what his next moves are. yes, he's been stymied by this incredible ukrainian military, but what happens next? >> what he wanted crept up, and

now it is a maximalist position. this wasn't just nato by any stretch of the imagination. his strategy could be -- again, we should stipulate that we're trying to predict. this is not trying to predict the american league standings or anything. this is serious stuff. but what looks like the strategy in the medium term, is he concentrates forces in the east and along the invaluable coast of the sea. he creates, in effect, in the west, as you see this map on your screens, a kind of rump ukrainian state that's cut off from the sea, that's much smaller, that is, in effect, decapitated, whether or not it has zelenskyy as its ruler. but there's also an idealogical thing that he want to create, and that is for him to be the center of the illiberal universe. at a confidence, let's face it, has been shaken, when 40% of the

people think the last election was stolen, et cetera, et cetera. he thought this was the moment he could seize on the american nervousness, american retreat, after, let's face it, real disasters in afghanistan and iraq and elsewhere, and a trump presidency. he thought, this was the moment, and it's gone awry. but he's willing to shed a lot of blood to correct it. >> david, you were talking a few moments ago about his dependence on convincing the russian people that they are in the right, russia is in the right in ukraine, and most of what they see or have heard is fake. what is it about the russian population today, that they seem to have an inferiority complex about the west? >> do you have three hours? this is a big theme that has to do with geography and history and all the rest. but the fact is, vladimir putin

hasn't been able to do what he signed up to do in 1999/2000. >> yeah. >> which is to make his people more prosperous, more secure, less dependent on the oil and gas industries, which are in the hands of the people in the security services around him in st. petersburg. he has a insecure, heavily censored, neo-totalitarian state, certainly an increasingly totalitarian one. that doesn't end well. that doesn't end in security and prosperity. so that's where he is. >> you know, in this discussion, we've talked about how vladimir putin could not have imagined how closely we'd be watching this. in some ways -- >> that was foolish. >> it also raises the stakes and, in some ways, gives him more power because everyone is watching. it could be goading the west.

>> he was counting on the exhaustion of the united states. he was counting on the divisions within europe and the united states and the rest. you know, as much as zelenskyy is prodding the west, he is doing exactly -- >> of course. >> astonishing to watch. as a defender of his own nation, which is a poor nation. the only poorer nation is moldova. he is prodding the budgets of the west as best he can. he is doing the best one would think he would do, and he is doing it magnificently. >> it is remarkable. i want to ask both of you about russia's underperformance. that seems to be the understatement of the month. but their underperformance on the battlefield, just how absolutely horrific they've been top to bottom. i remember the night before the

invasion, russian tanks being driven through a town. one of the generals on twitter said, oh, my god, look at the lack of discipline in the tank formation. is it children? i was like, can you tell that from a tank formation going through town? you can, obviously. claire, you were on the armed services, is that right? >> 12 years. >> okay. >> i'm not going to ask if you ever saw this coming because none of us saw this coming. but how could -- and i'll ask david next -- how could the russian military be performing so poorly after this post-georgia was vladimir putin's top project? >> this is the other thing this war has exposed. besides putin's poor judgment, it's exposed that their military is not powerful. they've lost command and control. can you imagine if we went into a war situation and we lost in the first four, five weeks, four or five generals? >> yeah. >> i mean, that'd never happen.

of course, once again, let me give context here. ukraine's defense budget, $6 billion. russia's, $60 billion. united states of america, $800 billion. >> by the way, since the beginning of the war, germany's defense budget now going to be higher than russia's. >> exactly. so russia, even though they spend a lot for a poor country on defense, they clearly didn't have the systems in place for training. how about all these soldiers that went there, didn't even know they were going. how do you not have a clear mission? how do you not have a unity? this is also laziness on the face of putin, taking for face value what your generals told him, which is always, we're ready. he's surrounded himself with sycophants who say what he wants to hear. >> even with an american scale defense budget, look what happened in afghanistan, iraq, and so on.

you know, with whatever intention, the notion of invading a country, seizing it, holding it, controlling it, decapitating it, all these best laid plans with candy and flowers and we'll install -- and everything will be swell. then you look at it with a far less proficient military. you look at it with a completely unmotivated military. we're at a situation in ukraine, as you probably know, where the ukrainians just cut off the 095 area code so soldiers couldn't call their mothers at home. battlefield instructions were carried out on cell phones. russian soldiers were robbing them from ukrainian soldiers. i mean, this is the level of chaos that you're seeing. >> but that gets to, claire, what you were talking about earlier, the things we have already done for ukraine. at the inception of these

hostilities between ukraine and the russians, their command and control operations, the russian's, was completely amputated in a day. that doesn't happen without our technological assistance. >> exactly right. and the training we provided. people forget, a lot of the leadership skills you're seeing in ukraine, a lot of that training happened via the united states of america military. >> david, i'm curious about this military collapse. you know, in june of '41, the germans were able to sweep across russia so quickly because stalin had purged all of his effective generals because he feared the military being an effective power base against -- >> turns out not to be a good idea. >> bad idea. doesn't it seem vladimir putin likely did the same thing? >> i can't emphasize enough how isolated he is. >> yeah. >> the paucity of information

coming to him. that gigantic table, which has been photographed so much and shown so much on film, is the most stunningly apt metaphor for the isolation of the king, of the czar. he is completely cut off. he has very few people that he depends on or who he trusts. therefore, you create a very typical authoritarian atmosphere. let's not bring bad news to the czar. now, he is apoplectic and arresting people in the security services apparatus. chaos ensues in moscow as much as ukraine. >> you have putin fighting the military, attacking his military. putin offending the oligarchs. >> it is not ideal, is it? >> what is his power base? again, i ask, like every

american, we have no idea how it works. >> his power base is force and his willingness to put people in jail, to crush dissent. i mean, when we talk about negotiations, i'm the first one to hope that diplomacy saves the day. saves lives. saves children and everybody in this situation. and we should extend every possible -- >> but how in the world? >> you're dealing with somebody -- it underestimates it to say he doesn't negotiate in good faith. if amount of lying at the negotiating table, whether it's this or other instances, is heroic. >> let's talk about illiberalism. not just on russia but with a certain segment of the republican party. cpac is going to hungary next month. orban is going to be celebrated as a hero. many of the people who love

viktor orban were the people i grew up reading about in national review who were cold warriors, who were against the soviet union, who are now on orban's payroll. to say it is disgusting seems to be, again, another understatement. talk about this, what has infected american politics. maybe a third of the republican party, maybe 40% of the republican party, sees viktor orban as a hero. >> it is interesting because putin thought we were so divided that this would be an opportune moment to go into ukraine. he has managed to unite the country, but he has, in fact, exacerbated the divide in the republican party. it really has done a good job of separating what i call treasonous traders that are sympathizing with putin and orban and all of that right-wing

authoritarianism. >> they've been isolated. make no mistake, they've been isolated in the republican party. putin's approval rating in the republican party -- >> tanked. >> before this. >> it was high. >> yeah. >> now, he is as low as osama bin laden. >> look to trump, how is he signaling? however he signals, that's what the 30%, and i'd argue it's closer to 40% of the republican party is going to do. they're still going to follow him blindly with whatever signals he puts out there. he still, to this day, amazingly -- think about this. to this day, he has not really condemned putin. he was his bestie all the time he was in the white house, but this is really unbelievable, that somebody is standing as the dominant figure in a political party in this country, that refuses to condemn the butcher

of bucha. >> i think we're tired of being shocked, but it is shocking. >> i mean, how does that have electoral consequences, this division in the republican party? what difference will it make come november and then the next november and the next? >> i think it remains to be seen. if these far-right candidates win the primaries, if the ones he has endorsed, the ones i call that like to hang out in crazytown, if they win all these primaries, then democrats will have a better year than everyone is thinking. they will defy expectations and do better. i'm not saying they'll hold on to the house, but they can easily hold on to the senate. >> republicans, given historical trends and inflation, given everything, republicans should have massive victories in the house. massive victories in the senate. they probably still will in the house, just for structural reasons. the senate is up for grabs now. >> definitely.

>> for one reason and one reason alone, donald trump. just like he lost georgia for the republicans, he's working really hard to lose the senate for the republican party again. >> all right. editor of the "new yorker," david remnick, thank you for coming on with your insight. >> thank you. ahead, hunter biden's laptop. it's the story right-wing media is obsessed with. the truth lies somewhere in between. we'll get a fact check on the reported connections between the president's son and chinese is his first major tournament from a devastating car crash. kerry sanders with what the legendary course could pose for one of the sport's greats. you're watching "morning joe."

we'll be right back. ♪♪

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throughout the next 10. through projectup, comcast is committing $1 billion so millions more students, past... and present, can continue to get the tools they need to build a future of unlimited possibilities. live look at the capitol in washington, d.c. at 29 past the hour. ivanka trump, the daughter and senior adviser of former president trump is now the highest ranking member of that administration to speak with the january 6th select committee. nbc news reports ivanka trump testified for nearly 8 hours yesterday. her husband, jared kushner, testified before the committee last week. ivanka was in the west wing on january 6th. the committee said it had received testimony that members

of the white house staff requested ivanka trump's assistance on multiple occasions to intervene. in an attempt to persuade president trump to address the lawlessness going on on the hill. >> someone from the committee described kushner as fairly forthcoming last week. would you describe her as equally forthcoming? >> um, i would say you ought to go back to that person who made the other description. >> is that right? >> yeah, i mean, she's answering questions. i mean, you know, not broad, chatty terms, but she's answering questions. >> would you describe her as cooperating? >> she came in on her own. that has, obviously, significant value. we did not have to subpoena. >> you know, it's interesting.

obviously, there were family members that were calling in to donald trump on january 6th. let's bring in dan abrams right now. >> early. >> bring him in early. obviously, you look at all the people around donald trump. you had family members, you had kids calling in on january 6th saying, "do something about this." i'll be curious to see the testimony of jared and ivanka and see how much -- how many calls they made in. >> yeah. i don't know how significant the calls from them, per se, are, unless there was, you know, something specific that donald trump said back. >> right. >> you know, what exactly they said to him, interesting, and my guess is that once we get to see everything, we'll look at it and say, oh, you know, there's interesting details in there. >> yeah. >> i don't think these are going to be make or break issues for the committee. >> nothing that -- >> i don't know. that's my guess. >> yeah, yeah. >> now to the federal investigation into president biden's son, hunter.

new reporting from the "washington post" is shining a light on high-level business dealings between chinese executives and the younger biden. nbc news justice correspondent pete williams filed this report last week on the latest developments. >> reporter: people familiar with the federal investigation of hunter biden, which he himself ago, say it is broader n he first described it, with a number of witnesses called before a grand jury. it began with whether he paid all the taxes he should be on work for foreign companies, including an energy company. this email found on a laptop computer biden used said he failed to disclose $400,000 that he was paid by the ukraiian company. the laptop, which he took to a delaware shop to get repaired but never reclaimed, was seized by the fbi. not before rudy giuliani got a copy of the hard drive.

documents they made public showed accounts linked to biden received nearly $4 million in consulting contracts from a chinese energy company. according to an analysis by the "washington post." during the campaign, then candidate biden denied that was a china connection. >> my son has not made money in terms of this thing about -- what are you talking about -- china. >> reporter: senate republicans say the documents show hunter biden signed an agreement to represent an official toft company, patrick ho, for $1 million. ho was later convicted in a u.s. court of trying to bribe officials in africa. republicans say that shows hunter biden had close ties to the chinese government. >> hunter biden was financially connected to cefc, a company that was an arm of the communist chinese regime. >> reporter: now, according to people familiar with the investigation, it has broadened out to look at whether he violated federal lobbying

disclosure laws. >> although many on the right have used this story to accuse the president himself of corruption, the "washington post" writes that it, quote, did not find evidence that joe biden personally benefitted from or knew details about the transactions with cefc, which took place after he had left the vice presidency and before he announced his intentions to run for the white house in 2020. this is the story we brought dan on for. he is the host of "dan abrams live" on news nation. what do you make of the coverage and the timeline, and where the right or left went wrong? >> mistakes on both parties. let's start with the laptop. that's the thing, the laptop. rudy giuliani takes this information, and even fox news says, this isn't good enough for us. we're not going to go with it. people forget about that. rudy giuliani went to fox news, and they said, we can't verify

this. >> why is that? >> because they were just -- he was just giving them, essentially, you know, the emails, a drive, but without any sort of sense of where it came from or any ability to verify it. then he brings it to the "new york post," and they go with it. it turns out, it seems that, at least a lot of what was on the laptop is true. here's where the problem is from the left-leaning media perspective. which is, why didn't they make any effort to try to verify it? in particular, the moment that hunter biden admits he is under federal investigation, now we're in december of 2020. it's the last month or so the left-leaning, mainstream media said, yeah, what was on the laptop, much of it seems to be true. the question is, why did it take so long when it comes to something as significant, i would argue, as not just the president's son in potential trouble, but the possibility

that the president's son, at the least -- sorry, you know, at the time, used the vice president's name, the former vice president's name to do business in china, potentially elsewhere. those are legitimate questions, i think, the media didn't ask. >> dan, let me take you back. you're talking about december, and it does make sense. everybody should have been far more aggressive after the investigation was made public. what about during the campaign? if you talked to republicans, talked to conservatives who were critical of how this was handled, they'll talk about the fact that not only did mainstream media not pick it up, also, you had bans from twitter. you had bans -- i don't know about youtube. >> yeah. >> there was social media bans on this being misinformation. what happened there? what was the timeline there? you said fox news at first wouldn't run with it.

obviously the "new york post" ran with it early. >> yeah. >> people were very suspicious. during the campaign, was there a time when social media, mainstream media, should have more aggressively gone after this? >> there is no question it was an embarrassment to the social media giants, that this was banned from being shared, right? it was declared misinformation. i mean, there is no question that is a shameful moment that they isolated this piece and said, oh, you know, you can't share this. this is disinformation, et cetera. because there was no evidence that it was disinformation. now, it is true that when you think about the story at the time, it sounds insane. >> right. >> oh, hunter biden goes to some random computer shop, leaves it there, and rudy giuliani picks it up. >> yeah. >> i mean, the story is a bit, you know, hard to believe. but that doesn't mean that the mainstream media, a, shouldn't have done more to try to see, is

this true or not, and, b, the level of censorship that it got. >> on social media. >> oh, on social media, et cetera, it was clearly a mistake. no doubt about it. >> let's cut to the heart of the accusation from a lot of the media, the right-wing media especially, that president biden benefitted from this. the "washington post" points out the deals took place after president biden left the obama white house, before he announced he was running as president. hunter biden is throwing his dad's name around, trying to make deals. did it influence president biden as president? did it change policy? is there anything to point to that said, yeah, he put his finger on the scale for china, whatever it is? >> this is the problem now with the right-wing media. the left-wing media deserves criticism for the hunter biden lack of coverage. on the right, they're trying to say the biden crime family, the biden this.

let's be specific about who in the biden family we're talking about. what do we know? as of right now, there are isolated allegations about, well, joe biden was supposed to be able to get a piece of the action, et cetera, money that he never actually got. that, in and of itself, should show he was corrupt. as of today, there is no evidence. now, the right would say, well, the reason there is no evidence is people aren't digging. they're not looking hard enough to try to find it. why are they not believing a former business partner of hunter biden who says the big guy was supposed to get a piece of this. the "journal" was given all of the information in connection with this guy, a friend and business partner of hunter biden's. they came to the conclusion that we don't see anything here which implicates joe biden himself.

now, that doesn't mean the question can't be asked. but don't ask it in a disingenuous way. well, i'm wondering what joe biden's role is. well, there is no evidence of what his role is. if you want facts, to talk specifics about an email, fair enough. what you're seeing from some of the right-wing media is this effort to lump together hunter and joe. >> and amplify it. >> the biden crime family. being placed on barges outside of gitmo. >> claire? >> yeah, you know, let's just do a couple truths here. one, hunter biden has made some serious mistakes trying to use his father's position to make money. in a way that was wildly irresponsible. number two, hunter biden himself has said, i'm an addict. i have serious substance abuse problems. by the way, during this time

period. you can see. who leaves their laptop at this place in his situation and never comes back to pick it up? who does that, unless somebody is not functioning at a level? three, joe biden loves his son. now, are those three connected? yes. but no. i don't think anybody -- i think everybody who voted for joe biden knew hunter biden was a problem. he is a little bit like when bill clinton got elected. everybody knew clinton was not as pure as the dripping snow when it came to his personal life. i think when they voted for joe biden, they said, that's his son. there's not a family in america who doesn't have dysfunction, and i think people are being, understandabl -- for his son,

and also there is ukraine and the presidency. >> we asked the questions, but it wasn't amplified like, you know, in the middle of a huge story like right now, you'll see a right-wing, you know, outlet going nuts over hunter biden. it is amplified completely out of the realm of what's real. i think that's one of the issues, as well, too. i mean, during the election, i remember having conversations with, you know, white house folks and people in the campaign. really, they're coming after me for asking these questions. it is not that we didn't ask the questions. we didn't just go crazy, blaring them as the lead story. >> here's the problem, though -- >> then mike wants to jump? >> i understand what you're saying, and i understand, claire, what you're saying. it is not about hunter biden. it's not about hunter biden's problems. what dan is talking about, and i think what we all need to really examine, it is not hunter biden. i've always seen it as a billy carter situation. it is what the media did do and

what the media didn't do. most importantly, what the media did and didn't do during the end of that election cycle. "new york post" comes out with it. they're the only one that comes out with it. then it is banned on social media. >> that's bad. >> yeah. >> horrific. >> that's bad. >> again, it is -- i think we have to, you know -- you have to say it, it's a real story. >> oh, yeah. >> you're right. the laptop is the story. it was always the story. the fact that it sat there in the pawnshop for so long, then when it was discovered, that we didn't seize on it and find out about the laptop, you are absolutely correct. my question to you is, is it known how many people had access to that laptop? >> no. i mean, look, there's still a lot of questions about it, right? about the hard drive, et cetera. questions remain. but just because questions remain, as you seem to agree, doesn't mean that it doesn't matter. it doesn't mean that what's on there is irrelevant.

what's happened now is, many in the mainstream media in the last month or two, have been able to confirm what is on there. emails involve two sides. someone sends one, someone receives them. you can verify a lot of emails by verifying them with the other people who were involved. on the most, sort of, you know, potentially problematic emails on there, this is something that the mainstream media should have done a lot time ago, because of the issue of using his name. again, just his sitting on the burisma board, starting in 2014 in ukraine, is in and of itself a conflict. he shouldn't have done it. the idea he was getting on that board for any other reason other than his name was hunter biden, you know, it wouldn't be true. >> you're sort of an expert on all of this. >> i don't know if i'm an expert. >> you have the media reaction,

right and left. what do you think the reaction would be, from places like the "new york post," if this ended up being a tax case? >> i think, for many, it'll never just be a tax case. no matter what comes out, i think what we are seeing already is -- and now going back to the right-leaning media -- is a narrative that will not die. you hear them saying even, you hear some of them saying, reali this just about hunter biden, his finances, and him alone, then the story is not quite as big. it gets bigger when you say, "using the family name." now, we've gotten a bigger story. then it gets really big if you can bring in joe biden, right? >> right. >> we're just -- you're not at that point where you're able to bring in the biggest part of the story. that's what many in fact in the right-leaning media try to do. >> it provides the trump right to engage in what aboutism.

you look at the corruption of donald trump. you look at the crimes committed, that it appears he is going to get away with. whether it's the manhattan d.a. not having something to go after. look at trump hotel. i mean, we could go down the list. but it does provide many on the trump right a wonderful opportunity to engage in what aboutism. that doesn't excuse the media for not aggressively going after this story. that doesn't excuse social media for banning this story at a critical time in the campaign. if people want to know why they're pushing this so hard, that's one of the reasons. >> trump's kids are making money off his dad's name. in saudi arabia, billions of dollars off the name. >> by the way -- >> it's more than a pup tent.

>> it is important to say this, though, jared has more money than donald and always has. >> true. the point is, if donald trump was in this situation, he would have fired that u.s. attorney in delaware. he would have shut down this investigation or tried to. what did joe biden do? joe biden not only has been hands-off in this investigation, he's allowed the trump appointee that is handling this investigation to stay in place. that's the difference between integrity and corruption. >> that's a big deal in terms of the investigation piece of this. you know, this investigation, as we've been talking about, is ongoing. the reason, you know, we know about it is you get to see which grand jury witnesses are called, et cetera, but absolutely true as to the trump-appointed prosecutor. this is perilous for hunter biden, sort of where we are today. what happens then, right, if hunter biden is indicted?

does joe biden eventually pardon him? i don't know. >> i don't think so. >> if he is indicted and convicted, again, these are going to pose interesting questions as to sort of what happens down the road. >> dan abrams, good to see you. >> good to be back. >> come back soon. >> i'd love to. >> appreciate it. coming up, president biden will address a key labor union today in an early test of whether the party can win back support from blue collar workers who voted for donald trump. labor secretary marty walsh is our guest. plus, tiger woods plans to play the masters tournament this week. he thinks he can win. nbc's kerry sandersaugusta, whe legendary golfer, tiger, not kerry, is preparing for a remarkable return to major competition. >> kerry is good though. >> backswing. >> big hitter.

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ridiculous. >> welcome back to "morning joe." seven minutes before the top of the hour. >> hold on, see that 15 up there, you know what that's for, it's how many years. >> how many years we've been on the air, 15 years. >> you know what i like about the 15, the yankee pinstripes. isn't that nice? yankee pride, everybody. we're a new york kind of show here. look up there, there are pinstripes, i think there were on that shot. as we mentioned earlier, tiger woods said he will play in the masters. it tees off tomorrow in augusta, georgia. that's where we find nbc news

correspondent kerry sanders. things got a lot more exciting there. tiger is playing. >> reporter: absolutely. all eyes are on tiger woods today. the plan today, weather permitting, we've had quite a downpour here for tiger woods to get on the course through a nine hole practice round. he doesn't have to make a final decision until tee time on thursday. all indications are that tiger woods is going to go for a record tying 6th masters win. >> all signs point to a miraculous return to the masters for tiger woods. >> as of right now, i feel like i am going to play. >> reporter: woods not only determined to play but says if he does tee off tomorrow, he's going for the green, jacket that is. >> if i feel like i can win i'm going to play. if i feel like i can't, you won't see me out here. >> reporter: if woods competes this will be his 24th masters tournament, though this road to augusta was by far the most

difficult. it's been just 14 months since his right leg was crushed in a rollover accident. doctors considered amputation, but chose pins, rods and screws to save it. woods spent three months in a hospital bed and endured months of painful rehab. >> i don't have any qualms about what i can do physically from a golf standpoint. it's now walking is the hard part. >> reporter: the steep terrain golfers must walk at augusta national is notorious, from the 10th hole to the lowest point of the fairway is a drop greater than the height of the statue of liberty. from the highest point of the course to the lowest is nearly the size of niagara falls. >> you can feel augusta national in your shins, four days, when he hasn't done this in a year and a half. >> fans are elated to see him play. >> it's really just for him. a lot of people can see

themselves in it. >> reporter: friend and fellow golfer, rory mcilroy is not counting out a win for woods. should tiger take home a 6th masters wins, he would tie jack nicholas. writing in part, tiger wouldn't tee it up if he didn't think he could compete and win. in 2019, he remembered how to win. if his body holds up, could he do it again? so the odds makers say 50-1 that he's going to have a record tying win here, but guys, number 15 important to you, also, 15 important to tiger because he has won 15 majors and so the real question is will that number go to number 16. >> kerry sanders, thank you very

much. >> you deserved this gig after all the hurricanes, after all the time we have seen your hair flying and things flying at you on camera, you deserve a weekend at augusta. >> that's nice. >> reporter: thank you so much. thank you. >> have a pimento sandwich for us, kerry. >> jack nicholas in 1986, he won the masters, he was 46 years old. it was thought to be impossible at that age. tiger woods, 46 years old. he's coming off, it's been 14, 15 months since that horrific car accident where some doctors thought he was going to lose his leg perhaps. so even just the walking of augusta for four days, that is really tough, let alone play at the level you have to play at to win a tournament. >> it's really inspiring. tiger woods has had so many chapters, beyond phenom, and then sort of -- sort of the bristly champion, then of course

scandal ridden champion, then the dad, you know, the beautiful scenes of tiger winning and his kids, i don't know if there was a dry eye in the house, and now here we have, and i love this, tiger woods -- >> the comeback. >> underdog. the comeback, a guy we all are rooting for. but it's wonderful. you know, maybe i shouldn't say this, but, you know, you -- because people go, oh, this guy is so blessed, i wouldn't have wanted to be raised the way he was raised with a father as tough as he was. and i understand, he's got a great life, but it hasn't always been an easy, normal ride for tiger woods. it is great to see him here, claire, with his family w his kids. and in this position to come back. >> a tragedy that can turn into triumph is a very all-american

feel good story, and this accident was a tragedy, and i think, you know, can he win this in terms of his physical limitations and how long he has been away from golf, i would probably not bet even at 50-1 odds, but i think it's kind of cool that everybody's rooting for him at this point, and that's got to feel good to him. >> what do you think, mike? >> i think that tiger woods who suffered a life endangering moment in that car crash, i think it's altered the way he is personally. he's less remote. he's more open about who he is. he's more friendly towards crowds and the other golfers, and this is as claire just indicated a wonderful human story. >> even before that accident, he talked to young enjoys on the tour, and they would say he's a different guy. a lot of it is family. he used to be so isolated, dialled in, he's going up and

helping guys with their swing, passing on the business come that he had gained after all of those years. >> you see him as a dad, on the course after the last win, his kids running up hugging him. >> golf is more fun and exciting when he's playing. still ahead we'll get the latest from nbc's richard engel in ukraine, plus we're joined by the great granddaughter of former soviet leader nikita khrushchev who says putin's war will destroy russia. we'll talk about why. we're back in 90 second. about y we're back in 90 second. ot ♪ unlimited cashback match... only from discover. lactaid is 100% real milk, just without the lactose. tastes great in our iced coffees too. which makes waking up at 5 a.m. to milk the cows a little easier. (moo) mabel says for you, it's more like 5:15. man: mom, really?

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in 2014, two men took on a, and thousand tracking another new variant, they're going to have to do it. >> putin's invasion of ukraine. >> all over again. >> like nude and taking peyote or something. >> this spring, the boys are back in town. and they're about to find out nothing has changed. sarah palin is still a thing. tom brady is still a thing. and the queen is still alive as of the time of this reporting, 2014-2. joe biden is president, barack obama as former president, and this guy returning to his iconic

role. >> social media app truth social has failed to gain transaction. >> as terrible businessman. >> 2014: 2, 2022 fast 2022 familiar, rated r for. >> like nude and taking peyote or something. >> i'm really confused. >> what just happened. >> i don't know, what is that. >> president obama's return to the white house yesterday. welcome back to "morning joe," it's wednesday, april 6th. >> we have explained the joke, right, willy. >> it made sense to most people. i was laughing. it was funny. let's dive into the news at the top of the hour here. three minutes past. the president of ukraine addresses the u.n. security council, and describes in graphic detail the horrors against civilians in bucha. he compared russia's war crimes to isis and challenged the u.n. to act or dissolve itself. this morning, new sanctions from the u.s. and western allies as

nato foreign ministers prepare to meet this morning to increase pressure on russia. nbc news chief foreign correspondent richard engel tweeting from the liberated areas around kyiv, and we want to warn you, the images, once again, are disturbing. >> reporter: there's a large gap in the center outside kyiv where an apartment building once stood. residents say hundreds of civilians were hiding in shelters under these buildings, shelters that became tombs still unreachable under the debris. it's unclear how many were killed. deliberately targeting civilians is a war crime, unless russia can somehow prove that this was a military target. just 15 miles from bucha where mass graves were discovered after russian troops were driven out. addressing the u.n. security council tuesday, president zelenskyy wondered if there's a point to having a security

council, if it can't provide security. russia denies that its troops murdered civilians in bucha, a kyiv suburb, claiming ukrainians staged the after math with actors. the russian propaganda doesn't hold up to witness and survivor accounts. in front of their building in bucha, valuen tina and her friend said russian soldiers went apartment to apartment, mostly looking for men. they were breaking open doors with axes and sledge hammers, she says, if you talked about, they shot you. she wanted to show me something behind the building. she's saying one of her neighbors was so frightened because the russian soldiers were banging on his door that he jumped out of that window on the third floor and came landing on the ground, didn't die, hurt himself, and managed to escape. he thought the russians were just going to shoot him dead. desperation. a few feet away was a grave velentina dug with her friend.

a cross, four people here? >> two were our neighbors, we don't know who the other two are but buried them anyway. all four were machine gunned by russian troops. she doesn't know why. please don't let this happen again, we are regular hard working people. down the street, the abrma family were in their home when the russians threw a grenade through the windows and set the house on fire. they started to ask where are the nazis, she says. >> they said we are russians, we came to liberate you. >> the soldier's grabbed arena's husband oleg and i started to shout, kill me too. i have only one husband. >> reporter: hundreds were killed in bucha and the toll is rising, they used scorched earth tactics in its failed attempts to capture kyiv. >> joining us is nina kushova,

the great granddaughter of nikita khrushchev, professor of international affairs at the new school, and coauthor of the book "in putin's foot steps," welcome to the show, it's good to have you. so has his strategies and goals changed? >> what's interesting is a month and a half of this operation, they have been changing goal posts all the time, it's different, all about donbas, it's all about we are defending the russian people, and the footage you showed, clearly russian people are in great

danger. so it's not exactly clear where putin needs to stop or wants to stop, and i think that's what's so dangerous. we don't know what the final goal is. is it the full occupation of ukraine, is it to punish ukraine that ukraine has resisted so much. is it really to come up with some sort of solution for donbas, and leave ukraine alone. we simply do not know. first, yesterday, there was a conversation that by may 9th they would need to finish this operation. it's the victory, the world war victory day parade, and they need to show in that a victory. or it is possible that they would go on because they're not ready to claim the victory yet. >> let me read from the latest opinion piece, entitled putin's war will destroy russia. you're right in part this, if president vladimir putin has shown us anything, it is that we cannot believe the present and all that matters for russia's future is its past. there's no good reason to believe that mr. putin alone is behind the ukraine war and that not even the highest ranking

russian officials have had much of a say. however, it started, the war will probably end in one of four ways, russia could seize control of part of or all of ukraine, but only briefly. in the second scenario, ukraine agrees to recognize crimea, donetsk, lieu, but even as the putin regime claimed victory, russia would remain a global pariah, with its economy permanently scarred by sanctions, abandoned by hundreds of global companies and increasingly devoid of young people. in the third scenario, an increasingly frustrated mr. putin deploys tactical, nuclear weapons in ukraine. in the final scenario, u.s. president joe biden gets his wish.

mr. putin is removed from power. >> we heard in the piece from richard engel. russian soldiers were saying we're here to liberate you. in the list of calculations, he thought ukrainians would greet russian forces, reuniting the soviet empire, you're coming back home into our nation. can you explain a little bit the dynamic of the ukrainian, the way they feel about russia and vice versa, how these two nations view each other. >> well, i mean, they had common history and we know that both russians and ukrainians, early on in the 1800s so they both hail from there, but then history sort of diverges and especially diverges after 1991 when ukraine became independent country, and somehow putin decided to go back to treat ukraine as an appendage, which of course in his view was something that he's going to now also give to ukrainians to come back to the fold of mother russia, and that's what i wrote

in my pieces, that this decision was clearly putin's because it was very much, he's a kgb man. the whole thing was run as a clandestine operation. the security forces were feeding him information that ukrainians are going to surrender, even they did not believe he's going to be so suicidal and basically shoot off his legs and russia's legs for, you know, centuries. certainly decades to come. now they keep running that narrative, but we already know that the narrative completely holds no water. wall to wall, how we're liberating from the nazi regime being installed by the united states. >> how is it prior to the latest extreme censorship within russia that the russian people have

lived for so long under putin, true liberty and with regard to the war, do you think putin will ever stop? >> he needs to win. i don't know what he will constitute as victory, and that's why i gave four rather grim scenarios but he needs to show victory. if victory takes taking full ukraine, yes, but what is really remarkable is that, you know, russia was devoid of basic liberties but also they were quite, until a few years ago, they were quite viable civil society, and in the last few years it started falling down and fell off the cliff completely after february 24th. even for us, who knew how all these freedoms are being limited for a number of years, it still felt like it was a complete iron curtain fell and essentially the great time, the famous time of 1938, suddenly descended because

it really was, for what it was to what it is now, it was still a giant gap, so putin needs to win, and he is going to do everything to show that he did, and anybody who disagreed within russia or outside of it now is treated as an enemy. >> i'm curious about the brain drain out of russia right now. how easy is it for people who see that putin has done serious permanent damage to the russian people by what he has done foolishly here, how many of the people that russia needs are trying to leave russia right now and maybe never to return. >> at the beginning, the first few weeks, because it was such a shock, even for those who were always critical of putin, it was still a shock. i didn't think he would be so suicidal, and actually killing russia, go take russia down with him into north korea territory. a lot of people left, by now,

it's 300,000 people gone. a lot of i.t. people disappeared, a lot of athletes took the citizenship, so russia as brain drain but also talent drain all together. some people still believe this they will come back. some people still think maybe by the summer, it's going to die down. it's getting harder and harder to leave but it's still possible. istanbul, turkey, became the oasis for russian running think tanks and i.t. firms. it is stalinism, khrushchev too. but i have to say the similarity is remarkable, heartbreaking and shocking because at least the people were forced into it. now we allowed it to that happen. >> and of course stalin, a hero. >> there you go.

>> a man who starved, killed millions of ukrainians. >> and i want to say ukrainians and a lot of other people. people from kazakhstan suffered more than ukrainians. he was a mass murderer, and putin seems to be walking in his footsteps. >> can you explain the history, we have talked about it a little bit with russia and ukraine, and putin looking less ward towards kyiv, looking westward towards odesa as two former capitals of this greater russia, can you explain to us and our viewers, how important historically those two cities are to putin. >> it's a long story. >> it's years old, isn't it. >> thousands of years of history, but it is.

>> it all started with katherine the great. katherine the great is a favorite of putin, the greats are his favorites. it's not about the soviet union. the first vladimir, and so it goes that far, but also so with katherine the great she took those original ukrainian territories, which were called the, and said well, you're just a little too unruly, militant and unruly, let me make it the new russia, so it goes back all the away, and putin showed he's a historian. he likes to frame himself as a great historical figure. he takes from history whatever parts he wants and says this is how we're going to play it out. there's a historical precedent to that, and now varocia was

part of the russian empire, and they went to the ukraine republic, republic of ukraine within the soviet union, so putin now says to fault for this, because this was the parts of russia, russia, and we want it back. in some ways he's claiming territories, and that's why i think he's so obsessed and now less obsessed but would be again i'm sure with kyiv because that's the beginning, and of course the great irony and the great tragedy of this, a tragedy and comedy together is that he wants to liberate kyiv and with that, he bombs kyiv. that is a shocker. >> one other thing. >> this is fascinating. >> just historically. i went back and read some of doctor brzezinski's books a few weeks back when people were making this sound like this was

just vladimir putin, just heartbroken because the soviet union collapsed, so in the early weeks of the war, i went back and i read dr. brzezinski's writings from the '70s and '80s, when you read the words on the pages it's as if dr. brzezinski is talking about vladimir putin 20 years before he gets into power. and the russian characters and leaders need him to be a disruptive of a system so they're not a junior partner of the united states, and expansionism and insecurity have long been the characteristic of russian leaders which of course these are the things that we constantly say about vladimir putin. this, it's only because the soviet union broke up. as dr. brzezinski was explaining in the early '80s, this goes back, like you said, a thousand years. >> and it's interesting, i just

reread him too. i'm writing an article about why russia ends with the security forces running state rather than doing himself. so i was rereading his articles and i was fortunate to know him a little bit, and so we always agreed on that, that russian history -- that russians are all about i-and my book which you kindly showed has a double eagle. russia has a giant superiority complex, eleven time zones, it's an empire and it has a soul, and a giant inferiority complex. if treated with disrespect, it's going to fight back, and it's not just putin. if you look at khrushchev, stalin, if you look at all the greats, peter the great, another hero of putin, he went to the west, no, no, no, i'm very tall, i need to be respected, i need to be recognized. putin has another problem, he's not that tall, but once again, i need to be respected, i need to be recognized.

russian history is an empire, it's going into the safe cycle all over again. >> history of narcissists. >> nina kruschova. >> we have none of those in america. >> the great granddaughter of nikita khrushchev. fascinating. >> please come back. it was great having you here. >> thank you, absolutely. >> great history. three russian cosmonauts, by the way, they weren't making a political statement when they boarded the international space station last month wearing yellow uniforms with blue accents, the colors of the ukrainian flag. many observers suggested they were protesting the invasion. but according to nasa astronaut mark vande hei, that's not the case. instead they were paying tribute to their university, bowman moscow state technical university which has blue and yellow in its emblem. they were blind sided by the

amount of attention their uniforms received amid the war in ukraine. up next, we'll play for you a top u.s. general's sober warning about the war in ukraine and where it could go. also ahead, the state of georgia passes a bill based on the big lie. we'll explain the new election powers a state agency will soon have. plus, a well respected and long time lawmaker from michigan is retiring. we'll show you his emotional speech from the house floor. we'll be right back. is emotional speech from the house floor. we'll be right back.

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the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff is warning that the war in ukraine could go on for years. >> but i do think this is a very protracted conflict, and i think it's at least measured in years. i don't know about decades but at least years for sure.

this is a very extended conflict that russia has initiated and i think that nato, the united states, ukraine, and all of the allies and partners that are supporting ukraine are going to be involved in this for quite some time. >> i feel like that's the key sound bite of the day yesterday. given the fact that this could start escalating and this could spin out of control beyond the borders of ukraine. >> yeah, so admiral, let's talk about that. obviously i think like most americans, like most freedom loving people across the world, i know i want i'm sure just like you, want to see as many weapons get into the hands of ukrainians as possible. as many powerful russians so they can push the weapons back. when i start hearing language like that, i think about the guns of august, barbara tuckman's classic, everybody rushes into war, cheering crowds

across europe, and then you have the battle where a million men died in one battle. you know, people keep seeing these images on television every night, thinking things can't get worse. things can get worse. tactical nuclear weapons, chemical weapons, and i'm just curious your thoughts. i'm not so sure vladimir putin is not baiting the united states, and nato to go in there because right now he's being humiliated, his military is being humiliated, his regime is being humiliated by ukrainians. he needs to make this a fight against the united states, doesn't he? >> he does. particularly, joe, he's got base to worry about inside russia, and he will play to that base. we've seen that play book in other places in the world.

other authoritarian leaders. externally, he wants to play to the nations that have not signed on to team democracy, if you will, china, india, for example, although a democracy has not condemned this invasion. so he's got two audiences he's working and joe, you're right to worry about the risk of escalation. and world war i is a pretty good example. single assassin's bullet takes out the crown prince of the empire in 1914. by 1918, the empire is gone, the ottoman empire is gone, the russian empire is gone, so big doors can swing on small hinges, and thus we ought to be concerned about escalation, certainly. but we cannot be frightened of our shadows here, and say to ourselves, we're not going to

lean in where appropriate, so the president has a kind of narrow sea to sail here, and i think the administration has done a pretty good job pushing the military equipment forward. we just talked about that. there's more they can do. we've talked about fighters, for example, we've talked about cyber, we can talk about antiship missiles to prevent an amphibious assault. there's more that can be done diplomatically. i think president zelenskyy is right to push so hard and so many different fronts, and we need to address this in international world these war crimes that are unfolding in front of us, and again, economically, sanction the oil, sanctioning gus from russia to europe, that's under consideration. sanctions on shipping, russian shipping around the world. then finally, it's all about the information, the videos, telling the story coherently, globally,

all of those together, i think, are the plan, and i think we need to push hard on it, recognizing the risk of escalation that you pointed out up front. >> and if the consensus is, admiral that the plan is that russia wants ukraine, is the plan changing. i'm thinking of not just to the point joe just made, but the president's visit, and he sends missiles into lviv nearby. senators are visiting and there are missiles hitting 15 miles away. is this unusual to you that he would sort of push the envelope? >> not unusual. we're going to see putin continue to do that, and he's got a big bag of dirty tricks behind him that he's going to continue to reach into. you saw a sample of it in the video coming out of bucha, terrorizing the population. he's going to send in chechnyaens, syrians, the wagner

group, group of mercenaries, he may try an amphibious assault at the dark end of the spectrum, cyber, maybe a chemical weapon. he's got a card to play from a deck of dirty tricks and we need to be ready to respond as we go. coming up, can president biden bring blue collar workers back on board ahead of the midterms, he's set to address members of a key union today, many of whom backed donald trump. we are joined by the president of that organization along with the u.s. secretary of labor when "morning joe" comes right back. n "morning joe" comes right back

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lawmakers in georgia passed an election bill on monday that gives the state bureau of investigations more power over the elections. the bill authorizes the gbi to launch investigations into allegations of election fraud, potentially putting the results of an election in limbo. the agency would also have subpoena power over election-related documents. voting rights advocates argue the measure could intimidate voters and election workers. republican governor brian kemp is expected to sign the bill into law. >> you can see why they're doing this because the election was the cleanest in american history. >> and you got to clean that up. >> 12 recounts of georgia, and everyone showed. so of course, what are you going to do, first thing you got to do, we've got to change the voting laws to maybe make them less effective. >> they keep digging on this, and they've got their own problems, republicans, with some

of the senate candidates, people are very concerned about those seats, perhaps. >> of heisman trophy winner, herschel walker. >> georgia bulldog great, herschel walker. >> where's he from, where does he live? >> might be texas, which is not georgia. >> but that's the least of his problems. democrats are about to tell the voters of georgia. jet blue is offering to buy spirit airlines for roughly $3.6 billion. in a statement, jet blue said the merger could lead to lower air fares, as it tries to compete against american, delta, united and southwest. we should note back in february, spirit agreed to merge with frontier airlines. another republican lawmaker who voted to impeach former president trump following the january 6th attack is retiring. fred upton who has represented southwest michigan for more than 35 years announced his retirement yesterday on the house floor. upton has a long record of bipartisan legislation and is

well respected on both sides of the aisle. here's part of his emotional speech. >> even the best stories has a last chapter. this is it for me. i've done zillions of airlines back and forth, signed over a million letters, cast more votes than anyone in this chamber, and by most accounts succeeded to make a difference. arthur brooks wrote about three traits most important in life, honesty, compassion and faith, i would like to think those yardsticks were passed along to me by my parents watching on c-span now. somebody asked my wife amy, what would be the next chapter, she said, and they lived happily ever after. indeed we will. >> upton says the latest redistricting map was the key factor in his decision to

retire. not the backlash over his impeachment vote. of the ten house republicans who voted to impeach the president, four are not seeking reelection. >> i served with fred. a great guy. he was willing to work with anybody on either side of the aisle, just a really really good guy. and we wish him luck. but yeah, it's, you know, not the same place it was when he got to congress. it's not even the same place it was when i left congress. it's changed pretty radically. >> he's a vanishing breed. there were ten republicans who voted to impeach donald trump, four, including young guys who have been around a while. adam kinzinger, anthony gonzalez have decided to step away from congress. could vladimir putin be investigated for war crimes in ukraine. we'll talk to a former chief prosecutor of the international criminal court. what the evidence shows, and what the world might do about

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with xfinity, it's a way better way to watch. we didn't get everything we wanted. that wasn't a reason not to do it. if you can get millions of people health coverage and better protection, it is to quote a famous american a pretty big deal. >> now, i'm going to sign an executive order, and barack can remind you, it's a hot mic. >> former president barack obama returned to the white house yesterday to promote changes to the affordable care act.

they were exchanging some inside jokes there. obama also gave democrats some advice when asked about the upcoming midterms. >> mr. president, what do you say to democrats worried about the midterms, what do you tell democrats worried about the midterms. >> we got a story to tell, just got to tell it. >> joining us now, chairman of the democratic national committee, jaime harrison. we've got a story to tell, we just got to tell it. >> we got to tell it. it was so good to see beau and joe together again. those two just bring a smile to your face. it was about politics and focusing on the american people, and that's what joe biden and kamala harris are focused on right now, and we have to tell that story. >> what's the story? >> the contrast is an important one because, joe, you know, elections are about contrast. you've had a president who came into the office where we didn't have vaccines available. schools were shut down. people were losing their jobs, and getting kicked out of their homes, and guess what, he rolled up his sleeves and said i'm

willing to work with republicans, but i'm going to do what is necessary to deliver for the american people. we got vaccines in arms, we put money in people's pockets. we delivered for the american people, and this economy has, i mean, 3.6% unemployment. 8 million jobs in 14 months. we made sure that the schools were let open. the reason why we could get through omicron wave and not close our schools, most of our schools stayed open is because of the money that joe biden and democrats put into preparing our schools to deal with that. so we have so much to tell. >> so the question -- >> democrats have delivered, and we're going to continue to do it. >> the question that hovers over all of this is the price of food, gas. >> the current situation. >> it's never been easier to find a job, more openings than we have had in a generation, and unemployment at 3.6 and president biden has rallied the west against russia, all of those things are true, but when push comes to shove, and someone squeezes the trigger at the gas

station, and it's rolling up to a hundred bucks, that's all they see in front of them. what can the president, democrats do about that? >> i think the president has already started doing things in terms of the gas prices, releasing reserves and to try to bring down the cost as well. but this is the thing, joe biden has an actual plan in order to bring down costs. making sure that we are producing more things at home, and also looking at what are the other major expenses that people have in their lives that they need to drop down. we just had a bill on the floor of the house to bring down the cost of insulin from $4,000 a month to $35 a month. 193 republicans voted no. i live in the diabetic belt of the country in south carolina. i know folks, republicans, democrats, independents, purple people, blue people, white people, all have diabetes, and they all have to suffer those high costs. why in the world is the

republican party going to stand in the way of that? so we have to find plans. the republicans are trying to block that, but you know what, joe biden is hell bent on doing all he can to deliver. >> one of my sons is diabetic, and i have people come up to me all the time who knows that he is, and they talk about just not being able to afford insulin. the prices skyrocketed, and it's the same insulin it was a decade ago. >> yes. >> and health care costs are at the center of the which brought president obama back to the white house yesterday, but there's some outside forces at play that make it difficult for democrats. we were talking earlier in the show about how this war in ukraine could last years, and that's probably going to keep energy prices up, if that's the case. we have a warning from deutsche bank this morning, suggesting their predicting a recession in the united states in 2023, post midterm, but potentially on the horizon, how do democrats get those.

>> we continue to figure out how we can create more jobs, good paying jobs, union jobs in this country so that alleviate the pressure off the american people. that has to be the focus. that is the focus of joe biden. i was just with him at the white house a few weeks ago, invited to lunch. my wife told me, she said, now, you got an invitation to the white house, don't get a big head about it, and i can tell you, there has not been a president that i have seen that is so focused, because he talked the entire time about, you know, i know those people in pennsylvania, it's hard right now for them, and we've got to find ways to alleviate the pressure. i know he's focused on that, and he's also focused on ukraine and i think he's done a good job thus far in that leadership. >> dnc chairman, jaime harrison, thank you very much for being on this morning to talk about the state of our politics today. coming up, what's driving the day on wall street, cnbc's andrew ross sorkin is here.

>> he came back for more. >> that went off the rails. >> i saw it here go down the side. >> he may not come back. >> we'll be right back with more "morning joe." be right back wie "morning joe." our courts are not working for everyone. they favor the rich and the powerful, when they should be protecting our rights and our future. our next supreme court justice needs to understand all of us, and provide equal justice for all of us. judge ketanji brown jackson has a proven record of protecting the rights of all. she will be the first black woman to serve on the highest court in the land. historic. she will be a justice for all.

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i promise you, you will see people of color, lower income people, people who have been denied a chance in the past. isn't that what you are all about? giving people skills and training so they have a chance at an opportunity. >> u.s. commerce secretary raimondo speaking at the legislative conference. and in a few hours president biden will address those same leaders. the organization represents more than 3 million skilled craft professionals in the united states and canada.

joining us how is nabtu's president sean mcgarvey and also u.s. secretary of labor marty walsh. good to have you both. sean, i'll start with you. if you could lay out the goal of the conference and also what you think that president biden needs to do to win back support of many of these members who voted for trump. >> well, you know, the president is already doing what he needs to be doing to win back our members. the legislation and the policies that he has enacted since he's become president are some of the single greatest things that have been done in this country for the poor, the working class, the focus, the laser-like focus on the things that matter at the kitchen table from the rescue act to the bipartisan infrastructure bill. not to mention the signals that he sent by appointing people like martin walsh as secretary

of labor. those things are being communicated, our members even the trump supporters are saying hey, wait a minute, this guy is really doing something for us. so we're on our we just need to keep the drumbeat going and ket through all the fake news. >> talk about the challenges facing the workforce the next two or three years. what are some of the issues that matter the most to you and your working members? >> for the building trades it is about economic development and jobs. the private sector investments in the pipeline and with the investment in the bipartisan infrastructure bill that the president got done after decades and decades of presidents saying that they would do it and never got done, what we're focused on now is what the president and secretary walsh asked us do, and that is to expand on our apprenticeship programs, focus on communities of color, women,

formerly encars rated veterans, fell our training centers up and get them through a registered apprenticeship program and into the middle class through these investments and that is what we're focused on. >> secretary walsh, what is your message today to labor union officials and to the membership about what the biden administration has done? obviously president biden has always fashioned himself sort of a blue collar guy from delaware. what is your message today? >> yeah, i think that the president more than fashions himself as a blue collar guy. he talks about how proud he is of his family and where he came from and who he represented in the senate and now as president. i'll talk to my brothers and sisters that i was a part of, i was at the convention as a delegate many times years ago. but i'll talk about what the administration needs for the future of america, talking about the infrastructure law that was passed and the men and women being represented by the

leadership today. building those roads and broadband. sean talked about the apprenticeship, pathways into the building trades for those who haven't had chances like this in the past. and really opening doors up. sean is humble. he's done this work a long time in creating the pathways and opportunities. and president biden will come in today and talk about really this group of folks here have always been in joe biden's corner. president biden will talk about what has to be done still moving forward and i'll talk a little bit about it. i'll be careful what i say. i can't take too much away from the president. when i was asked to speak, i have to be very careful in what i say. i'm not taking something from the president. >> claire mccaskill, one of the focuses here is to try to get more women and minorities involved. and they will be announcing a child care program for union members. and that certainly will be appealing. >> absolutely. and i think this is something that is really a friction point

in this election. can we get these rank and file members back into the democratic column and a lot of that will depend on how efficient this administration is getting those infrastructure dollars out there. because the building trades guys, those are their jobs. >> u.s. secretary of labor marty walsh and president of north america's building trades union, sean mcgarvey, thank you both so much. this is an issue for years people have been asking how is it that -- and how is it that perhaps working class union members vote against their own self interests. and i remember when i was campaigning, i would go on the campaign trail and i would just bash unions and the afl-cio. and back in the day when they come to fix your hard line, guy goes hey congressman, shut up, we're all voting for you. don't -- you know, economically i was very conservative but i

guess there was this cultural connection. talk about how democrats need to break back through and make working class voters their voters again. how do they do it? >> if you look at what tim ryan is doing in ohio, he is like executing the playbook on reminding rank and file that it was the democratic party that is protecting their union rights. their paychecks, their benefits. the unions in this country built the middle class. they really were the basis of people having money to retire and go on vacation and buy a bass boat. we got sidelined by the culture wars which really hurt in many -- >> still sidelined. >> still sidelined. >> i would suggest maybe more sidelined now for working class voters than ever before. >> you may be right, joe. so what we have to do is stay focused on the economic issues that joe biden is delivering on especially for these