staffing issue leading to prices going up so high. >> despite that, airlines want to keep removing masks from passengers and the cdc extending that for a couple of weeks. hope, thank you so much. thanks to all of you for getting up "way too early" on this tuesday morning. "morning joe" starts right now. russia didn't know how much we cherish our freedom. we've been defending ourselves against russia much longer than they, invaders, planned. we have destroyed more russian weapons and military equipment than some armies in europe currently possess, but this is not enough. freedom must be armed better than tyranny. western countries have everything to make it happen. the final victory over the tyranny and the number of people saved depends on them. arm ukraine now to defend freedom. >> ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy speaking in english

yesterday in his nightly address continues to plead with the west for more weapons. good morning and welcome to "morning joe." it is thursday, april 14th. let's begin with ukrainian officials saying their forces damaged a key russian warship in the black sea. the governor of odesa, port city in the south, said ukrainian forces struck the cruiser with two missiles causing serious damage. russia's defense ministry confirmed the ship suffered damage and its crew was evacuated but claimed it was because a munitions detonated on board as a result of a fire. nbc news has not been able to independently verify either claim. the ship called the "moskova" is the flagship of the kremlin's black sea fleet. it made headlines in early days as it demanded the surrender of

ukrainian forces on the small island in the northern black sea -- remember that? sparking a very colorful response from the ukrainians. >> a colorful response from -- you know, i'm just curious, willie. i mean what is worse, getting hit by somebody else or blowing your own ship up? >> i know, are they proud of that? >> yeah, it is six of one, half dozen of the other, but i think i would rather just say, okay, we took a good hit instead of saying, yeah, our guys are blowing our ship up now. >> i'm not sure their explanation is better than probably what happened. we have come to understand that everything we hear from russia is a lie, so we can take it with a grain of salt. whatever happened to it, as mika said, it is the flag ship of the black sea fleet so an important ship to them. strategically important but symbolically important for european to take out that ship. no one better to talk about it than retired four star navy

admiral james stavridis. also the host of "way too early" and white house bureau chief jonathan lemire. also we have the host of the "power corrupt" podcast. good morning to you all. admiral, what is your assessment of what happened to the ship based on everything you have read and everything you have heard from people around the navy and the military? >> well, your first year at annapolis, the thing they teach you is never let your flagship blow up, so this is a pretty bad moment for our russian friends. you know, this puts a smile on the admiral's face because it is a win either way. exactly as you said, you know, the russian army has shown us over the last six weeks they are incompetent and badly led. it is like the navy said, wait, hold my beer, let me show you what we can do and blow up our

flagship. so that's one explanation, is incompetence. the other one, which i like even better and i lean toward as an explanation, is that this is probably what is called a neptune anti-ship missile, which the ukrainians have in their inventory. i think they've used it very effectively, as you said, not only as an actual attack on a flagship -- and this is quite remarkable, 15,000 ton ship evacuated. not only the practical effect but the symbolic effect here is quite powerful, not just in the public venue but inside the navy. they will not be enthusiastic about pulling the other black sea ships forward any time soon, so it is a good morning in ukraine. >> yeah. it reminds me of the scene, the last scene in "hunt for red october" where the white house official says to his russian counterpart, wait, wait, excuse me, are you telling me you lost

another ship? so like you say, either way it is not good news. i want to expand, to pull out a little bit here because, again, we are talking about russian moves in the future. they're going to counteract what's been happening. they're going to consolidate their positions in the donbas. we get clint watts here, and poor clint every day for the past six weeks has been saying, okay, the russians are going to move troops from this direction, they're going to meet up, except they never meet in the middle. this goes back to something we talked about yesterday, culture. it starts at the top, whether it is an athletic program, whether it is a business, whether it is the united states navy. what in the world, how can you help us better understand how russian military culture has collapsed so much and how it is so much worse than what we expected six weeks ago? >> well, you start with -- and i think it is a russian proverb that fish rots from the head,

and you begin with high-level leadership. frankly, the fact that putin has resorted to bringing in this ghoul of a general, aleksandr dvornikov, who is the butcher of syria, tells you that he is deeply dissatisfied with his current leadership on the ground, many of whom have been shot or blown up by the ukrainians. i think we are up to ten dead generals from the russian army. they have more generals in the ground than on the ground in combat. >> by the way, admiral, just so you know, i know you didn't go to west point, but it is the first thing they teach you on your first day at west point. if you are fortunate enough to become a general, do not have the bad taste, the bad form to get shot and killed. we've had other generals coming on just saying, i would never allow myself to get killed just because i would never want to humiliate my superiors. >> exactly. so, number one is bad

leadership. number two, we talked about it before, is failed logistics. you know, military staying alert here, but the professionals are studying logistics while the amateurs are focused on strategy. meaning you can draw all kinds of lines on a map, but if you can't deliver ammo, fuel, heat, all of that armies need, if you can't get that forward you will not execute that strategy. third and finally, joe, the culture is failing because of the operations they've conducted. terrorist attacks effectively in chechnya and syria, this is not an army trained to conduct real significant operations. having said all of that, quantity has a quality all of its own as the saying goes. so i am concerned, and i'm sure clint is concerned and you will hear from another general, a friend of mine, steve twitty,

later. everyone is concerned about the buildup of forces in the southeast which gives the russians real mass. i'll close with this, but this is why it is so important that the administration has sent a very significant aid package that's designed to blunt that kind of attack, announced yesterday. it is a very good package. >> so, admiral, if the russians have bad leadership, if the russians have miserable, failed logistics, if the russians have a culture that rots from the head down, then why are we to believe that anything is going to be different as we move forward? aren't more troops, troops that, by the way, from everything that we hear are demoralized and deserting and don't want to fight this fight. why isn't it more of the same? why isn't putin sending more troops to the donbas, just throwing good money after bad? >> he is doing it as an act of ego, and yet, joe, for all of the things we have talked about

mass itself, tanks, long-range fires, you know, there's a lot of combat power that's built up there in the southeast. having said that, personally i wouldn't bet against the ukrainians at this point, particularly if the administration continues to flow the weapons that they need into their hands, and you see it every time you see president zelenskyy speak. these are determined soldiers, these ukrainians, and behind them are their families, their elders, their cities, their civilization. i wouldn't bet against them. >> to the admiral's point, shortly after president zelenskyy's plea for more weapons that we played at the top of the show, it is said that the white house pledged $800 million more weapons to ukraine. the two spoke on the phone for nearly an hour during which biden laid out details of the

delivery. it will include 300 switchblade drones, 500 javelins, 11 helicopters, 40,000 rounds of artillery and much, much more. in a statement discussing his call with zelenskyy president biden wrote yesterday, quote, we cannot rest now. as i assured president zelenskyy, the american people will continue to stand with the brave ukrainian people in their fight for freedom. zelenskyy said he was, quote, sincerely grateful for the support. jonathan lemire, this is just, you know, a part of what will be a long list of, hopefully, if you are speaking for volodymyr zelenskyy, weapons that will be constantly coming their way because it is not going to end any time soon. >> yeah, and it seems like every time president zelenskyy and president biden speak that aid package increases, which, of course, is the point from the ukrainian leader. we were later -- white house officials read out to us

afterwards that obviously the ukrainians asked for stuff they will need in what we anticipate being a heavyset-piece-style battle in the eastern part of the country, the donbas, which now will be the focus of the war. they needed javelin missiles, they need other equipment that can take out tanks and things of that matter. white house officials including president biden asked zelenskyy, what about helicopters, could you use helicopters, and the answer was yes and now we know some are heading that way. there had been some debate, we talked a lot about the polish migs, the soviet planes. some equipment still has not gone that way, but certainly we are seeing here a grow inklingness from the u.s. and the west to basically give the ukrainians what they're asking for including the switchblade drones, 300 of them now, which have been so effective to this point in the war. white house officials tell me that president biden made clear to his ukrainian counterpart, like this isn't the end. we are going to keep this spigot open here and keep flowing arms to you as we anticipate the violence is only going to

increase once the conflict in the east really begins. >> and, in fact, there's going to be stepped up weapons production. the united states government meeting with defense companies in the united states saying, we're going to need more of this stuff, a war-time effort here at home to help ukraine. meanwhile, in another failure for vladimir putin potentially in a major development for nato, finland and sweden are moving closer to joining the alliance, which would end decades of neutrality for both countries. their respective prime ministers held a joint news conference in stockholm. the finnish said they could decide on an application in a matter of weeks. as new york times reporter steven erlinger point out, he writes this, he has solidified it. instead of dividing nato and blocking its growth he has

united it. brian, we have talked about the military miscalculations made by vladimir putin, the underestimating of the ukrainian military, the will to fight from the civilian population but it is bigger than that. if one of the efforts was to break apart nato, to cleave off some of the states, he has done exactly the opposite. >> yeah. i think if you zoom out and look how things used to be for vladimir putin versus how they changed in the last month there's a dramatic shift. so,, you know,, nato and the u.s. were at odds during the trump administration. the brexit vote created a rift within europe. things were happening in western democracies where countries were tearing themselves apart internally. now you have a unification of nato, you have new members trying to join nato that have been long standing neutrality partners of nato. i think it is something where when you think about it from the perspective of putin it is

accelerating a shift. china will emerge as the more powerful partner with russia. it was probably going to happen already but this is going to accelerate it. i think it is worth pointing out that before the war, before the economy shrunk in russia, its economy was 25% smaller than italy's and 25% larger than mexico's. it was not a big gdp. now it is going to be even more -- it is going to shrinking more, it will be more isolated, it is going to lose energy buyers. i think it is a major, major miscalculation that is going to shift geopolitics for decades to come, not just the coming months. >> and strategically, admiral, if you look at it again, you know nato so well, it was sort of your business for a very long time. could you ever have imagined having sweden and finland, having sweden and finland. if we look at this map, you

already have the balkan states, lithuania, latvia, estonia, but now finland. i mean it just cuts right into russia from the north. could you ever imagine that vladimir putin would have done something that would put himself in a position where he's literally surrounded, on the border by nato countries? >> yeah, his head has to be exploding at some point. you know, i commanded swedish and finnish troops in combat, they deployed with us to the balkans, they were part of the efforts in libya. these are exceptional troops. not just the soldier. their air, their naval forces are remarkable. their combined defense budget is about $15 billion, which is one

fourth of the russian defense budget. so in the single stroke of this idiotic invasion of ukraine, putin has achieved something desired by nato for decades and that's before we get to germany with a massive increase in the defense budget. again, vladimir putin thinks of himself as a clever tactician. he is a lousy strategist and he is falling further and further behind. >> yeah, and some of the countries just mentioned that border russia are standing in solidarity with the people of ukraine. the presidents of four nato countries, poland, lithuania, latvia and estonia, traveled to the embattled country yesterday. the heads of state met with ukrainian leader volodymyr zelenskyy in kyiv to discuss the ongoing war. just look at this visual. over and over again. it mocks the russians just by being there. >> you know, it is so unbelievable, mika, you have

duda there. duda is a guy though a year ago, two years ago so many people in america considered troublesome because he was part of a movement that was pushing illiberal democracy. that has all changed. he has become one of the united states' greatest allies, one of freedom's greatest allies over the last six weeks. vladimir putin has done things that the west was not able to do. he has united nato. he has united western democracies in a way that was unimaginable six weeks ago. >> like in lock step, world leaders are marching into kyiv, the city that vladimir putin wanted to take, and they are saying, nope, here we are and you're not. it is incredibly symbolic. they visited also one of the nearby towns where russian troops are accused of committing atrocities. those leaders are now demanding accountability for what they

call war crimes carried out by russian forces. >> so, brian klaas, let's continue on that point. you and i have had conversations about deeply disturbing illiberal strain spreading across the united states. not so long ago in the republican party vladimir putin had approval ratings i believe in the 40s, much more popular than any democratic leader in this free country of ours. you look to hungary, of course, still having its illiberal problems. but you look to poland, a country that was very much on the razor's edge and was moving more putin's way, moving more orban's way than moving the way of the west. i don't know about you, but as somebody who believes this has been one of the great fights inside western democracy, i see the last six weeks in poland as an extraordinarily positive

development that this country is moving in lock step with other western democracies and, my gosh, making it look like the alliance is as strong as ever. >> yeah, i think that this war has clarified something that i have been arguing for many, many years, which is that the 21st century is going to be defined as a battle between democracies and autocracies, democracies and dictatorships. i think there's a lot of people within democracies for a long time who deluded themselves in thinking they can make tain the status quo, we can work with people like vladimir putin, we can destroy democracy internally and there won't be consequences to it. that's come crashing down in the last six weeks. i think you will see a global realignment where autocracies cluster together a bit more. i think china and russia will continue to be staunch opponents to the western world view of democracy. i think those in the western camp who flirted with illiberal

democracy will be drawn back to the fold. we have to decide which side we stand on, and i think the last six weeks have been an extremely clarifying moment within democracies and around the world that there are two sides and that we have to decide not just who we're going to stand with but also who we're going to stand against. i think that has become crystal clear in poland, in hungary, although i still think there's lots to be worried about in those countries. they haven't, you know, flirted with putin as much as they have in the past. i think we should see signs of hope and i think we should see signs of a global realignment between democracies and autocracies and the defining fracture of the 21st century. >> jonathan lemire, the symbolic precedence seeing those presidents, including president putin and president boris johnson a few days ago standing in kyiv where vladimir putin thought he would be standing overseeing a military parade, a victory parade, and he would install his own government. now to see all of these leaders

is extraordinary, and it raises the question you are reporting on this morning, will president biden make a visit or will at least some high-level cabinet official from the united states go to kyiv very soon. >> yeah, willie, i broke the news there are ongoing high-level secret conversations within the white house right now about exactly this subject, to send a u.s. delegation shrouded in secrecy to kyiv. there is a possibility that it could be the president or vice president, but officials tell me more likely a cabinet-level visit, either secretary of state antony blinken, perhaps secretary of defense lloyd austin would make that trip. they stressed that no trip would be announced in advance for security reasons. it may not happen at all due to the fluid nature of war. if suddenly kyiv were to come under greater threat. but they are watching the reception here that the european leaders have received going to ukraine, what a powerful symbol that is, how it has heartened zelenskyy and his top aides and the ukrainian people, and the u.s. wants to be part of that as well. they want to, again, reinforce

deep ties with ukraine, reinforce how the alliance across europe is working together. it is another pledge of support, and i'm told that within days or weeks, admiral, that very well could happen. would you agree with that decision to send someone? who would you suggest it be and what message do they bring? >> well, i'm obviously very happy to see this conversation under folding. i think it ought to be minimum cabinet level official. i think the president ought to consider it. having said that, my vote would go to lloyd austin because not only is he secretary of defense but he's a former four star general, a very capable war fighter. he is someone who is a big, imposing figure, and i think it would send a very powerful message to vladimir putin. so lloyd austin, if you are watching, you have my vote. go to kyiv. >> i've got an idea.

general austin and president biden, i think that would send a message, mika. >> all right. retired four star navy admiral james stavridis, always grade to have you on. thank you very much. associate professor of global politics -- >> wait, we have to ask brian a question. >> -- at university question, london. >> brian, how are your twins looking? how is it going to be? >> it has been a rough start, but if we get our pitching under control we will be all right. >> you think it is a rough start for you? wait until we play highlights from the yankee's game last night, you won't believe this call. >> okay. >> by the way, we still all have to talk about -- i mean i don't know. i don't know. your pitcher is pitching a perfect game after seven innings and you pull him? i guess your twin -- >> i have to say if you are a twin's fan, for the game they should have kept him in. it was a historic moment to try it and it was a mistake. >> thank you, brian. still ahead on "morning

joe," we'll explain all of this ahead. if you are traveling any time soon you need to keep packing that mask. >> oh, good lord. >> it is a good idea. >> it is a good idea. >> why the cdc is still mandating face masks on planes and public transportation. >> it is a good idea if you want to, two years after shots and boosters, if you want to wear a mask you should be able to wear a mask. >> we will talk to dr. scott gottlieb. >> if you don't want to, you shouldn't have to and the fight for ukraine. the top spokes men john kirby is our guest. we will ask about the russian warship that was all but blasted out of the water. you are watching "morning joe." we will be right back. there is another matter, one that i'm reluctant to -- >> please. >> one of our submarines was last reported in the area of the grand banks. we've not heard from her for

some time. >> andre, you've lost another submarine?

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♪♪ oh, my god. look at that beautiful view over lower manhattan. todd, mika, singing "hello, it's me" from, what, 1973? >> new york city. 29 past the hour. >> look at that. hold on. let's just -- let's just drink that in, as willie likes to say. soak it in, drink it in. >> uh-huh. it is pretty. beautiful. >> that is gorgeous. here is a look at some of the other stories making headlines this morning.

the most wanted man in new york was caught yesterday in manhattan. frank james is charged as the shooter in the attack on a subway in brooklyn on tuesday. nbc news correspondent ron allen has more. >> reporter: a collective sigh of relief in new york city. >> frank, why did you shoot all of those people? >> reporter: 62-year-old frank r. james is in custody, charged with a federal crime after the bloody attack on a brooklyn subway station during rush however, governor kathy hochul announcing the news. >> the suspect has been arrested. >> reporter: the arrest comes after a 28-hour manhunt. police releasing several images of the suspect and appealing to the public for help. in a bizarre twist, law enforcement officials say it was james himself who calmed the crime stoppers tip line, saying he heard police were looking for him and he was at a mcdonald's in manhattan's east village. he said his phone was dying so they should come quickly. officers rushed there but he was already gone. they found james nearby and he

was taken into custody without incident around 1:30. >> we were able to shrink his world quickly. there was nowhere left for him to run. >> reporter: this video from early tuesday morning shows james entering the subway in brooklyn, struggling to get through the turnstile before going through an emergency exit. two hours later, investigators say he opened fire on the crowded train. ten people were shot, 29 total injured, including kids heading to school. one victim, just 12 years old. police say james then used the subway to flee, getting on a train across the platform, riding one stop, shoulder-to-shoulder with some of his victims. he later entered a station in another brooklyn neighborhood. law enforcement now piecing together his past. >> he is known to us and has ties in wisconsin, ohio, pennsylvania, new jersey and new york city. >> reporter: james was born in new york and has nine arrests here dating back to 1992. charges including criminal sex

acts and possession of burglary tools. police say he purchased the glock 9 millimeter handgun used in the attack at an ohio pawn shop in 2011. there are dozens of posts from james on social media, many filled with profanity-filled rants. >> i'm on my way to philadelphia. >> reporter: he talks about traveling from milwaukee to philadelphia where police say he rented the u-haul van found a few miles from the scene of the attack. investigators still haven't determined the motive on why the suspect attacked the 36th street stop. that station is once again filled with commuters. >> the city runs on the subway. >> reporter: and you feel perfectly safe? >> yes. >> nbc's ron allen reporting from new york city for us there. you know, jonathan lemire, a couple of things to say. first of all, the new york city police department is extraordinary in its reach. if you commit a crime in this city, they're going to find you whether you're an international

terrorist or this guy. the other part is, my gosh, we are so lucky that it looks like everyone shot in that tight subway car is going to survive. i mean that's nothing short of a miracle, to have sprayed bullets into a small subway car and everyone to survive is extraordinary and it is not -- you know, not without the help of the civilians who acted so quickly. we heard the man there saying, yeah, i'm going to ride the subway. we talked about this yesterday. we were all on the subway that day. there was that sense of community, it is still crowded, but regular new yorkers going to school and going to work who stopped and perhaps saved some lives there. >> yeah, law enforcement experts say that because he detonated the smoke canister and donned the gas mask it made it hard to see and a hard to aim which is why they feel a lot of the wounds became leg injuries and we're so grateful everyone is going to survive. a few more details from investigators, i mean this suspect did ride the trains repeatedly in the day after the shooting. that's sort of a terrifying

thought. we are all grateful he did not strike again. certainly he believes he has clear mental health issues here. a lot of the videos are rather unhinged. he targets mayor adams, complains about his homeless policy. it is unclear the origin of that particular complaint. it did look like he turned himself in, but there was always two moments here where new yorkers rallied around, also spotted him around the same time he called police. a few witnesses recognized him as well, called police. there's a wonderful scene, a 21-year-old, a recent immigrant, who speaks five languages conducted interviews on how he helped turn in the guy. to put a bow on it, i was on the subway yesterday on the six train and new yorkers were not talking about being in fear. they were not talking about shooting. they were rather just complaining about how slow the service was and why was the train not going express, mika. so it feels like we are, indeed,

back to -- >> took one day, yeah. >> we are back. they will be complaining, of course, later on today about the new york yankees. >> okay. >> and the call that wasn't. >> all right. >> the home run that wasn't. >> talk of the train. >> it is the talk of the four train. also, i mean, all of the trains talking about it. we will talk about it the next block, mika. you cannot get around it. >> okay. >> kershaw pitching a perfect -- willie, how many people have thrown a perfect game in the history of baseball. >> 23 or 24. >> you said the next block. >> somewhere around there. about two dozen. >> a really small number. we had one going yesterday, six out away, and dave roberts pulls him. it is crazy. we will talk about that. >> coming up -- >> also some other stories about politics and foreign policy mika wants to get to. >> a republican senator has a plan that could actually help democrats. we will explain that. and a voter fraud investigation leads election

officials to former president trump's chief of staff, mark meadows. >> come on, mark. come on. >> mark seems to be the center of the universe. >> you register to vote in the house you live in, you vote. >> not really. >> in that precinct. >> it was a trailer that someone else lives in. >> by the way, there are a couple of guys in the villages, they voted several times. >> he wouldn't do that, would he? >> it is going to shock you. it appears they're from maga nation. >> oh, my gosh. i hope he doesn't cry. we'll explain that as well. we're back in a moment. inner voice (furniture maker): i'm rubbing the arms of my chair... ...admiring the craft and detail i've put into it. that way i try to convince myself that i'm in control of the business side of my business. intuit quickbooks makes it easy for you to get a complete view of your business. so you can sit back and... ...relax.

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now to that controversial decision by the dodger's manager yesterday in minnesota, making his season debut on the mound for los angeles dodger's ace clayton kershaw was pulled from the game after pitching seven

perfect innings. he threw 80 pitches, 13 strikeouts in those seven innings. three-time nl cy young award winner agreed with the decision to abandon what would have been just the 24th perfect game ever pitched in the major leagues and first in a decade, since 2012. kershaw, who struggled with a left forearm injury last season told reporters after the game, quote, blame it on the lockout, blame it on me not picking up a baseball until january. my slider was horrible the last two inning goes, it was time. l.a.'s reliever would allow minnesota's only hit of the game in the following inning. the dodgers went on to beat the twins, 7-0. obviously no one wants to get yanked out of a perfect game, but they said after the game, we talked after a six, i hadn't pitched a simulated game, even seven was a pitch. i said get me at 85 pitches or

after seven innings. kerr saw, whether he means it or not, says he agrees with the decision of dave martinez. >> i don't buy it. i don't buy it at all. here is the thing, lemere, he is at 80 pitches. it is not like he had 100, 110. i like how he says, my slider wasn't doing as well. he was pitching a perfect game, would have been the 24th person in the history of baseball since, what, 1903 when they started the world series. dave roberts yanks him. it just doesn't -- only 80 pitches, what do you think? >> what else was kershaw going to say? he's not going to show up his manager after the game. it was cold yesterday, it was an abbreviated spring training, there was the lockout, there was the injury last season. those are the reasons they're citing. but go for mortality. you could be the 24th pitcher. >> ever. >> he wasn't at 100, 105

pitches. that could have been hard, it is probably the right call, you pull him then. he only was at 80. he had plenty of time. for a sport that talked a lot as it came out of the lockout about wanting to be for the fans, deliver for the fans, show them excitement, what would have been more exciting than a future hall of famer going for a perfect game? he should have done it. you and i know he is a red sox hero, he stole the base in 2004, he started the comeback. >> yeah, he did. >> but he has come under scrutiny for his managerial decisions at times including against the red sox in the 2018 world series. he has a ring, the 2020 title, but this one will be a decision i think he will come to regret. >> you know, people like bob gibson would pitch 15, 16 innings, go out in back in between innings, chop wood, lift weights, drink beer, go back out, keep pitching, sometimes just run the steps. i mean these guys, pitches seven innings, 80 pitches, gibson would do it in the first three

innings of the game and go more innings. it was an incredible game. what a comeback. yankees couldn't contain the blue jays have rad jr. he slugged three home runs. a feet his hall of fame father never accomplished once. two were hit off -- the first had a little help from aaron hicks who let go of what would have been a home run -- hate to see that. >> hate when that happens. >> the only thing better is when jose conseco is as it when it is over the fence. we are at the bottom of the eighth. jays are up, 6-4. let's break now to yankees radio announcing john sterling with a call of how stanton hit a home

run that tied it up. here we go. >> here's the 1-0. swung on. there it goes. deep left center. that ball is high. it is far. it is gone. but caught. >> it is gone. >> at the wall. caught at the wall. >> boy, i thought that was gone. >> it is gone, but it is not gone. could i hear it again? tj, can you rewind that for me. >> that's mean. >> does tj know how to rewind? >> here it is. >> it goes high. it is far. it is gone. >> go, go, oh! but caught. >> at the wall, caught by tapia. i thought that was gone. >> all i can say, willie, if i'm a yankee's fan, right, and i'm driving up 95 coming home and i -- i hear this call on the

radio, i'm starting a class action lawsuit against him. >> stop it. >> how do you do that? >> you're silly. >> you can't do that, willie. >> in fairness, the ball was gone, just into the left fielder's glove. that's the great john sterling on the radio call, he has been the voice of the yankees for a long time and we love him dearly. it reminds me growing up listening to phil rasuto. my dad and i love the voice of him. he was getting up there when i was a young kid, he would look down and say, look like they got a new pitcher in there white. bill would politely say, no, that's just a guy warming up in the bullpen, things like that. scooter would go out when the rain started coming down, he would go out to the car to roll up the windows, beat the traffic on the bridge, leave the game during the seventh innings. >> we love these characters. they're all new york.

>> yeah. >> by the way, as you look at your screen i want you to guess which of the four of us found that clip and literally sent it around to everyone who works on "way too early" and morning john. >> couldn't stop. it was rapid texting. >> that was jonathan lemire. i notice you didn't send it to me. yeah, you did. >> you did. that was like 4:00 a.m., 5:00 a.m.. >> yeah, i think i ignored that. >> if you watch the side of the home run, it was barely close. it was on the warning track. i'm going to watch that all day. i also want to add one other thing, joe, to your point here. >> oh, boy. here we go. >> your point earlier about kershaw and how bob gibson would go out back, slaughter some animals and come back out and pitch more. this a real thing. there was a pitcher, ray caldwell, 1919 who pitched for the cleveland team. he was, this is real, struck by lightning on the mound in the

ninth inning. this is the graphic they ran last year as they told the story, the cleveland broadcast. struck by lightning in ninth inning of the game. parenthesis, finished game after being revived. kershaw after 80 pitches was taken out. >> that's what i'm talking about. when pitchers were tough, they were tough guys. let me tell you something, we have one problem though, willie. we've been in contact with some of president zelenskyy's people, trying to set up an interview. unfortunately, this morning lemere sent that clip to president zelenskyy as well. >> oh. >> he had a good laugh. >> embarrassing. >> wow. >> he had a good laugh. >> he did not have a good laugh. >> he understands when an evil empire is prematurely celebrated. >> oh, we got to go. we got to get to break. >> just hit the rails. >> do we have a clip of fonsi

jumping the shark? can we get back to it, please? >> yes, we can. former white house chief of staff mark meadows has been stricken from the voter roll in north carolina. the move comes as the state election officials investigate if the former trump aide committed voter fraud in the 2020 election. according to a report in "the new yorker" meadows registered to vote in north carolina in september of 2020, listing his residence as a small mobile home in macon county. the report said, quote, meadows does not own this property and never has. it is not clear that he ever spent a single night there. >> no, he -- he actually -- he then claimed a squirrel house one county over. >> meadows was removed from the voter roll after election officials found documentation that he lived in virginia and voted there in 2021. >> i'm confused. >> state law says voters who cast ballots from other states lose their residency in north carolina.

meadows has been a major proponent of president trump's lie. >> wait, he voted twice? >> it appears, yes. that he won the 2020 election, actively discussing strategies to overturn the results. a spokesperson for meadows declined to comment. >> if he committed voter fraud, he has to be the only person, the only republican who committed voter fraud. >> okay. >> it just doesn't happen. >> there's a florida man who is a supporter of former president trump. >> democrats, too. it is not republicans. >> who has pleaded guilty to voter fraud. >> strike that from the record. >> he is one of two men in central florida who admitted to voting in two different states during the 2020 election. a registered republican in florida, he also cast an absentee ballot in michigan. >> my god. >> voter fraud is a felony, but both men will avoid jail time if they complete 50 hours of community service and a 12-week

adult civics class. interesting. >> and if they prove they haven't cologned himself. >> national political reporter for nbc, mark caputo. he knows all about florida. the villages, the villages, trumpers in the villages. caputo, who ever could have seen this coming? >> voter fraud in florida? who has heard of such a thing. we have it every year but not a lot. it is like they're shoplifting in stores but stores aren't going broke over that. a few years ago they did a voter fraud investigation at the request of donald trump and rick scott in 2016, saying that it is like ballot stuffing in broward. found out it is not true but by then everyone moved on. >> let's talk about your reporter rick scott, his plan to help the republicans take the upper chamber. a lot of republicans, a lot of democrats afraid it might backfire. he has been pushing his plan to rescue america.

democrats say it is a plan to tax the poor. tell us about it. >> well, actually i mean the plan does say, look, if you are not paying income taxes currently you have to pay them. that means it is probably a tax increase on like 47% of people. when this is poll tested in various ways democrats are like, wow, rick scott's plan to rescue america might rescue some of our hopes in the midterms because they find this polls incredibly badly. even republicans don't like it, the elderly don't like it. i think in the democratic senatorial campaign committee's research 65% of people said it would make them less likely to support republicans if they knew republicans supported this plan to raise this amount of taxes. >> mitch can't be with this, can he? >> the interesting thing about scott releasing the plan is right beforehand mitch mcconnell, the leader of the republicans in the senate, was saying, look, we're not going to have any plans, we don't need to run on them. rick scott was like, hold my beer. watch it, i don't think he

drinks it. hold my coffee. he came up with this plan. it is not just taxes they're talking about. he wants to cut, sunset, end, eliminate every federal program every five years. what does that mean? ending medicaid, ending medicare, ending social security, ending the affordable care act and the protection for people in there with existing conditions. that polls badly as well democrats have found. that's why you are seeing a raft of democratic ads starting to attack republicans over this, making them wear rick scott's plan. >> so let me get this straight. raise taxes on 47% of the population and end social security, medicare in five years. boy, that sounds like real winners. i don't get it. what is he thinking? >> i would be remiss to say when i asked scott this question when he was unveiling this plan he was like, well, look, if the programs are very important congress will merely reup them every five years. i'm not sure congress has the capacity to act, but the likelihood any of this stuff is going to take place with congress is very slim.

>> let's talk about ron desantis, and he has a proposed new congressional map that would create four more republican-leaning districts and wipe out democrat's national redistricting advantage. tell us about it. >> right. the florida legislature is gop-dominated. they passed congressional maps and desantis didn't like them because he didn't like what's called a minority access seat that stretches in north florida. it was basically drawn to ensure there was a black representative in the house from north florida. he demanded it be eliminated. the legislature refused. he vetoed the maps. he is hauling them back in a special session this time. he has proposed his own maps. now, florida gets an extra seat due to reapportionment or apportionment due to the census and our population growth so we will have 28 seats now. we have 27 currently. currently the split is 16 republicans, 11 democrats. under ron desantis's plan it is 20 republican seats and eight democratic seats. so it is a shift of republican

advantage from five currently to 12. it is rather big. now, privately a lot of republicans are saying, look, this is probably a partisan gerrymander. if you look in the tampa bay region, what happened to crist's seat, they're polling and stuffing them into a democratic seat in tampa. the florida supreme court ruled it is part of a gerrymander but desantis is going through with it. the legislature is throwing up their hands, look, if he wants to pass these maps, he will be hauled into court, maybe he will be deposed but it is his problem, not theirs. >> nbc's mark caputo, thank you for your reporting on this. >> never boring in florida. >> perfect timing to bring in national urban league president and ceo and former mayor of new orleans, mark moreal. also with us, msnbc analyst maya wiley. she will be leading up the

conference on civil and human rights in may. mark, yesterday on the show we began a conversation about your national urban league's new annual report on the state of black america and voting rights is a big focus of the report. how does that dovetail into what we were talking about? >> mark, if you look at the map, they are taking away, desantis is trying to take away a minority seat that, of course, came into effect as many did across the country because of the voting rights act. >> what desantis is doing is absolutely outrageous. it is exactly what in our report we talk about, in the plot to destroy democracy, engage in racially motivated, partisan gerrymandering. the courts have got to stop desantis or the legislature in florida needs to grow some backbone and shut down such a partisan power grab, a racially motivated power grab byron desantis. in our report we talk about the

plot, four tactics. there they are. gerrymandering, suppression, election sabotage and intimidation. election officials are reporting they've been politically threatened, they've been physically threatened because they simply wanted to certify the 2020 election. so this plot began back in 2008 and it has taken a number of steps. it has been enabled by a number of supreme court decisions. it took an accelerant and it was put on steroids on january 6th, 2021, because post-january 6th there was just an avalanche of voter suppression laws and americans must stand up for democracy here at home if we stand up for democracy in ukraine. this attack by those who want to narrow the electorate, who want to stop some people from

participating, we have got to stand up to it. that's why this report is indeed a call to action. >> so, maya, i want to pick up with where mark just talked about there, about the change in the voting laws in a number of states post-january 6th as republicans used donald trump's false claims of voter fraud as justification to tighten things at the ballot box. the president has said this is the greatest threat to democracy since the civil war, but federal legislation on the effort has stalled. there doesn't really seem to be any momentum right there. what can be done to protect the franchise? >> you know, i think the national urban league report is extremely important, including some of the things it points to. if you look at mark's list, you know, it tells you every avenue we have to follow at state level right now and into the future that says, one, we have to protect the people who are ensuring that the vote is fair, who are being intimidated. that can happen through any number of ways.

there's already a network that exists to try to protect poll workers who are being intimidated. there are ways we have to ensure that young people, elderly get out and vote and know how, know their rights, because so many of these laws that mark is referencing are efforts to make it more difficult for people to vote who have the legal right to vote. so making sure people understand what they have to do, how they have to do it, and that we have young people getting out and getting to communities, particularly helping elderly. one thing that we don't talk about enough is that, you know, in 2020, when we made it easier for folks to vote with mail-in voting, for example, the people who benefited the most were people who are disabled, are people who are elderly, people who struggle to get to the polls for any number of reasons that have nothing to do with their right to vote. so i think the point is we need to say to every american, you know, when we block the ballot for anyone we are blocking the

ballot for a whole bunch of people. this is something we can do and we can do it together at state level. by the way, what that also helps us do is build the argument and the momentum with voters to get their elective representatives to do what is right in congress. >> we have reached the top of the hour. it is 7:00 in the morning here on the east coast. we're speaking with maya wiley and mark moreal, the head of the national urban league. mark, looking through your report since the national urban league started looking at this index in 2005, there have been gains made by black americans in certain areas but also fallen back in others. so how do you work through that balance of progress, yes, on one hand but also actually slipping backwards on some others? >> that's why the index looks at a range of areas, so it balances progress in areas where there's been retrogression.

let me point out something i think was important, and that was the modest gains during this long expansion from 2009 until 2020 in narrowing the median income between blacks and whites, also slightly during that expansion. what it demonstrate it is we need an expanding economy plus policies that focus on lifting up working people, those in poverty and the aspiring middle class. those numbers changed, oh, so slightly. we won't know until next year probably what impact the recession truly had on the gap between blacks and whites in america. i am looking forward to the mission, but for now what the takeaway is that the gaps in american life between blacks and whites seem to be fixed in suspended animation, which is why we need continuing intentional efforts to close it

and to close the gaps, are better for the whole nation. that's what i want to emphasize. >> yes. >> the benefit to everyone if we close particularly the economic gaps. >> all right. we're at the top of the hour right now. so much to talk about regarding russia. before we get there, i just have to ask you a quick question, just from 30,000 feet. democrats control the house. democrats control the senate. democrats control the white house. republicans have just said openly, aggressively, they're not only going to make it harder to vote, they are going to change who counts the votes because they didn't like the fact that the votes were counted fairly in 2020. what do you say to democratic leaders who expect democrats, expect people of color, expect black voters to go out and vote for them again in 2022 and save the democratic candidates like they saved democratic candidates

in 2020, if those democrats can't get together and protect their right to vote and protect -- make sure that their votes are counted fairly? >> well, you know, one of the things that is true about the black community and has always been true is black folks look to see who is working with the black community on the issues that impact them, just like all communities do. you know, one of the things that's important for democrats to continue to do is show up in communities, listen to what's getting in people's way and continue to be a partner in solving it. i think we have seen that in any number of places, and we're going to continue to see it. democrats have to be very vocal. they have to be very aggressive and they have to be showing up. >> all right. maya wiley and mark morial. thank you both very much for being on this morning. >> we want to turn now to the war in ukraine where ukrainian officials are saying their forces damaged a key russian warship in the black sea.

the governor of odesa, a port city in the south, said ukrainian forces struck the cruiser with two missiles, causing serious damage. russia's defense men industry confirmed the ship suffered damage and its crew was evacuated, but claimed it was because ammunitions detonated on board as a result of a fire. nbc news has not been able to independently verify their claim. the ship is named after the russian capital and is the flagship of the kremlin's black sea fleet. it is not a good look for that one to go down. >> not a good look. >> it made headlines in the early days of the invasion as it demanded the surrender of ukrainian forces on a small island in the northern black sea, sparking a very colorful response from the ukraine. >> it was colorful in the very least. willie, as admiral stavridis said last hour, the first thing you are taught when you go to annapolis, they teach you not to

have your flagship blown up. >> yeah. >> but the russians are saying they didn't know -- the ukrainians did not flow our flagship up. it was our gross incompetence that made us blow our own ship up. either way, i think as you have said and as others have said this morning, not a very good look for russia. >> no. as admiral stavridis said this is important strategically, however it happened, strategically to take out the flag ship for the black sea fleet for russia, but symbolically for ukraine to have taken out another piece of artillery, another ship, and to show they are taking on and winning in many ways an army far larger, a navy larger than their own. joining us ex retired general steph twitty. he served multiple combat tours in iraq and afghanistan and prior to retirement in 2020 was deputy commander of the european

command. thank you for being with us again this morning. what is your assessment of what you have seen and heard around the destruction, however it happened, of this ship? >> yeah, thanks for having me on the show. if this is confirmed, this is another significant defeat for the russians and another victory for the ukrainians. this neptune missile is a missile that was developed in ukraine in 2021. it is a highly capable missile. but on the other hand, this ship, as you said, is the flagship of the black sea flet for the russian navys. it carries a tremendous package. it has an s-300 on it, the surface-to-air missile system. it has torpedos on it. it has anti-ship capability on it. it has a lot of capability. that's why they call it the flagship. this is a huge blow for russia.

>> the humiliation is two fold, between that happening and also world leaders walking the streets of kyiv and showing up in support of the ukrainians. newly released satellite images show hundreds of russian military vehicles repositioning in eastern ukraine. the image is released by u.s. technology firm max-r reveal tanks and artillery near kharkiv, the second largest city. the images show them positioned in farms and fields in western russia, five miles east of the border with ukraine. other pictures show russian military vehicles in crimea in the southern city of kherson, likely used as points to help resupply and reinforce moscow's operation in the east. the images provide further evidence that russia is massing forces for its new offensive in eastern

ukraine. meanwhile, russia's defense ministry claimed yesterday more than 1,000 ukrainian marines surrendered in the besieged city of mariupol. nbc news has not been able to independently verify that claim. it is with that military advance in mind that ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy again pled with the west for more weapons. he spoke in english yesterday in his nightly address. >> russia didn't know how much we cherish our freedom. we have defends ourselves longer than the invaders command. we have destroyed more weapons and military equipment than some armies in europe currently possess but it is not enough. freedom must be armed better than tyranny. western countries have everything to make it happen. the final victory over the

tyranny and the number of people saved depends on them. arm ukraine now to defend freedom. >> shortly after the flee from president zelenskyy, president biden pledged an additional $800 million in weapons to ukraine. according to the pentagon the delivery will include 300 switchblade drones, 500 javelins, 11 helicopters, 40,000 rounds of artillery and much more. in a statement discussing his call with zelenskyy, president biden wrote this, quote, we cannot rest now as i assured president zelenskyy the american people will continue to stand with the brave ukrainian people in their fight for freedom. zelenskyy said he was, quote, sincerely grateful for support from the united states. general twitty, a new $800 million package of military aid, also stepped up intelligence

sharing and the united states government going to american defense contractors and saying, step up your production. that has become a wartime effort here in the united states to support ukraine. >> absolutely. i'm glad to see the administration, they're pushing more offensive capability to the ukrainians now. this package of artillery which will be much needed, the package that you see in there also has armored personnel carriers. tanks are supposed to be coming in from czech as well as germany. all of these things you see pulled in now is for offensive capability for the ukrainians. with the donbas fight they are getting ready to endure. we are starting to see.

we are starting to see it going into places like kharkiv, into the donbas region of donetsk and it will enhance right now. as we watch that you will see the russians start to move into the plainlands. you heard about the large maneuver that will occur. they will move into the plain lands to start what we call large-scale maneuvers to develop ukrainian forces. >> general, if you are there in charge of strategy, knowing the weapons that are coming in, the biden administration is saying they are seeing russian military troops suffering from low morale and said, quote, we know throughout the forces in various units and various places they continue to have morale issues,

knowing all of that is before you, general, what is your strategy in the donbas? what should the ukrainians do? >> i anticipate that the russians will try to come behind them. they will probably come down through dnipro and connect with forces in mariupol. if that occurs it will surround forces and that is not what ukrainians will want. they will essentially be cut off. they will have to fight what we call a mobile offense. they have to be flexible and adaptable. the intelligence that the u.s. provides to the will be key

because they will want to track the route of movement from the russians to ensure the development doesn't happen. what i will tell you is this fight is winnable by ukrainians. they will have to be on their toes because the russians have the equipment advantage. continuing to be on offense by ukrainians, continuing to be audacious, such as attacking the ship they allegedly attack will be things they continue to do to be successful in this fight. >> general, you outlined what could be the russian strategy there and certainly we know some of the advantages in that region and the type of warfare that may be coming, supply lines shorter to russia from this particular front, but aren't there particular challenges as well.

isn't this the same poorly lead military, it is more difficult to move tanks in what is known as ukraine's muddy season, the russians lost a lot of generals. don't they have challenges as well? this is not a foregone conclusion? >> absolutely. the same challenges exist. you just mentioned them. poorly lead is key. the general just assigned as the leader of the theater, that's just one general. the other generals that have been there since the beginning of this war still remain. they are not strategic thinkers, they're not operational thinkers. i don't think they can get the job done, to include the noncommissioned officer corps. you have a noncommissioned officer corps that's not a professional non-commissioned officer corps and within the ranks you have poor morale and the soldiers are untrained.

you will see the same problems persist. that bodes to the advantage of the ukrainians. >> all right. retired u.s. army general twitty, thank you very much for joining us this morning with your insight. just ahead we will speak with pentagon spokesman john kirby. also coming up, the accused subway shooter will face a federal judge later today. we will have a look at what led up to his capture yesterday afternoon. plus, you're going to need a mask on public transportation for a little bit longer. we'll ask former fda commissioner dr. scott gottlieb if the cdc is making the right call. "morning joe" is coming right back. where do you find the perfect project manager? well, we found him in adelaide between his daily lunch delivery and an 8:15 meeting with his client in san francisco. ...but you can find him, and millions of other talented pros, right now on upwork.

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a live look at myrtle beach, south carolina. a pretty day starting out there. more headlines this morning. the cdc is extending the federal mask mandate on planes and public transit for two more weeks as covid cases climb around the country. the decision follows weeks of pressure from airlines, including a last-ditch push yesterday to roll back the mandate. nbc news national correspondent miguel almaguer has more. >> reporter: the two-week extension of the federal mask mandate on public transportation impacts tens of millions of americans every day. with the order set to expire next week and now extended into next month, passengers in the air, on the ground and riding the rails will still need their masks. the cdc citing a rise in new infections. >> it isn't like things are static. things are moving. we are seeing an increase throughout the country.

>> reporter: often a point of controversy and confrontation. the faa has received complaints of over 1,100 unruly passengers just this year, more than half related to wearing a mask. after weeks of pressure, airlines lobbied for change. >> it is time to let the masks go and let people decide. >> reporter: airlines for america urged the cdc to end predeparture testing for international flights and domestic mask mandates, saying neither restriction is currently supported by data and science. >> it's outlived its usefulness at this point. we don't understand why this continues for airlines and does not continue for restaurants, bars, sporting events, take your pick. >> reporter: with airlines and americans eager to return to normalcy, the face of travel remains the same for now. >> nbc's miguel almaguer reporting there for us. let's bring in forther fda commissioner dr. scott gottlieb.

he is a member of the board of directors at pfizer. his recent book is called "uncontrolled spread, why covid-19 crushed us and how we can defeat the next pandemic." dr. gottlieb, good to have you back on the show. what about this decision, two more weeks of wearing masks on airplanes and public transit. obviously the airlines had been lobbying for a long time to get rid of the mask mandate, up until yesterday on tv before the decision was made. from your point of view from a health perspective, does it make sense to mandate masks on flights at this point? >> we can lift the mandate. i'm not surprised, we are in a surge. i suspect we are deeper into the surge than we know because we are not measuring the infections that are occurring. i suspect we are only catching one in seven or one in eight that are occurring because a lot of people are testing at home.

i think we are deeper into the surge. in two weeks things may look different on the pace of the infection in the u.s. the question is what do they do after the two weeks and there's scuttlebutt they won't lift the mandate entirely but require them to wear masks when they come on to and off the planes. those are the highest risks, when you are boarding or coming off because you are congregating without the good air filtration. if they do that, try to extend a mask requirement it will be hard for airlines to enforce and i think that will get a lot of public back. >> what about the point we heard in the piece which is true, i can go into a crowded new york city restaurant or a concert in madison square garden, be on top of a bunch of other people in an enclosed space without a mask on. what is unique and different about an airplane? >> what is unique and different is it is under the federal government's jurisdiction right now. i think the federal government is having a difficult time peeling back the last real vestige of the mitigation that they imposed.

so they pushed it out two weeks, sort of wait and see on what happens with the ba.2 surge. i suspect they will lift it after two weeks. i don't think they will push it out unless the situation dramatically changes. the question is whether they lift it to entirely off. being in an airplane is safe in terms of the air quality. the filtration is very good but only good once the engines start and the air is moving. the two most dangerous points in time are when you get on and off the plane when the air filtration isn't on typically. if you are someone at risk you can wear a high-quality mask. one-way masking does work. i think that's where we ought to land. the recommendation to individuals who feel they're at risk, to wear a high-quality mask particularly when they're getting on and off. you don't have the high quality air filtration running when you are getting on and off, but maybe on the whole flight if you are someone who feels at risk as a passenger. >> you said before the delta variant you said now would be a good time to relax some of the

guidelines because if we have a surge, which we did later, then when you tell people they need to put masks back on they will be more willing to follow you. doesn't this undercut the authority of federal health officials when, again, as willie said, as the package said, as you said, people go into night clubs, people go into restaurants, into sporting events, they go to places where there actually isn't as much circulation as when they're on the planes and they don't have to wear masks. they walk into airports and immediately they don't walk through the airport and doors. you have people coming up, acting like it is march of 2020. it just seems absurd at this point, doesn't it? >> well, look, to a degree. i think what would corrode public trust and the ability to implement these things if the situation changes is to reimpose them right now. i don't think there's any

indication we should reimpose a mask requirement. i think what philadelphia did is more corrosive to the ability to reach back to these tools later. in the case of the airlines it is a question of when do they take it off, and as long as they're clear it is a two-week extension and set clear goalposts of how and when they're going to lift this i don't think it is corrosive. i think the difficulty right now is there's uncertainty, is it really coming off in two weeks. if they made a clear statement that said, look, there's a ba.2 surge, we think cases are coming down, if they continue to come down like we expect, we will lift this in two weeks. that probably would have been a better statement. they sort of said that but not quite. i think that would have been a better statement, but i don't think the two-week extension in and of itself will undermine their ability to reach back to the tools later. >> let's talk about where we are now as opposed to where we were a year ago, where we were two years ago. a lot of -- over 200 million americans have had two vaccinations. they've had a booster shot. you look at the immunity in the united states.

you look at all of the people who have had this and you look at the difference between the united states and, let's say, china which had a zero covid tolerance policy. aren't we in a much, much better place now than we were even a year ago where our federal officials just could say, listen, if you have immune issues, if your kid is young and they haven't been able to get a vaccine, wear a mask, you know, you can do it voluntarily, but for the rest of the population aren't we at a radically different place than even a year ago? >> you are right. you are seeing the policymakers shift the onus on to the individual to make the decision to take the risk. probably 60% of the public has had an omicron variant at this point, and we are seeing that the continued evolution of this virus, it is continuing to mutate quickly, faster than the

fastest flu, but the continued evolution is in this. we are in ba.2 and we are seeing up to ba.5. it means that the genetic mutations we are seeing will be more predictable and we can formulate vaccines against it. >> i'm curious about the latest versions of covid, doctor. we are told they're extremely contagious. what does that mean? how long do you have to be exposed to someone, in what capacity to catch it? does masking prevent that or would it be better to let it sweep through because my understanding is people are still dying from this? >> yeah, you're better off not getting covid, that's the bottom line. >> right. >> especially if you are someone who is vulnerable to it. look, this is spreading through more of an airborne-type of mode of delivery rather than droplet

transmission, meaning that it seems to be extending in the air for longer periods of time, for longer distances. it is more measles like than flu-like in terms of the transition pattern. there are two new varieties circulating in new york that seem to be more contagious than the b2 that we've seen. there's this b6 mutation that seems to give the virus more ability to defeat the vaccines, at least the antibody response induced by existing vaccines. it is unclear if they will spread here. they have other mutations that make them less transmissible so it is unclear how transmissible these will be. this virus is evolving ways to make it slightly more contagious each time we get a new version of the omicron strain. again, the fact that the mutation is happening within the omicron lineage, that's what we thought would be the end game

here, that the continued mutation of the virus would occur within one of the lineages. i thought it would be delta, then omicron came along. now the continued mutation does seem to be within um cron. it probably argues in favor of switching to an omicron backbone vaccine. as you know pfizer and moderna are working on it, i serve on the board of pfizer. i think we will switch to an omicron backbone vaccine if the mutations continue to be in this, and that's what we've seen so far for five or six months lately. >> you talked about people still getting sick and dying, but the numbers are down for people dying. you are on the board of pfizer, before i read this from the "wall street journal" breaking news that just broke. pfizer says its covid-19 booster generated a strong immune response against omicron in children ages 5 to 11 in a

late-stage study. obviously a lot of parents will take great relief from that breaking news from the "wall street journal." what can you tell us? >> look, the vaccine, as you know, is authorized as a three-dose vaccine for adults, it is authorized for 12 to 17 now, and this was looking at 5 to 11. this was a study looking at the third dose delivered to children, ages 5 to 11, to make sure the vaccine is safe and effective. it is going to produce an additional antibody response providing clinical value. there are children 5 to 11 right now based on cdc recommendations are getting a third dose of vaccine. there are children with preexisting health conditions that are immunocompromised. this would support a filing by pfizer for general availability for an additional dose for children 5 to 11 for parents who want to get their children boosted. in fact, pfizer will be filing for the authorization for the third dose based on this data. >> all right. former fda commissioner scott

gottlieb. thank you so much for being on this morning. coming up. after becoming twitter's top shareholder, elon musk said he would not seek a seat on the company's board of directors, but now he wants to buy the whole thing. i guess elon does do what elon wants. >> elon does what he wants to do. >> elon does what elon does. >> whatever that means. >> we will explain why the tesla ceo wants to take over the social media site. >> and so, willie, so you interview mark wahlberg. >> yeah. >> and so blown away by your interview. >> yeah. >> he says, i want to do it again. actor mark wahlberg joins us with a look at his new film, "father stu." the only instructions we've been given, he said more willie. >> okay. >> just want willie to ask questions. >> you know, mark wahlberg was my guest on "sunday today." this movie is amazing. it is the extraordinary true story of a sort of amateur

boston who becomes a priest while suffering from a degenerative muscle disease. he worked for years to try to get this made. no one would make. it is not a big hollywood movie with superheroes and all of that, so he paid for it himself. he is getting tons of acclaim for this. it is a great story, a great performance by mark wahlberg, and he joins us just ahead on "morning joe." i'm retired greg, you know this. people are taking financial advice from memes. [baby spits out milk] i'll get my onesies®. ♪ “baby one more time” by britney spears ♪ e*trade now from morgan stanley.

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♪♪ 37 past the hour. there's the pier -- >> beautiful. >> -- in naples, florida. people are out jogging. you need to get up and go. it is time to get up. elon musk is offering to buy 100% of twitter. >> he can't make up his mind. >> the billionaire is willing to pay $52.20 a share for the social media giant, saying it needs to be transformed. in a security's filing musk

writes i invested in twitter as i believe in its potential to be the platform for free speech around the globe, and i believe free speech is a societal imperative for a functioning democracy. according to cnbc, twitter shares jumped 12% in premarket trading after closing at $48.85 a share on wednesday. ahead in our 9:00 a.m. hour we will speak with andrew ross sorkin about the development and what it means. >> if he does end up buying all of twitter and he agrees to let people come back on that spread lies about health care, that spread lies about elections, election falsehoods, that allows slander. >> right. >> well, it is just really the greatest argument to radically change section 230 to make sure -- >> for sure. >> -- that companies that spread

hatred, that companies that spread lie are held accountable, and that we don't put protective bubble wrap around those who own social media companies. i'm all for free speech, but let's stop protecting the billionaires and trillions that run these companies that can spread hate speech and lies and do the sort of thing nobody else can do without being hauled into court. i'm all for the free market. i want to know, why doesn't the free market apply to facebook? why doesn't the free market apply to facebook or twitter? why doesn't the free market apply to other social media platforms? the free market needs to apply to those platforms. all right. people say they're for free speech, i'm for free speech, that's great. >> the same way that -- >> but let's make sure it is free. let's make sure we don't have the billionaire's social media, silicon valley protection plan in place. let's actually have free,

unadulterated speech, and if people spread lies, spread hate speech, spread slander, they're held accountable as if, i don't know, they were americans. >> up next, defense department spokesman john kirby joins us live from the pentagon to discuss the latest on the fighting in ukraine. we'll ask him about that major russian war ship taken out of the black sea as well as the new military aid on its way in the u.s. "morning joe" is coming right back. to be a thriver with metastatic breast cancer means... asking for what we want. and need. and we need more time. so, we want kisqali. women are living longer than ever before with kisqali... ..when taken with an aromatase inhibitor or fulvestrant in postmenopausal women or in men with hr+, her2- metastatic breast cancer. kisqali is a pill that's significantly more effective

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♪♪ welcome back to "morning joe." a beautiful day in washington, d.c. the sun rising and just the white house looking gorgeous at 7:44 a.m. if you have to be to work at

8:00, i don't know. >> you might want to get -- >> maybe you should get out of bed. maybe you should start. i mean i don't know. i, of course, get out of bed at like 5:55 a.m.. >> lucky you. >> but, wow. that's a great place where you can get up. i think it was jfk that said he liked the place very well, very nice digs, and you get to walk to work. let's bring in right now press secretary of the pentagon, retired rear admiral john kirby. admiral, it is so good to talk to you. we spoke to another admiral this morning. we said the first thing you were taught when you get into the officer ranks is don't let the flagship go down. apparently they did not teach russian admirals that same thing. what can you tell us? >> here is what we know. we don't know everything, joe. this is one of three cruisers in the russian fleet. she was operating about 60 miles or so south of odesa and we know

she suffered an explosion. it looks like from the images we have been able to look at it looks like a pretty sizable explosion, too. we don't know what caused the explosion. we know the ship is operating under her own power. she looks to be heading more to the east, probably heading into port. our guess would be sebastopol for repairs and that's all we know. we have seen social media reports that maybe a ukrainian missile hit it. we can't rule it out. we just don't have enough information right now. >> what can you tell us about the significance of getting anti-ship weapons to the ukrainians for the next stage of the battle? how important is that that the west supplies them with anti-ship weapons they need? >> i would tell you that coastal defense in general, joe, is important right now as the russians try to press what little bit of advantage they might have in the donbas in terms of just numbers. so they're focusing very heavily on that east, and that's why mariupol is so important. if you look at a map you will

see mariupol lies on the sea of azov at the very eastern part of ukraine. it is a major economic port for ukraine. also it would give russia should they be able to take it a land bridge down to crimea and certainly allow them to come north into the donbas. you can understand why maritime capabilities are important here and why the ukrainians want some sort of coastal defense capability including coastal defense missiles. one of the things we announced in the big $800 million package was some coastal defense unmanned vehicles, unmanned surface vessels we can give to ukraine to help them with some of the defense capabilities in the sea of azov. >> so yesterday morning i think it was we had breaking news, maybe it was the night before we saw the breaking news about the robust package. the next morning we heard that the helos were not going to be included in that, yet the president had a call with president zelenskyy who offered the helos.

could you clear this up? could we be providing helos to the ukrainians? >> we absolutely are. there's 11 in this package. i might remind you back in late january we provided five that were going to be destined for the afghan forces. we gave them five and there's another 11. there was back and forth with the ukrainians over the last couple of days about the helicopters and we wanted to make sure it was an iterative conversation we are having with them, that we're listening to them and what they need. at one point they wanted them and then maybe there was a discussion maybe they didn't need them and we ended up putting them back on. >> admiral, good morning. it is willie geist. we will never hear an admission of failure from vladimir putin but effectively did that a couple of days ago when he came out and announce it, okay, our focus is squarely on the east. remember, the goal as you know better than we do, a couple of months ago was for him to roll into kyiv, have a victory parade and install a new government, so

clearly moving the goalposts here. what does it tell you, number one, about the state of the russian military, what it is capable of, and, number two, how does it change your thinking strategically with the ukrainians? >> two things here. one, we don't believe they've overcome their logistics and sustainment problems, unite cohesion and morale, organization, all of those problems are still bedevilling the russian military. air-to-ground is still not very good. that said, what they're going to try to do is focus on a smaller geographic area, so they will be able to apply all of that combat power and they still have a lot of it in a smaller area. you have seen they've named a new general to take over and they're trying to do better at getting cohesion, command and control in a better shape than it has been. they're able to concentrate on the way that the russians and ukrainians have been fighting over for years.

it is like kansas, it is open and flat and it lends itself better to open maneuver forces, mechanized forces, tanks, artillery fire. that's why, again, if you look at the package president biden signed out yesterday there's t them. artillery pieces helping them including counter artillery radar that'll help save civilian lives. it will help them to get ready. this fight is going to look a lot different than what we have seen in the north where it is fostered and hilly and cities. this is more open warfare and we are going everything we can to make sure the ukrainians are ready for that. >> right at the russian border and easier for russian troops to supply themselves in a way they completely fail to do elsewhere. you mention this new commander, the butcher, what may be to

come? we may seen scenes out of bucha and we have seen images out of mariupol. does the idea that this man is now in charge with the singular focus of that part of the country, does i change the urgency of the united states effort to bolster ukraine with this package because it is going to be an ugly fight in the east? >> i would not go so far to say this officer is changing our sense of urgency. we all recognize that time is not our friend right now. we are working against the clock because the russians are resupplying and refitting and trying to reinforce their forces in the donbas. they're moving columns down in the north, we know time is not on our side and they'll be able to concentrate a greater amount of force in a smaller area. that's driving us. the fact they put a guy in charge tell us they're trying to get better command and control, trying to fix the problems they

had in the past when they were advancing three major advance line, we are going to try to fix that now. the fact that it is him and he's got this is history in syria. that's concerning given the kind of atrocities we have seen. we don't believe that's driving the sense of urgency are. it is about the re-enforcement efforts the russians are up to. >> we are reading a lot, admiral of the moral among the russian military running low or being confused and not understanding the mission. how important is it these images out of kyiv and leaders around the world showing support by literally showing up. >> it is important. i mean obviously any show of support to the ukrainian people to the ukrainian government is important. of course we are showing our support with the material assistance that's going in. heading into their region and literally dozens of ground movements and almost every

single day and all that is important. i think it is critical that the international community rally to the side of ukraine. some of this is certainly a demonstration of support. it is really more important and president zelenskyy would agree with this that he's actually getting his materials he needs to fight. >> good morning, jonathan lemire here. you mentioned mariupol and we know it is a site or weeks now of intensifying and atrocities of russian soldiers there. if you can speak to us a little bit about the resistance you are seeing from ukrainian fighters there and also assess for us the state of mariupol, can ukraine hang on? >> we believe they can. now they are fighting very hard for it. it is still contested. the russians have not taken it. look, urban fighting is difficult. we have learned that lessons

ourselves over the last 20 years. it is a brutal and very tough way of trying to achieve geographic objectives in terms of taking cities and towns and ukrainians, this is home. they know it. they know every street and every corner. they know where every building is and where to hide and conceal. they continue to get replenished. one of the reasons why they didn't take kyiv and chernihiv and kharkiv and mariupol is because of the flow of materials in and system that is are getting in from more than 30 nations around the world. that stuff is getting in their hands every single day. it is a positive effect on their ability to defend mariupol. mariupol is important to both sides as you can understand looking at the map. we do think that mariupol is going to continue to get pounded and it does everyday from the air. the fighting is going to continue to be brutal there. >> so admiral, we had admiral

stravinas this morning who talked about the russians effort over the last several weeks, bad leadership, we have breaking news coming from the wall street journal about 30 minutes later, the secret of ukraine's military success, years of training. parliament have been transformed from a rigid soviet style force into a modern army that thinks on the move. talk about it. we have not talked about what this administration have been doing over the past two years getting ready for this moment? >> we have been training ukrainian forces for eight years and you are right, over the last two years we have put a lot of effort into that. we talked about the florida national guard and troops that

were there in lviv who were doing active training. we moved them out before the invasion. that has a profound effect on the battle and ukrainian forces. it is not just about how they organize themselves. it is about how nimble and agile they are. you know mid-grade enlisted leaders who can make decisions in the moment, moving troops from here or there. as well as a professional officer corp. that's trained to think for themselves and take initiatives. when we started training them eight years ago, they were soviet and rigid and little initiative or any demonstration of positive attitude towards initiative, now all that is

changed. >> admiral john kirby, thank you so much for being on this morning. >> thank you very much. still ahead, nbc's ralph sanchez brings us his reporting on the ground from ukraine. plus, is this the war's decisive moment? are russia's actions in ukraine evil in our time? >> leaders all across the world and the united states all said yes, republicans and democrats and america, everybody said yes, right? >> it is a pretty easy answer. former president trump just can't say that. instead rambling for the next several minutes about nato, even as fox news show graphic images of dead civilians. >> he can't bring himself to criticizing vladimir putin, that started in december of 2015 on our show when we kept pushing him and he still seven years

later and all these war crimes later, all these mass atrocities, he can't say it. we are going to show you this really, just distressing interview that sean hannity had with donald trump trying to get donald trump to say the obvious. we'll be right back. vious. we'll be right back.

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>> you lost another submarine? >> okay. top of the hour this morning. russia seems to lost another ship, not a submarine. a key warship in the black sea. the key warship. ukrainian officials say their forces damaged it. the russians submit to the damage but not the attack. >> they actually say it is worse, wait a second, they didn't blow up our ship. we blew up our ships ourselves because we are so incompetent. >> we heard from admiral kirby who could not confirm exactly what happened. there was some kind of explosion from the ship. maybe the incompetence of the russian navy blowing up their ownership. a massive and strategic and symbolic victory in this case for ukraine. foreign correspondent ralph sanchez is following all the development from lviv.

>> reporter: this ship is enormous significance from both sides of the war. the mosque missile crew and it is the same ship that ukrainian forces the memorably told to go f itself in the early days of the war. i can tell you ukrainian social media is on fire this morning after the governor of odesa said the ukrainian forces hit that ship with two missiles. the russian defense ministry is confirming a fire on board. they say it caused ammunition to explode but they are not saying at this point what caused that fire to break out. they are saying all 500 members of the crew of that ship have been evacuated and now in the ukrainians have indeed taken out this ship, it would be an enormous boo to the moral of the

ukrainians. it would be a major blow. the russian president is not a man who likes to be humiliated. here in ukraine underneath the celebrations, there is a certain weariness about how and when and at what scale the russian president may feel he needs to retaliate if his forces have indeed suffered this major humiliation on the black sea. >> back to you. >> ralph, he told us, every war has its own sort of saying that really encapsulate the mood and the spirit of the war. we just begun to fight. that's a famous wartime. . remember the general during

world war ii, to give up by the germans, that's what said. don't give up the ship, that was a good one. >> i see where this is going. >> for the ukrainian war, go f yourself. >> you hear stories like oh ukrainian women saying that to russian soldiers. >> i think it may actually be, you know, the sunflower, the flower of ukraine, maybe that's their national motto. >> meanwhile, definitely not. ass the kremlin looks to control the narrative of the war. there are signs that cracks beginning to form vladimir putin's propaganda bubble. they're having increase success of getting the truth of the

invasion to the russian people. moscow tighten access to the internet since the war began. the times writes "an american data analytic company filter labs a.i. which has been tracking russian sentiment on the internet message boards." the u.s. funded news organization radio free europe, the outlet had their website blocked by the kremlin last month but through a wave of radio transmitter and the social media telegram, it is still been able to get messages into russia. and on that organization's youtube page which has not been censored by the government, video views reportedly tripled to more than 230 million in the first three weeks of the war. >> you know what's so

fascinating as you read this new york times report, you look at what's being employed. you look at the reports of what's working and what's not working. the people who were in the best in this say just telling older russians, you are being lied to by state tv does not work at all. showing bodies of dead russian soldiers who have been killed there, that does not work. it makes them hate the ukrainians more. the one thing they're having success at is telling the truth of the incompetence of the russian officials and military leaders and incompetence of the military campaigns. 50 million e-mails have been sent to russian mails, 18 to 35, what really worked well is our stories, true life examples of how badly these russian soldiers and conscripts are being treated

and the message board is widening up across russia. this war is not destroying ukraine but rather gutting russia economically and militarily and culturally from the inside out. >> it has been surprising the success of ukrainians on the ground. it is also surprising how ukraine is winning the propaganda war and the internet war. the lack of russians cyber attacks which we expect to be a major part of the campaign in ukraine. there is the messaging and propaganda, we all know russia has used bots and interfering with at the elections of the united states and brexit. they have not been able to

really tip the scales here in terms of driving the narrative of this war. zelenskyy himself, a former comedian and actor who is killed in the media and people around him have been so good at shaping the message of their ukrainian narrative but also getting those messages into russia, talking to you are right, some of the old every russians getting their news by old tv. some have been hearing the u.s. western and ukrainian messages and it is playing a role in the battlefield. we had a number of officials pointed to ukrainians getting messages targeted to russian soldiers in ukraine saying why are you here, we are brothers, you don't want to die for this missake and that's contributed to some of the poor moral among russian troops. joining us now professor at john hopskins school.

eliot cohn, it is great to have you on the show. eliot, you said on your latest piece this is the worse decisive moment and you wrote. "the relatively brief but bloody war in ukraine is entering its fourth phase. what matters now is we judge the present moment correctly. and here, again, the west faces potential failure and decisive action is urgent urgently to att it has been bloody very badly indeed.

so putin will order offensives that, if confronted by a well-resourced ukrainian foe, can effectively destroy his own army. the united states has been unwilling to take steps because of its own self-deterring beliefs about russian behavior. it should accept that the ukrainians are now the world's best experts in fighting russians, not us. the u.s. should air on the side of generosity. are they doing that given the latest from the white house yesterday, eliot? what else comprises of acting decisively? >> well, i think the latest list of equipment shipments to the ukrainians are a major step forward. >> artillery and unmanned naval drones and things like that.

they're going to need this, admiral kirby was saying earlier in the show, this is some what a different fight. there is going to be a lot more. they need deep fires and they probably are going to wanted at some point to get aircraft and they'll need a lot more artillery. we are seeing on the military side doing a lot more of the right things. we'll need more of that. there is also the political psychological side. we should have our embassy open in kyiv. the polls courageously kept theirs opened all the way through. there is no reason for us not to be there. we should have high level visits. there are a lot of other things we could do to help the ukrainians win this fight. they really can win it. the point that i would make about the russian military is it is a lot more fragile than people would have thought about it. >> right. >> they're thrown into a fight they are not ready for. >> so, eliot, the high level visits and visuals and friend of vladimir putin being held by the

ukrainians and the warships, the different things that are embarrassing and isolating to vladimir putin, how much of that is actually getting to him? >> i am sure he knows his good friend was picked up. that's a humiliation for the sfb which is trying to smuggle him out of the country. a lot of that warship is more serious that people made out. here you have this big, big ship, flag ship main moscow, it can't get any worse than that. he's probably aware of that. but i suspect what's happening now and we have good evidence is he's going to be looking for scapegoats. they imprisoned some officials. probably a pretty unpleasant time to be anywhere near him. #. >> so obviously these images of

western leaders now comfortably walking through the street after outraged vladimir putin and another symbolic lost for him at the capital city he thought he was going to as you look at this plan, where do you see he's headed? >> they have done plenty of devastation already including in these. unfortunately, i think that's so. there is unconfirmed reports that he issued orders to raise ukrainian cities to the ground. what's going on here though is it seems he feels a lot of pressure to try to have some sort of decisive victory in the near term. they're not ready for that. they're having a lot of trouble

replying forces and the force in the east have been badly chewed up by the ukrainians. he's going to rush these forces into an offensive they are not ready for. nobody is going to again say him. if we arm the ukrainians effectively and that means moving really fast. they can end up first failing but also beginning to crumble. there are these reports of combat refusals of mutanies and people are banning equipment. >> good morning, i want you to expand on the last point of the idea that putin is rushing into get some sort of decisive victory. let me ask you why? is that perhaps to strengthen his hands at the negotiation table to end the war? because he needs to show triumph

back home or because this is the may 9th anniversary the soviets defeated germany? what's the reason behind it do you think? >> the may 9th anniversary is pretty important. remember a lot of the justifications of the truly obscene and absurd justification for the war. if that's the case, which we would like to do is declare victory on the day that you can declare victory over nazis germany. he may sense the situation is deteriorating rapidly in a number of other ways. finland and sweden is joining nato and they're having trouble of oil production. he may sense this is not something he can safely write

out in the long-term, he has to worry about the increasing am of western armed supplies. he's feeling all those pressures. what he does not have is a great sense of what the situation is on the ground with his soldiers. >> yeah, and eliot, talk about economic problems. i want to show you quickly of the front page of the wall street journal talks about russian oil output undermining growth engine and of course this is the one area that has actually worked for vladimir putin over the past six weeks. the front page article, man, they're having problems getting the crew out of the ground and having problems with demand and supply chain. even this can cause more problems for russia economically. talk about how devastating that would be. >> well, this is an extractive

economy. what it risks on is things of production like natural oil and gas. they're going to have to increasingly get oil further and further north. they need western assistance for that. the sanctions are biting. that's something we could be doing more of. one thing i think we should be doing, saying to companies, we could do business to russia or business in the united states, you can't do both and really try to get all western companies out. >> correct. eliot cohen, thank you very much for coming on this morning with your insights. we appreciate it very much. >> always a pleasure. >> in another potential blow to russia's economy. tens of thousands of tech industries are leaving russia. by mid march between 50,000 or

70,000 tech workers have left the country. to 100,000 more are expected to follow suit. >> you know it is so interesting, willie, we have been talking the difference between capitalism and this authoritarian government is run by oligarchs and defined by russia as corruption. somebody coming back from russia talking about how gifted, talked about how they were so many gifted young techs and said in any other country, if they were in america, they would be destroying companies at becoming billionaires and millionaires. the system is so corrupt and putin is so corroded, the markets over there that they just had their talents wasted and now they're fleeing to other countries and now successful and those are jobs created in the

west instead of moscow and st. peterburg and around russia. >> yeah, some of these people were leaving this war when they saw the truth of what was happening. they got out. this society was going to be a lockdown further. as you point out it is an economy where a few rich guys take taxpayers dollars and enrich themselves and become billionaire, including vladimir putin. that's no a system that breathes the kind of successful entrepreneurs that you are talking about. i think another thing that's happening and we heard these reports from russian soldiers, they gone into ukraine and told a story inside russia of ukraine being a small, backward country, this is a young vibrant country in a place they should aspire to. they cracked open to a lot of young russian people are discovering for the rest of the world and headed in that direction, many of them. >> absolutely. still ahead on "morning joe," after more than 30 hours on the

run, a phone call helped put the accused new york city subway shooter in handcuffs. we'll have more on how that manhunt came to an end. plus -- a federal mask mandate in travel will stay with us for a few more weeks. why the cdc says it is still necessary. we'll play for you a remarkable exchange between sean hannity and donald trump where the formal president had every opportunity to condemn vladimir putin and his actions as evil. >> we'll show you whether he finally did that or not. >> you are watching "morning joe," we'll be right back. "morng joe," we'll be right back.

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welcome back, now to the major development in new york city. the subway attack there. the suspected gunman, 62-year-old, frank james, is in custody and facing a federal charge. >> reporter: after a marathon manhunt across new york city, this morning, accused gunman frank james is locked up. >> frank, why did you shoot all those people? >> reporter: multiple police sources telling nbc news, the 62-year-old calling the crime stopper tip line at himself saying he was at mcdonald's. law enforcement sources said james told the hotline, "this is frank, you guys are looking for me, my phone is about to die."

>> reporter: authorities fiebd finding and arresting james in manhattan, east village. >> we were able to shrink his world quickly. there is nowhere left for him to run. >> reporter: he's charged with one count on attacking people on the mass transit. he shot ten people as the subway train halted in a brooklyn station. wnbc obtained this exclusive video. james dressed as a transit worker entering the substation nearly two hours before the attack. >> he had the same black cloth that he was later found in the crime scene. >> reporter: james escaped onto another train and he left a trail of evidence behind including keys to this rented

van entering new york on early tuesday. a handgun he owns a bad full of fireworks. >> reporter: based on this widely circulated picture, fireworks was sold at a store in wisconsin last summer, telling me they kept meticulous sales. >> only one person bought exact four items. >> reporter: james has a long sheet including 12 prior arrests. brooklyn 36th street is now open again. new yorkers refusing to back down. >> we come together after this incident. >> coming up, the major airlines have been asking for weeks to end the government's masking requirement. the cdc is going into a

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ahead of the holiday travel weekend, the cdc is extending its mask requirements for public transportation. pockets of the country are seeing covid cases are rising once again. nbc's tom costello reports. >> reporter: whether you are flying or taking the bus or riding the rails. the federal mask mandate set to expired on monday now remaining in place until may 3rd. covid cases started to climb again driven by the omicron's

ba.2 subvariant. >> we need more time. until we get a good handle on it, it is prudent. >> reporter: preflight testing requirements for international flights writing in part, neither restrictions are supported by data. in today's public health environment and pointing to studies like bars and congress where masks are no longer required. >> we move from the prepandemic stage to the endemic stage. we need to learn how to live with it without being so restrictive. >> reporter: delta airline is pointing to the challenges. >> our employees are tired of wearing masks and policing

masks. >> reporter: since january 2021, the faa received more than 7100 reports of unruly passengers more than 70% related to masks. as a growing number of destinations from northern europe to the caribbean have relaxed or dropped requirements. back in the u.s., some travelers say it is not a big deal. >> we are boosted and did everything the right way. we don't mind wearing it. >> i don't want to chance it at this point. it seems silly. >> nbc's tom costello is reporting. nato gains two members with finland and sweden inching closer to join the alliance. we'll speak to the u.s. ambassador to nato about what it means for the effort to curb russians aggression, that's ahead on "morning joe." aggress ahead on "morning joe. so, we want kisqali.

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former white house chief of staff, mark meadows, have been stricken in the voter rolls amid fraud investigation. according to a report in the new yorker, meadows registered to vote in north carolina in september of 2020 listing his residence as a small mobile home in macon county. meadows does not own this property and never had. it is not clear he never spent a single night there. meadows was removed from the voter roll after election officials found documentation that he lived in virginia and voted there in 2021. >> i am confused. >> voters who cast ballots in

other state loose their residency. >> he voted twice? >> it appears, yes. >> i don't believe that. >> a spokesperson for meadows decline to comment. >> well, if he committed voter fraud, he's got to be the only person, only, the only republican who committed voter fraud. >> there is a florida man who's a supporter of donald trump pleaded guilty of committed voter fraud. >> strike that. >> one of two men in central florida admitted to voting in two different states during the 2020 election. he also cast an absentee ballot in florida and michigan. >> my god. >> voter fraud is a felony, both men will avoid jail time if they

commit 50 hours of civic service and adult civic class. our national reporter from nbc, mark caputo. he knows all about the villages. caputo, who could have ever seen this coming sng. coming? voter fraud in florida? who could have seen such a thing? in 2018, saying the close election of ballot box of rick scott. it was not true and everyone moved on. >> let's talk about, a lot of republicans and democrats afraid of the backfire.

it is a plan to tax the poor. tell us about it. >> well, actually the plan does say look if you are not paying income taxes, currently you have to pay them. it is a tax increase of 47% of people. when this is poll tested in various ways, democrats are like wow, rick scott planning to rescue america, may rescue some of our hopes for the midterms because they find this poll is incredibly badly and republicans don't like it and the elderly don't like it. i think in the democratic senate -- >> and mitch can't be happy with this, can he? >> oh no, the interesting thing of scott releasing the plan is right beforehand mitch mcconnell, the leader of the republicans in the senate say, look, we don't have any plan, we don't need to run on them. rick scott was hold my beer,

watch it, hold my coffee. it is not just taxes they're talking about. he wants to cut sunset and eliminate every federal program every five years. what does it mean? ending social security and affordable care act. that polls badly as well democrats have found. that's why you see this wrath of democratic ads that's starting to attack republicans on this making them aware of rick scott's plan. >> raising tax is in 40% of the population and social security and medicare in five years. that sounds like real winners? >> i would be remiss. if these programs are important, congress will merely re-up them every five gears. the likelihood of any of this

stuff taking place is very slim. >> mark caputo, thank you very much. first, actor and producer mark walberg is standing by. the oscar nominee joining us to talk about his new project next on "morning joe." morning joe. where do you find the perfect graphic designer? well, we found her in austin between a dog named klaus and her favorite shade of green. it's actually salem clover. but you can find her right now on upwork. when the world is your workforce. finding the perfect designer, developer, marketer,

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i think god saw something in you worth saving.

i would never thought i would be back here to do this. >> your son is about to make a huge mistake. >> i want to be a priest. >> for halloween? >> a look at the new film in theaters for easter. it is an inspiring true to story of a boxer who found his true caller as a priest. mark walberg, you and i got together to talk about this film on "sunday today" the other day, you truly are deserving of all the critical love you are getting from this film. as i remember you said you were sitting at lunch or breakfast with a group of priests you know and sort of pitch this story. who was stu? >> stu was a german man in, he came to l.a. to become an actor, he came to a woman who recruited

a lot of people in church and trying to do everything he could to start a relationship with her, he agreed to be baptized and through an accident and diagnoses, he found his way in and as a priest and -- as he ca with this rare disease, he lost his physicality, but his spirituality soared and he touched a lot of people in a short amount of time. definitely worthy of a film. hopefully they'll make him a saint. fingers crossed. >> that would be good. what struck me talking to you about this movie is how important it is to you. now yao said this is the most important and best role you've ever played, and you've played a lot of them, and the fact it took you as long as it did to get this movie said where you said a group of friends and i are going to pay for this. what about this story so grabbed you, mark? >> obviously for myself, as

well, to have had a very troubled youth and be able to turn my life around after focusing on my faith, i really credit all my personal and professional success to my faith. i wanted to share that. and seeing how much the story is touching people, it was obvious that stu, he had a way of speaking to people and luring people in with his charm and charisma and also real-life experience, which, you know, when counseling others, they really trusted in stu because they knew he had experienced similar things. >> so mark, tell us how you were inspired by what van melsen gibson did with "the passion of the christ" to just do it on his own instead of trying to pitch it to studios. >> this is a tough sell for any kind of studio. i took a play from van melsen's book. he financed the film himself. also it gives you complete creative freedom. anytime you bring in somebody else, especially as a financial

partner, they have a complete and probably a different idea of what you should do creatively and totally. and we didn't want any creative interference i think between myself and rosalind ross, the director, saw what this movie was, not your typical faith-based film. it's got a lot of edge and there's violence and anger in there, hence the "r" rating. but that's stu. that's how he talked for people to see something honest and truthful and not watered down. >> i was looking at some of the things you were saying about your experience visiting churches. and some people, you know, you go from church to church because you keep getting pitched movies when you would go to different churches. it reminded me at my mom's funeral, i was standing in front of my mom's casket and one of my friends from childhood came up and started lecturing me about donald trump. i said i will pray for your

soul, but we're in church, can we move along please. you have to leave churches because people are pitching you movies in churches. >> that was the case for a television show, all types of random, different things, and i was really there for worship and not necessarily looking for new material. but, you know, this particular film i really feel like it chose me. the priest of this order was adamant about making sure it registered with me. the second time around hearing the story i knew that this is an opportunity for me to use my platform to do the great of good and god's work, so i was excited about the opportunity. it wasn't the typical hollywood movie, so we had to just basically do it ourselves. we have the freedom. >> that's awesome. let's show another clip where stu decides what to give up for lent. >>, for example, i am going to give up chocolate. >> you guys protest.

>> yeah. pick something i'm sorry. >> well, what are you going to give up, stu? >> me? i was thinking maybe you guys. i could sleep in on sundays. >> no! >> all right, all right. >> you have to pick something good to make it count. >> i like this kit. >> adorable. i'm curious, i know there are more faith-based movies in your future, projects you're working on, but as a clique, how does your faith sort of play out in your life? >> well, it's at the forefront. i mean, i started my day a couple hours ago in prayer. i read my scripture and, you know, that's just -- that's the foundation. i'm pretty routine. people always got a kick out of my regimented schedule bup it works for me. when i find something that really works with my spiritual exercise and of course my own

physical fitness and everything else during the day, i just keep it in that order and that's the priority list for sure. >> let's go to lowell, massachusetts, and jonathan lemire, who has a question for you, hopefully not about the red cross. go ahead, john. >> not the red cross. we could talk about tom brady all day if you want. but your faith is certainly at the center of this movie but it's also your second box movie, the segment to lowell where "the fighter" was set. my uncle almost got beat up by dicky at the bar there. i wanted to know what drove you to that sport and why boxing creates such great cinema. there's a long list of boxing movies. >> some of the greatest films ever made, they have boxer at the center of them. with mickey's story, i was inspired. obviously, boston is a great sports town, but, you know, tom brady is from southern

california or northern california, you know, larry bird is from indiana, i mean, mickey ward was from boston, lowell's close enough in my opinion, and he was one of us. for him to be able to pursue his dream and make it a reality was something i found very inspiring. we also announce weld ear working on "the fighter 2," which is going to be amazing. but hurry up because i'm aging out of the role and he's later in my life. again, though, just great backdrops of story, lots of adversity to overcome. of course stu as a boxer, he hat a pretty bright career until injury. so then, you know, that was a nice segue in for me. i loved his journey through hollywood as well, him trying to become an actor. so many funny moments in that journey as well. >> mark wahlberg, thanks for being with us. >> thank you, mark. >> we know it's early out there. we greatly appreciate it. more importantly, we appreciate putting your heart, your soul,

and your money we behind this movie. it's great one. we'll make sure we see it. thank you so much. >> thank you, guys. god bless you. willie, thanks again, buddy. >> god bless you. a few minutes before the top of the hour, we turn to this moment that played out on tv last night. it's been nearly seven years since donald trump excused vladimir putin's murderous ways by saying, "our country does plenty of killing also." >> do you remember that? it was december of 2015 and we kept pushing him to criticize vladimir putin. he refused to do it. i remember your letter, jay said it may have been one of the key moments in the presidential campaign. for sure. >> because it showed there was something extraordinarily untoward about donald trump's relationship with vladimir putin. he still, even after the war crimes, still refuses to criticize him. >> yeah. eve enas the former president

says he laments the situation in ukraine, he is unwilling to directly call out vladimir putin's evil ways, despite sean hannity's best attemps last night and the graphic images rolling across the screen. trumpery fuses to answer a most basic question. >> we have mass graves. we have innocent civilians being slaughter nld the streets. we have a entire neighborhoods leveled. we have war crimes and atrocities from bucha to mariupol. mariupol's 95% wiped out, all rubble today. i asked you the last time you were on whether you think that this is evil in our time. do you believe this is nooefl evil in our time? >> i think in 100 years people are going to look back and they're going to say how did we stand back and nato stand back, which in many ways i've called a paper tiger. don't forget, i rebuilt nato

because when i became president the first thing i noticed when i went there to the first meeting was that most of the countries were not paying or were paying far less than they were supposed to. there were only 8 out of 28 countries that were paid in full. the united states was not only one of them, we were making up the deficit in order to protect europe. we were paying possibly 80% of nato to protect them. and then they take advantage of us yet on trade because on trade they're every bit as bad as china. they treated us very badly on trade. we changed a lot of that around, but they were tough on trade. i asked angela merkel, how many chevrolets are you selling in munich or berlin? and she looked at me, well, probably none. i said you're exactly right. none. yet we had the mercedes-benz and the volkswagens, all of them. we had all of the german companies. and the same thing with farmers. our farmers sell virtually nothing to europe.

you look at what we sell. yet we take their products. they treated us very badly in trade and we defended them, and we really, if you look at the numbers, i bet it's close to 80%. i said you have to pay, and if you don't pay, we're not going to defend you. as soon as they said that, everybody -- we took in hundreds of billions of dollars. and nato became rich. it was going down at a level that -- it was not even -- it would not have been sustainable. you wouldn't be in a position now of giving them a rifle let alone billions of dollars worth of equipment. so i had a big impact. and by the way, that was an impact against russia. the pipeline was against russia. the sanctions were against russia. and then i listened to the fake news say, oh, president trump loves russia and he didn't do much about russia. well, i stopped the pipeline, the biggest thing they've ever done. i created a powerful nato because i got people to pay what they should pa