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i'd like to thank our sponsor liberty mutual. they customize your car insurance, so you only pay for what you need. contestants ready? go! only pay for what you need. jingle: liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. so, look, all i want to do is this. i just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have because we won the state.

look, we need only 11,000 votes. we have far more than that as it stands now. we'll have more and more. so what are we going to do? because i only need 11,000 votes. fellas, i need 11,000 volts. give me a break. >> meldly after the call, cassidy hutchinson had a conversation with chief of staff mark meadows. >> mark, you can't probably do this. that call was crazy. he said cass, he knows it's over. he knows he lost. but we're going to keep trying. there are some good options out there still. we're >> wow. >> willie's too young, but you're of age. you remember -- >> he is. >> always a little too clingy and cleaner and neater than matlock where the witness would confess, this, this.

georgia call. somehow every time i hear it it is more damning. it is a perry mason moment where you're, like -- >> i know. >> -- here's the evidence, your honor. >> the prosecutor always hanging on to a burger or something like that. he always lost. this is the moment at which that side loses this case. >> right. >> it's not just corroborating evidence, it's trump's voice himself. >> exactly. >> again, willie, trump's voice not recorded by a left-wing activist in san francisco but a georgia secretary of state who was a trumper himself and who, by the way, even after recording him and basically getting him in a grand jury investigation, won re-election in a landslide. >> he did. and he knew he needed to record

that call because he suspected that was exactly what donald trump was going to ask him to do. to his great credit, he stood in the brief to the state of georgia along with other republican officials there, and prevented donald trump from what he wanted to do which was to steal the election. it's telling he knew he had to press record on that phone call. you're right, hey, i've seen perry mason reruns, okay. it's there. it's there. but you're right. i mean, you just couldn't have it handed to you on a silver platter better than that. it's almost, like, walk away after that, present that to the jury. there was a whole bunch of new evidence and testimony from the january 6th committee on the pressure donald trump put on georgia officials to rig the vote to help them win even though he knew he lost. it's the 6:00 a.m. hour out west, just after 9:00 in the east. president biden is waking up this morning. we have more on his trip ahead. yesterday, mika, the committee investigating the january 6th attack on the capitol held that

ninth and possibly final public hearing. >> and it ended with this unanimous vote to subpoena the former president to testify. so let's get right to the key moments. here's how the committee showed the plan donald trump and his allies had to claim victory on election day no matter what. >> a few days before the election, mr. trump also consulted with one of his outside advisers, inside activist tom fitten, about the strategy for election night. the select committee got this preprepared statement from the national archives. as you can see, the draft statement, which was sent on october 31st, declares, "we had an election today -- and i won." and the memo specifically indicates the plan that only the

votes counted by the election day deadline, and there is no election day deadline, would matter. everyone knew that ballot counting would lawfully continue past election day. on election day, just after 5:00 p.m., mr. fitton indicated he'd spoke within the president about the statement, sending along again, "just talked to him about the draft below." again, this plan to keep -- to declare victory was in place before any of the results had been determined. we also interviewed brad parscale, president trump's former campaign manager. he told us he understood that president trump planned as early as july that he would say he won the election even if he lost. and just a few days before the election, steve bannon, a former trump chief white house strategist and outside adviser to president trump, spoke to a

group of his associates from china and said this. >> and what trump's going to do is declare victory, right, declare victory. but that doesn't mean he's the winner. he oost just going to say he's the winner. so when you wake up wenlz morning, it's going to be a firestorm. also, if trump -- if trump is losing by 10:00 or 11:00 at night, it's going to be even crazier. no, because he's going to sit right there and say they stole it. >> i agree. >> i'm directing the attorney general to shut down all ballot places in all 50 states. it will be nuts. he's not going out easy. if biden is winning, trump is going to do some crazy [ bleep ]. >> again, from the pages of perry mason. again, he just -- >> not mysterious. just laid out right there. let's bring in former justice department official mary mccord

from the institute for constitutional advocacy and protection. former spokesman for the house oversight committee, curt bar della is with us. he's now an adviser to the dnc and dcc. jonathan lemire is till with us. and nbc chief legal correspondent and host of "the beat" on msnbc, ari melber is with us as well. great to have you all. >> former bureau chief in london, we have so much -- >> oh, no. >> uk finance minister, jeremy hutton, and courtesy of jonathan lemire, who sent this to me, meanwhile in the uk tab loilds, , they ask a question, lin truss with a head of lettuce, can liz truss outlast this lettuce. things are devolving quickly -- >> little eyes on it.

>> pretty funny. >> exactly. >> it's very bad. >> it's very bad. it's very bad over here as well, because what we saw yesterday, there's a lot to be obviously very concerned about and -- but i want to talk about something that i think you'd be able to help us with, and that is you teach georgetown, you talk about not only domestic terrorism but also undermining american democracy. and i must say, there's so much to be concerned about from yesterday, but i really am haunted. we talked about it last hour. i'm really haunted by what the secret service new before january 6th and what they did not do. the fbi agents begged them to be prepared for this, and as we've heard unfortunately on the air and off the air, you have a majority of secret service

agents who were sympathetic to donald trump. the secret service did not move on the warnings the fbi gave them. >> yeah. it's very troubling. i'm glad it finally has come forth during these committee hearings. it's not only the secret service that was aware of the danger and the threats to vice president, to members of congress, to the capitol, but researchers around the country were waving red flags. this was open on social media and in extremist platforms. it wasn't something that was hidden. it wasn't just rhetoric. it included planning and rally points for people to travel together to the washington, d.c., area. it included plans to rent hotel rooms and, you know, bring weapons. so it's really unconscionable that more action wasn't take on the protect not only the secret service's protectees but everyone in the capitol. >> knowing lig and deliberately allowing danger to unfold and not do something about it when

it is your job to do everything about it. >> and not as quickly as they should have moved. we just played the clip of steve bannon. you had steve bannon, roger stone. >> megaphones. >> people scheming around the president of the united states admitting what they were going to do. we all knew what donald trump was going to do. people were warning about january the 6th before january the 6th. the fbi agents were getting -- sending the clearest warnings to the secret service. dick cheney and former secretary of defenses were writing letters warning the pentagon and this still happened. >> yeah. you have roger stone saying "f the vote, let's get right to the violence," which seems to encapsulate part of the strategy here, because they knew the vote was going to go independence donald trump, that joe biden was

going to win. that was reins forred by testimony yesterday, that donald trump knew he was going to lose. we heard that from some of his own advisers who worked directly at his side. ari, as you watched this unfold yesterday and helped to host some of the coverage around it, what stood out to you if this did, in fact, serve as some kind of a closing argument for the january 6th select committee? how did they put that fine point on the case? >> well, i think the country has been taking this in and it's shown more interest than in the vast majority of congressional hearings that exist or have been even televised beyond c-span in say the last several decades, maybe going back to 9/11 commission, so while we all tend to watch this closely, i think "morning joe" viewers tend to watch this closely, we try to be informed, this has reached a whole wider set. with that awareness i think the committee very deliberately did treat it like a closing argument. i heard the references to

matlock. hopefully with a little more rigor but maybe as much panache as a solid closing argument that people recognize from courtroom toov dramas. they said yes, we're playing highlights, some video testimony you're heard before, but wrapping it all together with a concept that jumped out to me yesterday, criminal intent. joe and others know that's not a legislative concept. it's not a concept for the next election, although voters can consider whether they want to re-elect anybody affiliated with the violent overthrow of the government, but it's a concept in criminal law to show o show not only did donald trump do and say many bad things a leader should not do but we might call debatable, but the committee seemed to show evidence in summation that he also exhibited the criminal intent to knowingly in a premeditated fashion commit crimes against the united states and against the peaceful transfer of power. and that came through very starkly yesterday, and that is

an argument for prosecutors about indicting not only in addition what voters want to do or factor in. >> liz cheney yesterday, the vils chair, of course, of that committee, laid out the long list of advisers to then president trump who pled the fifth repeatedly when speaking with the committee. here's what she said. >> more than 30 witnesses in our investigation have invoked their fifth amendment rights against self-incrimination. and several of those did so specifically in response to questions about their dealings with donald trump directly. this is roger stone with oath keepers at the willard hotel on the morning of january 6th. and here is mr. stone testifying before our committee. >> did you speak to president trump on his private cell phone on january 5th or january 6th? >> once again, on advice of counsel, i will submit my fifth

amendment right to respectfully decline to answer your question. >> this is general michael flynn walking with oath keepers on december 12th, 2020. and here is general flynn's testimony before our committee. >> did you, general flynn, talk to president trump at any point on january 6th, 2021? >> the fifth. >> here is john eastman fraudulently instructing tens of thousands of angry protesters that the vice president could change the election outcome on january 6th. later on this same day, dr.'sman acknowledged in writing that donald trump knew what he was attempting was illegal. here is john eastman testifying before our committee. >> did president trump authorize you to discuss publicly on january 4th, 2021, conversation with him? fifth.

>> so is it your position you won't discuss a conversation you had with the president of the united states but not with this committee? >> fifth. >> here is jeff clark, who conspired with donald trump to corrupt the department of justice. president trump wanted to appoint jeff clark as acting attorney general, and as you can see in this call log we obtained from the national archive, he did so. and here is mr. clark temping before our committee. >> mr. clark, when did you first talk directly with president trump? >> fifth. >> mr. clark, did you discuss with president trump allegations of fraud in the 2020 election? >> fifth. >> other witnesses have also gone to enormous lengths to avoid testifying about their dealings with donald trump. >> you know, ari, we all have a

constitutional right to plead the fifth, and it should never be used against somebody. obviously in making out a case. that said, how ironic that the very people who accused hillary clinton of being a criminal because those remotely connected with her pled the fifth. i think i remember actually general flynn talking about that and mocking her at the national convention. and of course donald trump saying, why would anybody plead -- the mob pleads the fifth. and that's all they're doing now. >> yeah, joe. that was one of the most striking things. i about fell out of my chair watching. and i messaged a colleague and said, did she say 30? can we double-check that? to make sense of this. we knew a handful. i didn't know it was 30. this is a heck of a lot of

people who cannot, under the advice of counsel, say under oath whether they were involved in violence or this overthrow of the government, this attempted coup, because they might incriminate themselves. as you take pains to point out, joe, and i agree with you, in a criminal trial you can't bring that up to the jury because of the fairness of our system. but the rest of the country is not engaged in a criminal trial. they're trying to understand why something that was first blamed falsely on anifa or dissembled is now something that can't be honestly answered because of many issues in public life where people debated it. they go back and forth and say maybe i did do that or they're wrong, whatever. this is a reminder that the facts matter in a way that even proven lirps know because they don't want to go in there and deal with this truthfully because they would either lose i guess some of the moderates, independents, a few

conservatives. certainly there's a parent of the maga base we've seen in the election deniers. but i thought it was a very compelling larger sort of extralegal out-of-court headline coming out of these hearings yesterday. 30 different people affiliated with donald trump claim or assert that they answered honestly, they would involve themselves in election crimes. that's very bad. >> political analyst amanda carpenter has a new piece forrer the website the bulwark in which he asks the january 6th committee subpoenaed trump. now what? he writes in part, "while trump's presumed refusal to cooperate is an essential part of the factual record this committee is establishing for the public, it also underscores how inept our democratic system is at confronting a lawless former president. no significant penalties have been inflicted on members of the political class who were responsible for the

insurrection. trump remains favored as the 2024 gop presidential nominee. he promises to pardon his violent supporter who is attacked the capitol. that's donald trump's vision of justice for january 6th. if our system is going to hold him accountable, it better get to work because it's running out of time." curt, a couple people were saying we have no choice at this point. this former president has literally given anyone who loves this democracy no choice but to push forward and prosecute. will they run out of time? >> well, we've often said that our system wasn't made for someone like donald trump to come in with the wrecking ball, that the cracks in the foundation of our justice system are being exposed here. what i hope happens is that nugget about 30 people pleading the fifth, i hope that is a trail the justice department will pick up on, that where the january 6th committee couldn't

get answers, the justice department can in their investigation. that is the only mechanism they have because the only thing worse than letting trump get away with it here is doing nothing, is exposing our system, sending the signal that if you go out and do this long term, if you go out and break these laws, foment insurrection, try to undermine our democratic process, that it's okay, that you'll get away with it, and not just get away with it, you'll be able to assume power and get the people who committed these crimes off the hook. that's very dangerous for our country. >> while this is going on, which is dangerous and frustrating and cumbersome, talk about, mary, the danger moving forward on a bigger scale. >> i think liz cheney closed things out pretty aptly yesterday when she said that our institutions held the last time because of the men and women in good faith who made them hold, but right now what we have, because we have disinformation continuing from the mouths of donald trump and so many others, including elected officials,

shamefully, you know, doubling, tripling down on the big lie, that is what has fueled vie lenls at a localized level. it's a deliberate strategy. i mean, far extremist platform, far-right extremist platform gab announced it's county over country, capture your county, a few, then your state. so we're seeing election deniers running for positions a v at the local to the state level to congress, and these are people who will have control over the next election. >> that is frightening. >> two-thirds of americans will have an election denier on the ballot this november. >> and i'll say i understand amanda's frustration, i understand mika's frustration, but i'm reminded of the wheels of justice grinding slowly but grind fine. you look at the supreme court denying all of donald trump's baseless claims. you look what the doj has been doing every day, arresting more people, charging more people,

sending more people to jail because of january 6th. you see what the january 6th committee has done. i think an extraordinary job. kurt and i were a little concerned this time last year and we got calls from members going you just need to take a deep breath. be patient. look at what's happening with merrick garland, on the documents case, what happened yesterday with the united states supreme court. you look at the fact that there certainly are moves that appear that the doj may charge donald trump for january 6th. you look at what's happening in georgia in that case, what's happening in new york. the wheels of justice are grinding. >> they are. first of all, it should be said the institutions held just barely but they held in the aftermath of 2020, they held on january 6th. we saw video evidence of that yesterday for the first time. now we are seeing here the

wheels move eugene robinson, slowly, but perhaps never more peril that we should note that he might respond to the subpoena. it would be indeclined to potentially show up if they could do it live. let's be clear, no one thinks he's going to do that. >> what lawyer would let him? >> he offered to talk to robert mueller. that went away. he always does this. he's not going to appear under oath. set that aside. >> is he too scared of liz cheney? is he a coward? >> he does not want to be in that moment. >> he's afraid of liz cheney? >> he won't show up? >> because he's afraid of liz cheney. >> he's afraid of liz cheney and the process. >> you should know. you wrote the book on this. >> i did. whole chapter about the fear of liz cheney. he's in a difficult position, obviously. we were talking earlier, there's a great burden on the department of justice as well to go through with something that would be historic. but it seems like the january

6th committee through a remarkable run of hearings laid out the roadmap and said here you go. >> absolutely. the committee outperformed expectations. i think everybody's expectations, maybe even their own. systematically gathers do much information, the way they presented it, really smart lady and in a digestible way. they laid out a roadmap for the justice department and one we hope attorney general garland and his troops are following because, you know, we were talking about our north and how much our system really depends on having people in these offices who will respect those norms. you can't write rules and regulations and laws that take into account every conceivable, possible future instance in which, you know, a president or

an attorney general or somebody will, you know, try to go rogue, essentially. but what you can do is be clear that when that happens it will be punished, and it will at least be prosecuted. and that's another reason why, at least in my opinion and a lot of people's opinion, it's kind of imperative on merrick garland to do something. you can't just let this pass. it's permission for the next person. >> right. >> yeah. >> crazy person in the government. >> up and down the ballot. winning some of these elections. >> it's not an original thought, mary, but the fact is we depend so much, and we have since george washington was president, on the good intentions of who's sitting in the oval office, and we learned obviously over the last four or five years that we may have to tighten things up a bit, right? >> tighten things up, yes.

and, you know, i understand the pressure on doj to do something, but, you know, doj has got to get it right, right? criminal prosecutions mean establishing every element of every offense beyond a reasonable doubt, and a misstep here could even be almost more damaging. >> right. >> and, you know, people are entitled to due process, entitled to assert the fifth amendment. i'm not trying to defend any of these folks. it's just a lot more complicated thing sometimes. >> easier said than done. >> federal investigations take a long time. ron desantis' opponent, andrew gillam, ran for governor in 2018. he just got indicted. it was a five-year criminal investigation. it takes time. >> i was a prosecutor for more than 20 years and, you know, some investigations go easily four, five, six years. this one obviously there's a reason to push. >> yes. >> but i think we've seen the steps, right. you start with the most easily

readily provable cases, the almost 900 people charged with the actual attack, start seeing what connections go up the chain. we have the investigation that the attorney general is being very clear is going on. and i think, you know, the links here, you know, we're getting there through the committee, which of course is not the committee's job to do the criminal investigation, but they can share their evidence with doj. but, you know, that link districtly between trump and the insurrectionists is still the place where we haven't seen it directly. closer but we're not there. >> former justice department official mary mccord, than for coming on. come back again soon. former spokesman for the house oversight committee, kurt bardella, great to have you on. and our "the beat" host, ari melber. coming up, an nbc news exclusive interview with one of vladimir putin's closest international allies. keir simmons joins us with that.

plus, it was a roller coaster day on wall street with the monthly inflation report causing a 1,500-point swing. andrew ross sorkin is next with what to expect today. president biden has now signed the inflation reduction act into law. ok, so what exactly does it mean for you? out of pocket costs for drugs will be capped. for seniors, insulin will be just $35. families will save $2,400 on health care premiums. energy costs, down an average of $1,800 a year for families. and it's paid for by making the biggest corporations pay what they owe. president biden's bill doesn't fix everything, but it will save your family money.

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the democratic party, they have majority. they could stop this crime today. they want crime. they want crime because they want to take over what you got. they want to control what you have. they want reparation because they think the people that do the crime are owed that. bull [ bleep ]! they are not owed that. >> whooo! you tell them! that thing you just made up right now about reparations is bull [ bleep ]! we can't have that fake thing happening! whooo!

i got to say, people, i've heard racists say all kinds of things, that black people are criminals and reparations is reverse racism, but it takes a true racist innovator to combine both at the same time. like the stuffed crust pizza of racism. i knew that you could have krus and you could have cheese but i didn't know that you could put the cheese inside the crust because the chinese the holding the crust together for the cheesiest! now -- now -- if you're confused by what this man is saying. congratulations, it means you're sane. but his point is that democrats want black people to do crime because that's basically reparations which the democrats believe they deserve. and there were just two things i can think of off the top of my head, off the top of my head. one, how does this argument explain black people who steal things from other black people? who's reparationing who?

and secondly, how does he imply all criminals are black, huh? that is disgusting. has the senator never watched netflix? huh? i'm not going to stand here and let tommy tuberville erase all these white people's contributions! this is the real racism, my friends. >> unbelievable. >> unbelievable. >> so tuberville, sort of the turkey with a duck inside of a chicken, turducken. i must say lester maddox and george wallace -- >> that's exactly where i was going. >> -- are very proud. >> that's exactly where i was going. >> this is what racists used to say behind microphones when they felt free to say them then moved to a period only david duke was saying this. but now -- and i've seen other

people doing this -- they are taking clips of david duke and juxtaposing them with what republican people like tommy tuberville are saying. identical. >> identical. >> the very thing that just a few years ago got steve king kicked off of his committee and pushed out of congress is the thing now that republicans are saying that are in power. >> absolutely. i mean, you know, i remember george wallace and lester maddox, and i've got to say that they could be more subtle than that. i mean, they really could. george wallace was a much better politician than that. and he could be more subtle. >> by the way, george wallace didn't make tens of millions of dollars on the back of black players. >> exactly. black players. right. he didn't go and sit in the parents' living rooms and talk about how much he loved and respected their children, he was going to take care of them. >> be like a daddy.

when he's at auburn, i'll be his daddy, trust me. >> i didn't hear anyone asking him to apologize because it's so despicable. >> it's disgusting. >> it's disgusting. willie? >> well, president biden is on the west coast this morning touting his infrastructure law. he's been doing some fund-raising out there as well. in los angeles yesterday, the president addressed that poor inflation report we got yesterday. >> americans are squeezed by the cost of living. folks don't need a report to tell them they're being squeezed. there are a lot of people hurting these days. today's report shows some progress. overall, inflation was 2% over the last three months. that's down from 11% over the prior three months. that's progress. republicans win, inflation will get worse. it's that simple. >> joining us now co-anchor of "squawk box," andrew ross

sorkin. we're waiting to see the markets. dipped at first but finished way up despite the fact inflation still stubbornly at 8.2%. how do you explain it? >> oh, boy. it was a whipsaw of a situation, and to be honest, it's hard to explain. i think going into that you heard that number, it was hotter than people thought, and immediately when you say okay there's more inflation than we thought, that makes you think, well, the federal reserve, jerome powell, is going to continue to raise interest rates, that's going to put pressure on the stock market and continue to put pressure across the entire economy. there was a sense among some traders yesterday that perhaps maybe this is a sign of a peak in inflation. i think those that are looking for good news and sort of glass half full sense were looking at that. they were also looking at earnings. and we talked about it. so far, earnings for lots of companies have actually remained quite resilient, and on top of that, we have this news which

started yesterday but has become official today about the change in policy out of the uk around what they were doing with their tax plans, which had a lot of people worried there could be a global crisis, that there could be a financial crisis in britain because of underfunded liabilities and the like if they were going to lower taxes and not have enough money to pay for all of this stuff, and that has been reversed or at least looks like it's being changed. that led also to some fears of being reduced and led the market higher. it's leading the market higher today. having said that, i should tell you i know nobody in washington who thinks the federal reserve is planning to take its foot off of the neck of the economy if you will to try to tamp down inflation. >> andrew, of course, a lot of breaking news out of britain this morning. you have of course liz truss' finance minister, who's resigned. >> fired. pink slip. >> pink slip. >> sacked. >> sacked. >> pink slip.

fired. he was kicked out. also the tabloids, i was shown this by jonathan lemire, the tabloids are now trying to guess. there's liz truss speaking right now perhaps the shortest premiership in british history. but the question right now is will liz truss outlast this lettuce? and you see actually liz truss, a picture of her, and a head of lettuce. and the question is how long is she going to be able to survive this chaos. you know, she was trying to be maggie thatcher. >> yep. >> butt v but it's 2022. it's not 1979. and she's trying to actually implement even more aggressive version of thatcherism, more like reaganism. but, america in 1981 could absorb those sort of deficits. great britain today just can't, can they?

>> it's hard to think they can, and when you think about sort of the things that you might do if you're a conservative and the supply side-ish way in terms of trying to lower the cost of things, in a moment of inflation, oddly enough it can do the opposite, which is why you saw the pound fall and why you saw costs in that country rise. became almost impossible for lots of people to have mortgages. so right now i think there's a moment of credibility for the uk that's at stake. whether she remains in that post or somebody else comes in, i think it's too early to tell, but from an economic perspective, the sort of supply-side thoughts that have worked in certain cases, and i know there's debates whether they've worked, but to the extent they have historically, might not work in this instance in this moment. >> i believe they have in certain instances. great britain right now just doesn't have the ability to absorb that kind of debt. and obviously even liz truss has figured that out. cnbc's andrew ross sorkin, thank you so much.

gene, it's really shocking what a mess she has created in just a few weeks. >> in such a short time. you know, she came in, and i guess i was naive. my expectation was that she would come in with pretty garden-variety torry policies, right? >> right. >> boris johnson, you know, for all his many, many flaws, did seem to understand the economy. he raised taxes when he needed to get through covid and, you know, to fund all of the things he needed to fund i mean in that kind of way against this ideology, but it was practical. and so i think it was just a shock to see the conservative party in britain behaving in way that was so irrational and so sudden, like overnight, radically different economic theory.

and to expect -- and one of the most important economies in the world. you saw the result. the pound plunging and all this concern about british debt and would they be able to service it. and it was just an absolute mess. it's still a mess. it's still volatile. and she's going to either right the ship or they're going to have to get somebody else in to steer. that's just the way it is. up next, nbc's keir simmons spoke exclusively this morning with the president of belarus. one of russian president vladimir putin's closest allies. keir joins us next with that report. liberty mutual. they customize your car insurance, so you only pay for what you need. contestants ready? go! only pay for what you need. jingle: liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty.

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yesterday russia unleashed more strikes on civilian targets in ukraine, hitting a port city, leaving at least seven people buried under the rubble in an apartment block. one survivor was an 11-year-old boy who was rescued after spending six hours buried in a crumbled five-story building. the remains of an 80-year-old woman and a 31-year-old man were found under that same rubble. more than three dozen deaths

have been reported across the country of ukraine since those strikes began on monday. meanwhile this morning, at the close of a regional summit of a post-soviet leader in the capital of kazakhstan russian president vladimir putin met with alexander lukashenko. the close ally of putin warned the west not to force russia into a corner amid its war on ukraine. nbc news senior international correspondent keir simmons joins us live from kazakhstan. you just finished an interview with lukashenko. what did he tell you? >> reporter: that's right. he's a close ally of president putin. belarus joined the likes of syria and north korea in voting against that u.n. resolution this week, condemning russia's offensive in ukraine. i suppose you could say what he has to say kind of translates

president putin's words. what he told us, i guess there's good news and bad news in a sense, that he seemed to roll back from the idea that president putin would use nuclear weapons, but the explanation that he gives is that president putin doesn't need to because he has such firepower, he wouldn't need to use nuclear weapons. do you think president putin would use a nuclear weapon? >> translator: if you put a person or a country into a corner, there's only one way out from there, to move forward. that's why you don't cross red lines. you cannot cross them. within the last couple days russia made strikes on ukraine in high positions in response to the cry meehan bridge attack. it was powerful but it's not everything. russia, and i know this for sure, possesses the most modern

weapons, and you don't need nuclear weapons. russia will cope without nuclear weapons. >> reporter: and president putin speaking here just in the past few hours has said that he sees no need for more widespread attacks against ukraine at this stage. so that is interesting because i think what president lukashenko may be pointing to is the fact, for example, russia has the equivalent of b 52 bombers that could bring more firepower, if you like. i think that might be one of the reasons why ukraine is urgently asking for air defense and the west is urgently rushing to try to provide more air defense. another piece of news from the interview, by the way, with president lukashenko, there is this question of whether belarus would now get more involved in the offensive in ukraine on russia's side. he says we're not killing anyone there and we're not planning to kill anyone. we have no intentions to get dragged into it. willie?

>> i guess we'll take that as reassuring. nbc news chief international correspondent, keir simmons. thank you. coming up next, key moments from last night's gubernatorial debate in the state of michigan. we'll bring them to you when "morning joe" comes right back. "morning joe" comes right back for the all-new subway series menu the new monster has juicy steak and crispy bacon. but what about the new boss? it looks so good it makes me hangry! settle down there, big guy the new subway series. what's your pick?

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can have. she wouldn't allow protection even inside of the school where we know that's the best-case scenario if we have someone who can shoot down a shooter, shoot down a threat. but she doesn't want anything like that. she wants to make sure your kids are in a sitting duck zone, where there can be no guns and there's no protection against them. the idea that she thinks that any -- having any type of weapon is too dangerous for the state of michigan, she'll take all of your guns away. >> it's just a lie. and we know it's all a lie. that's the thing. it's just -- it is so crude, it is so base. these arguments, there's no subtlety to them at all. when you say i supreme court universal background checks, they're like they want to take away your guns. it's just a lie. politicians who know better, who actually have read heller and other cases know it's a complete

lie. that's what they do. >> they have for a long time. this government force is going to come and take away your guns. democrats have said time and time again, nobody is going to take away your guns. they want to restrict weapons of war. and tudor dixon completely misrepresented governor whitmer's response. >> the gunman who killed 17 people at marjory stoneman douglas high school in parkland, florida, back in 2018, will not get the death penalty after a three-month trial that included graphic photos and video. the jury of seven men and five women sentenced the gunman to life in prison without the possibility of po role. after the verdict was read, some of the parents of the victims reacted with shock and anger after they learned that the gunman's life had been spared. >> i'm stunned. i'm devastated.

there are 17 victims that did not receive justice today. this jury failed our families today. >> i'm disgusted with our legal system. i'm disgusted with those jurors, that you can allow 17 dead and 17 others shot and wounded and not give the death penalty. what do we have the death penalty for? >> we came here seeking justice, we were hoping for justice, and, unfortunately, we didn't get it today. >> the jury foreman told an affiliate, three jurors had voted to spare the gunman's life. florida requires a unanimous vote in order to impose a death sentence. >> and sadly, willie, we have been seeing the high costs of radicalism when it comes to twisted, unconstitutional interpretations of what the second amendment of the supreme court says all over from sandy

hook and that trial to yesterday to what happened -- >> almost every day. >> -- to what happened in uvalde and what happened yesterday in raleigh. >> another shooting in raleigh, north carolina. five people killed, including a police officer. raleigh police say they have a juvenile in custody. it started as an active shooter call around 5:00 p.m. along a nature trail in raleigh. it ended when the suspect was taken into custody with five dead and at least two others wounded. an off-duty police officer is among those who were killed. a responding officer and police k-9 also were injured. another victim is in critical condition. authorities have not disclosed any information about a possibly motive. but police saying this morning the shooter, 15 years old. >> a 15-year-old shooter. >> there is so much to discuss

that we don't have the time to. we've got a lot going on today and we'll revisit this again tomorrow. trump is responding to the january 6th -- >> just a moment ago, put out a statement, 14 pages, he does not address the subpoena. he continues with his lies about the election and he calls the proceedings a scam. no response to yesterday's news with an unanimous vote to have him come testify. >> i was going to say much more tomorrow morning -- >> i think he's afraid of liz cheney. got to be it. >> i could see him being afraid -- >> a lot of people are saying -- people are -- a lot of people are saying that he's afraid of liz cheney. >> she is tough. it appears he didn't even address the charges. it looks like he's ducking her. >> much more monday morning. jose diaz-balart picks up the coverage right now. ♪♪ good morning, 10:00 a