did this narrative emerge because in a lot of ways we were only focusing on the polls that came out in the last several weeks. when you look back, the bigger picture that i don't think people were taking into account really shows a trend of democrats holding their own and being competitive through the end of the cycle. late republican gains, which is unusual for a cycle, according to history like this. but i think definitely moving forward people will look at the bigger picture more than just the few polls that come out in the final weeks. >> is it also possible that minds were made up in the last minute and a couple of factors changed things like paul pelosi, for example. >> i think certainly those things changed minds for a few people. in large part i think a lot of shy trump voters didn't show up to the polls as some say, and others were turned off by character, and that's not captured in polls. >> alexi mccammond, thank you for getting up "way too early."

and thank you for getting up "way too early" with me on this friday morning. "morning joe" starts right now. it really is truly in our hands. we set the course for the nation's future. we just have to remember who in god's name we are. and i hope nothing else happens. remember this. there's not a damn thing, i really mean it from the bottom of my heart, not a damn thing we can't do if we do it together. we are the united states of america, and you made it better. >> underestimated again, president joe biden continues to be optimistic following a strong performance by democrats in the midterm elections. this morning we have updates in the three races that could determine control of congress. we'll explain why it's taking -- why it seems to be taking so long to get those results.

plus, the melt down mar-a-lago. former president trump spent much of yesterday ranting online about the big lie and the man many now see as the future of the republican party. meanwhile, president biden is on air force one right now hours from the start of a highly anticipated trip overseas focused on the climate, china and russia's war, which we have an update for you. in ukraine, there are more positive signs ukrainian soldiers are taking back key regions and pushing back russian troops. they are simply incredible. good morning, and welcome to "morning joe," it is friday, november 11th, along with willie and me, we have u.s. special correspondent for bbc news, katty kay. she's certifiable, got up really early this morning. former member of congress, david jolly, he represented florida's 13th district. it will be great to have his

insight this morning. and former chief of staff of the dccc adrienne elrod, and joe is off this morning, but it's not over yet, willie. >> no, they're still counting in arizona. still counting in nevada. the vote count in arizona where the key races for senate and governor remain too early to call. there are 300,000 ballots yet to be counted in maricopa. the count is being slowed by a record number of mail-in ballots, about 290,000 that were dropped off on election day. the first batch of votes tr from those ballots expected to be released today. in pima county, officials say there are 54,000 ballots still to be counted. democratic incumbent senator mark kelly holds on to a small lead over republican challenger blake masters. in the race for secretary of state, republican mark finchem, a prominent 2020 election denier

trailed adrian funtes by 5 points. katie hobbs has a slight edge over republican kari lake. >> a lot to do in nevada. about 50,000 volts remain to be counted in that state's largest county. those include mail-in ballots and ballots placed in drop boxes at polling sites on election day in clark county. officials say they are working as fast as they can to count them all. across the state, an estimated additional 40,000 ballots remain to be counted. mail-in ballots will be accepted in nevada until tomorrow. as long as they were postmarked by election day. this is why it's taking a bit. republican adam laxalt holds a slight lead in the senate race against democratic incumbent, catherine cortez masto. she has been carrying the gap after the first round of mail-in ballots in clark county which

includes las vegas, by two to one. meanwhile in the race for secretary of state, republican jim marchant, a trump endorsed election denier, trailed democrat cisco aguilar in a race too early to call. marchant has promised to get rid of all electronic voting machines, voting by mail, and early voting. steve kornacki is going to be joining us at the big board in just a little bit. he's recharging his battery, willie. >> you have to plug him in every once in a while. >> this will change over time, but we've got a couple of days ahead of us still. >> it's interesting when you look at this, we're not calling any races yet, but it does appear that mark kelly is doing well in arizona. we can characterize it that way. >> right. >> and senator masto does make up ground as we go. there is the real possibility, again, we're not calling anything that democrats could

hold on to those two seats and have their 50, and then georgia just becomes gravy if they win that. >> it's a story for history. we may be in an environment where not a single democratic senator loses reelection, and that is incredible. consider this, if the fortunes of kelly are going the right way, cortez masto the same, and georgia democrats can make the runoff about donald trump, it's a very good environment for rafael warnock to return to the senate as well. >> adrienne elrod, jump in. this is a big week for democrats in so many ways. the understatement of the year is it could have been so much worse. >> that's exactly right. if you asked me tuesday morning if i thought we would gain a seat in the senate, i would have laughed and said there's no way. but, look, i mean, david jolly is exactly right. what's happening right now in nevada is still too early to call. but we are seeing senator cortez

masto getting about 2-1 of the absentee ballots. the projection on our side is more and more of those ballots come in, she's going to continue to gain her lead, and you know, we believe she'll slightly win the seat, and of course mark kelly is far ahead right now in that arizona race. even if more of the ballots come in where they're evenly split. he's likely going to have an edge in the seat. it comes down to the georgia runoff. you're going to see enthusiasm on both sides. if donald trump gets in next tuesday, that is going to, i think, especially given the horrible night he had on tuesday, i think that's going to further dampen enthusiasm on the republican side, and it's going to only help democrats. so this is certainly -- was certainly a great night. we're continuing to count the votes. from the state legislatures to minimizing our losses in the house, and of course potentially gaining a seat in the senate, flipping pennsylvania. we feel good about what

happened. >> we have been looking for good reason at the top of these tickets to senators and governors. we also just mentioned the secretary of state races, which are critical important. that's where a lot of concern was around people among elections. mark finchem, trail right now, who out and out said joe biden lost the 2020 election. he's on the side of the cyber ninjas and suggested he wouldn't in 2024 recognize a win by joe biden necessarily. so if those hold up, if democrats hold on to those secretary of state races, almost equally important to anything else we're seeing. >> yeah, i spoke to mark finchem over the summer, he told me he didn't think a democrat could win in arizona. i spoke to him on election night, and he was casting doubt about the process as kari lake has done in arizona. it was clearly a very good night for democracy in the fact that people conceded, they did the normal thing that democracies demand of people, but we should

keep an eye on arizona to check that that pattern continues. the republicans have targeted a group of a dozen secretary of state races around the country with a laser focus, a ton of money went into those races. eventually the democrats caught up to how important these secretary of state races were and later started pouring money in of their own. realizing that people finchem took over, that could have an impact on how 2024 is counted. and democrats mounted. president trump is casting doubt over the legitimacy of tuesday's election results with no evidence to back up his claims. remember he said before the election if we win, it will be on me. i did it. and if we lose it won't be my fault. in a post on his social media site yesterday, trump wrote that clark county nevada has a corrupt voting system and claimed that the vote counting

in arizona is taking so long because quote they want more time to cheat. later on trump leaned into the baseless conspiracy theories even more writing that very strange things were happening in arizona and nevada. those claims were later shot down by clark county officials who in a statement wrote in part quote, we have heard his outrageous claims. he's obviously still misinformed about the law, and our election processes that ensure the integrity of elections in clark county. and, willie, we knew all along. we were saying all along that these would take some time to vote. there's a process there. it's no different than other states. >> it's just the way it is. we would all like to know on election night who wins. pennsylvania did a good job of getting their vote in. there's no room for doubt there. clark county, they have been transparent saying this is going to take a while. they have done a good job of

sort of systematically shooting down conspiracy theories to go along with his unhinged rant yesterday about elections, donald trump also went one on one with ron desantis. trump wrote in part, news corp. which is fox, the "wall street journal," and the no longer great "new york post." >> he was on the cover as trumpty dumpty. trump wrote he has the advantage of sunshine where people from badly run states up north would go no matter who the governor was, just like i did. the former president went on to claim his endorsement of desantis helped win the florida governor's race in 2018. trump accused desantis of quote playing games by not answering questions about 2024. he wrote, the fake news asks him

if he's going to run if president trump runs, and he says i'm only focused on the governor's race. i'm not looking into the future. trump wrote, well, in terms of loyalty and class, that really is not the right answer. despite the growing calls from within the republican party to break with donald trump, the former president is moving ahead with what he calls a special announcement next week. trump's team sent an invite to the press yesterday, teasing the event at his mar-a-lago estate in palm beach, florida, where he's widely expected to announce another presidential run. that statement, we spared the viewers most of it is family intervention stuff. dad's not doing well, let's rush in to sit with him. my gosh has ron desantis set up shop in donald trump's head. >> there's one truth in donald trump's statement, and that is that ron desantis owes his political career to the former

president without question. there's nobody in america that more definitely and successfully used donald trump. and i say used. right? he was the ambassador of trumpism when he was in the house. he uses trump to get to the governor's mansion and steps aside from trump, gets adjacent, doesn't defend him and also doesn't criticize him. ron desantis has never taken the bait. i mean, i think a lot of people are waiting to hear what is the posture of ron desantis in this moment? does he just say nice things about the president and move on. right now, look, he's got the hot hand. he doesn't need to engage. ron desantis has a glass jaw, fragile ego. you get him on the ropes and you start to see the ron desantis, that's not the manufactured package you see today. how will ron desantis respond? >> you do see a shift happening in the voices, the trumpeters,

if i may say, if they're in the media or republican leaders, they seem to be slowly moving away, some of them. >> you could predict this chapter over the last six years that as soon as it became convenient for republicans to discard trump they would, and i think it's very important that we recognize, they are not moving on from trump out of conviction. they had opportunities to do that when he was separating families at the border, when he was attacking our democratic institutions, when he was doing all of those things, they could have left trump then, but they didn't. >> convenience. >> this is the ultimate political behavior of republican leaders right now. >> joining us now, contributing writer to "the atlantic," peter waner, he has a piece that will show us the other side of this. "more maga than ever" you write a bad midterm election is unlikely to break trump's grip on the party. why? because it's hard to overstate how radicalized the base of the republican party remains.

donald trump may have endorsed candidates but it was primary voters who chose them. the lesson primary voters usually learn after several disappointing lessons, which is to make changes so their party wins. more races isn't likely to gain much purchase within maga world. those who inhabit maga world are deeply alienated from institutions including political ones, and therefore a good deal less loyal to the republican party than they are to donald trump. i'm not sure right wing pundits declaring that the republican party needs to move on from trump will sway those voters any more than it did in 2016 and 2015 when virtually the entire gop establishment opposed trump. to complicate matters further, the republican party today has more, not fewer maga figures in it than in the past. and katty kay, you spent some time really interviewing trump voters and working on

understanding them. does pete's message here ring true to you in terms of it may have been a blow to trump but it is far from over? >> yeah, i think that really does ring true. i almost felt after spending a month traveling around the country speak to go a lot of trump supporters, trump could come out and say the 2020 election was free and fair and his supporters would have the message that it was stolen, and that wasn't going to change. i think trumpism is in the system, and even if donald trump were suddenly to decide he was not going to run in 2024, those supporters will be looking for another candidate who echoes some of what trump offers them, and it's not just policy, it's a tone. it's a style. it's a combativeness. it's owning the libs. those are the things they like about him. peter, i think, you know, you wrote that this election was all about donald trump in terms of that's why the democrats did so well. are you thinking that if trump

were not to run in 2024, then democrats could carry on the kind of winning streak they had last night or is there another trump like candidate that the maga crowd could tap into? >> well, i think if trump didn't win in 2024, that would hurt the republican prospects and help democrats, but you're quite right, the republican party is a magafied party, a trump party. if he were not to run for a variety of reasons that would go into the decision, the republican party itself is radicalized and it's almost impossible to overstate how much that is the case. you know, desantis is on paper a good candidate, and there's no question that there's been some erosion in trump's support, but he started at a very very high mark. these maga voters are not like traditional republican or

democratic voters. there's almost no loyalty to the institution, political institution, whether it's the democratic or republican party. they got into the politics because of donald trump, and they would follow him to the ends of the earth. and the last thing i'll say, desantis, as jolly had referred to, he may not be as impressive in reality as he is on paper. very few people have seen desantis for any length of time and when trump unleashes his blow torch, we'll see how he holds up. >> we have been seeing for the last couple of days, one republican after the other, the "new york post" and "wall street journal" say they should move on. of course it's not that easy. the only difference is he is costing them power which at the end of the day is the point of the exercise for them. losing elections in 2020, in 2021, and now in 2022 with some terrible candidates that he

blessed and kind of forced upon the party. does that part of it, does that compel them? they can't tell maga voters what to do, does that part of it compel republicans to turn another way? >> it could. there's no question that the results from the midterms is going to hurt trump. i think that if the senate goes republican rather than democratic, that changes the tone of that. georgia may have a lot to say because if republicans have the house and senate by narrow margins, that's a different cast. but, look, trump is weaker than he was. but he's still the dominant figure in the republican party, and the fact that a lot of murdoch's empire is turning on trump doesn't help him but i don't know how much it hurts him. the entire political class in 2015 and 2016 was against trump, and he actually used that to his

advantage. the other thing that i want to underscore is how cynical this is by republicans, and this is trump, he tried to overturn an election. he's lawless. he's corrupt, he's cruel. this act has been playing out for a half dozen years, and they either went silent in the face of it, or they supported him. and the only reason that a lot of them are turning on him now is because they think that he's no longer a path to power. and i'm glad if they turn on him, but it's awful late in the game and it isn't because of any moral center that caused him to do that. any sense that this man was a malicious and malignant threat to our country. it's because this guy helped us get power and it may be that now he's going to block us to power. and that says a lot about the core, i would say the hollow core of the republican party. >> we'll see how long the sentiment holds up, the

atlantic's pete wehner. mitt romney has a page on the "wall street journal." we can govern in the people's interest or make a lot of pointless noise. i hope we choose wisely. he's talking about the incoming class, if they do hold on to the house, you know, promising impeachment hearings and all that. he's saying let's go get things done rather than all of this sort of trumpian noise. >> i think most republicans wrongly will ignore mitt romney. you can expect the house to be a playground for the next two years of all the craziness and the incoming speaker will be the playground monitor. where republicans find themselves right now is a paradox. you can't win with donald trump, but you can't win without him. because if the party fractures and the maga voters go away, you can't win. this idea of rebranding the party is a multiple cycle rebrand. it doesn't just happen by '24. >> before we end this block, is kevin mccarthy going to be the speaker of the house? >> i don't think he will get to

218 votes. it does not require a challenger for him to lose his bid. >> then what happens? >> my bet would be on steve scalise. the reason he's endorsed mccarthy is so he can be the savior when everything blows up. still ahead on "morning joe," the latest from georgia's senate race, which is headed for a runoff. we'll look at how rafael warnock became the last democrat standing in the state's top midterm races. plus, minority leader kevin mccarthy wants to serve as house speaker. it appears members of the party are making things a tad difficult for him. also ahead, president biden warned that this year's midterms would be a battle for democracy. now he's taking that message overseas. jonathan lemire joins us live from cambodia for more on that. >> and russia claims to have removed all of its troops from a key southern city in ukraine. we'll talk to admiral james

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midterms in the rear view. president biden is pivoting to foreign policy. he's on his way to egypt this morning. the first stop on a three-country trip that will conclude with a face-to-face meeting with china's president. that will happen on monday at the g20 summit in indonesia. it will be the first in-person meeting since biden took office. joining us now from cambodia where president biden will be tomorrow. the host of "way too early," white house bureau chief at "politico," jonathan lemire. jonathan, what can we expect the president will hope to accomplish out of this meeting, and certainly he arrives now on

foreign soil a lot stronger and more emboldened than he was before the midterms when everyone thought it would be a huge red wave. >> reporter: yeah, he's got a jam packed itinerary, mika. when he lands for egypt for a major climate change conference, he's going to deliver a speech later today, and air force one in the skies to head here to the capital of cambodia where he'll participate in asian state summits, pacific ocean state summits before the main event, the g20 in bali. president putin of russia, not wanting to go after suffering another humiliation on the battlefield. xi jinping, the leader of china will be there, and there's a lot on the agenda for the meeting. economic relations, of course, but also expect president biden to deliver a message of warning about china aggression to taiwan. he's got to tread delicately

because he wants xi jinping's help on a number of issues, including further isolating putin, and kim jong un of north korea who was ramped up rocket tests. >> if they're going to meet first time face-to-face, my understanding is there's been almost no communication, bilateral communication between the americans and the chinese for the last two years. what's the number one thing that they need to try and sort out? what is most urgent, taiwan, is it trade, what's the sticking point? >> reporter: the short answer is all of the above. there has been a total break down of communications after speaker pelosi's visit to taiwan. china stopped talking to the u.s. entirely for a stretch. those conversations only revived to plan this particular meeting. xi jinping and president biden have spoken a couple of times on the phone, not often. they did have a bit of a relationship when biden was vice president and xi jinping had a

secondary role in his government as well. they have met before, but the stakes of course much higher now. trade policy certainly big. taiwan huge as well, including to push china to continue to not help out russia too much with their war. and it should be underscored here to how mika brought in the segment, the president comes here emboldened with a much better than expected midterms for his party. and one that he put democracy on the ballot, and it would have been difficult, white house aides have been telling me for him to make that argument at home, have a lot of big lie candidates win, and then come here overseas and look leaders in the faces and say, look, american democracy is working. it's easier to do that now because so many of the significant election deniers lost, and because donald trump appears weakened because so many of these allies overseas have been so worried about a possible trump return in 2024. >> jonathan lemire reporting for us from cambodia. thank you, and, willie, to

jonathan's point, the president was very happy after the midterms and, a lot of members of the media but also analysts were like, you know, he's focused on democracy. it's too philosophical. he's focused on abortion, that's not what's polling. that's what he focused on, and once again, underestimated joe biden, that's what turned out was important to people. >> he was being lectured on election day. >> we have to talk about crime, and joe said you need to talk about everything, but i definitely heard a lot of voices saying the president's so focused on democracy. he's so focused on abortion. yes, he had his finger on the pulse, and it turned out to be right, and a lot of the polling didn't. >> yeah, abortion in pennsylvania, michigan, number one issue. in fact, by wide margins. he was right about that at least. the russian defense ministry says it's finished pulling troops out of the west bank of

the dnipro river. joining us is four star admiral james stavridis, chief international analyst, and supreme allied commander of nato. great to have you with us this morning. this does look again like a headline, russia in retreat, when you look at what's happening in kherson, ukraine pushing them back, moving into territories. what are you seeing on the battlefield right now? >> it's a really good day in kyiv. let's pick up the point you just made, which is vladimir putin essentially afraid to go to the g20. he can't look president xi, his best friend forever in the eye. remember these two looked each other in the eye right before the olympics. putin was flying high. i suspect he told xi, look, this thing will be over in five days. i'll be in kyiv. here we are eight and a half months later, and the ukrainians are about to take back the last

remaining big city that the russians were able to capture. this is a very good day in kyiv. having said that, willie, don't count vladimir putin out yet. he's going to continue carpet bombing. he's going to continue relying on iran for more high-tech equipment. he might play a cyber card. he might do god forbid, something with a weapon of mass destruction. he could order a full mobilization, energize the black sea fleet, and use it more effectively, and above all, he'll be watching europe. can they hold together with high energy prices and a cold winter. i think they can. i don't like his hand of cards, but he's got cards to play. overall a good day in kyiv. >> to your point, kyiv is sort of not celebrating the way others might be about this news out of kherson. they've moving with caution worried this could be some kind of a strategy from vladimir putin, but to your point, when you have a man in vladimir putin

who thought in five days he would be in kyiv and they would be having a parade and installing a puppet regime there, boy, this is completely blown up in his face. so what happens from here in your estimation? how long can putin keep this up? >> well, to your point about blowing up in his face, you know, his generals told him don't worry, president putin, our troops will be greeted with bottoms of vodka. they were greeted with flammable liquids called molotov cocktails. so this really is a debacle unfolding for russia. how it ends up, i think, is things will steady down because of winter, because both sides are going to be not quite frozen in place but deeply difficult. you'll see a lot of air attacks out of russia. we'll get through the winter, the europeans will hold together. i think then, willie, assuming we continue to stand with

ukraine, and i think we will. the big we, the u.s., the west, then i think you've got the conditions for some kind of negotiation coming out of the winter. that's a long way away. a lot of twists and turns. that's, i think, the best we can hope for at this moment. >> so david ignatius has a new column in the "washington post" entitled russia is in retreat in every major international forum, and he writes in part this. as russia's military troubles mount in ukraine, it's also becoming more isolated internationally. as organizations affiliated with the united nations, purge russia's representatives from leadership positionings. this has accelerated in recent months. it's another example of the way the ukraine war is realigning the international system into a small block supporting the kremlin and a larger group backing the united states and

its broad coalition of allies. the russian military has made some stunning mistakes on the battlefield in kyiv, kharkiv, and now kherson. but russia's diplomats may have feared even worse. russia is in retreat in every major international forum. putin imagined this war would bring him greater global influence. it has instead been an epic disaster. so admiral, putin may have cards to play, but the walls also internationally seem to be closing in. >> i think that's smart analysis, as always, by our colleague and friend, david ignatius. you know that distant boom you hear is vladimir putin's head exploding. this has gone so badly, and by the way, i'll add to the list david gave us, sweden and finland joining nato, strengthening the alliance. bulking up that northern flank, and the list really goes on and

on. it's approaching the point where we need to make sure we work to keep the lines of communication open with russia. it's very tempting to do high fives and box him into the corner. we need to keep talking to the russians, we need to find ways ultimately to negotiate an ending to this war. in some ways, mika, we ought to be growing to be concerned about russian weakness as opposed to russian strength because of that nuclear arsenal. so, yes, everything david says is right. >> former nato supreme allied commander losing the audio there a little bit. james stavridis, thank you very much for being on this morning. and still ahead on "morning joe," live reporting from arizona and nevada where a number of key races are still too early to call this morning. plus, steve kornacki will be at the big board.

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what i think they're doing is slow rolling our victory. they want to take the air out of this movement, and they can't do it because it's a movement, and we the people are fed up and we're not going to slow down. we're not going to let them take the fire out of our belly. and so they slow roll the results, you know, ron desantis goes out, gives his big speech and they want to make it look like the trump republicans don't have a chance. we do. we're going to win. i'm 100% sure of that. i think that blake may even win. >> am i the only one who sees this. she is so trumpy that trump is mad at desantis, calls him

desanctimonious. i don't know what that really meant. >> it's an incoherent argument. >> she just put his name in there. >> had to go after him a little bit. high school. arizona's republican gubernatorial candidate kari lake in an interview yesterday seeming to connect ron desantis with unfounded claims of election fraud. what's going on? am i right or is there something else going on here david jolly. >> welcome to republicans in disarray. this goes to the premise of the earlier conversation, this notion that they're going to quickly get past donald trump or this rapid coordination of ron desantis is not happening. here's why. in the last 72 hours, kari lake has thrown her loyalty to donald trump. matt gaetz said donald trump is the next candidate. are you supporting donald trump or not, and the problem is, look, some of them will do it

out of fealty and loyalty and craziness, that's the kari lake play. the others like rick scott will do it because they have to. >> don't you think some will see, wow, this is our get away car, like i don't have to do this anymore. >> the stench and stain of trumpism lives with these republicans. it's not as easy as just saying i took a shower and it's gone. >> adrienne elrod, the other part of this is the voters. a lot of folks were wrong about what mattered to them. democracy did matter. joe biden was right. >> yeah, that's exactly right. a couple of things, mika. number one, president biden's agenda is incredibly popular. we saw that play out tuesday night. to your point, abortion, people actually care about protecting their right to access to abortion, not just women but a lot of men out there too. that was important to them. and anyone who said that democracy doesn't matter to voters, protecting the pillars of democracy doesn't matter, it turns out is actually does. so i think president biden going out there making the big speech about the integrity of our

systems. almost every election denier running for major office has lost. we'll see what happens in the arizona governor's race. that is certainly a far more tighter race regardless of the outcome than we ever imagined. you see kari lake going out there and sort of using her same spiel, they're trying to take away my win by slowly counting the votes. voters don't buy that, and we also saw independent voters break heavily for democrats this cycle. of course if republicans want to win the presidency in 2024, whether it's donald trump, ron desantis, whomever it is, they have to get back those independent voters, and independent voters are not buying any sort of election denialism. it's not something they support. a lot of take aways from tuesday night which i know we'll be unpacking for a while, but what we do know for a fact is that the american people want the pillars of democracy to be protected. >> yeah, just to go back a minute to kari lake's comment,

the desantis piece of it, gratuitously threw his name in, doesn't get to the argument but to get to the point about her denialism and casting doubt on the results and outcome of this election, you interviewed her i know over the summer, and i think tried or maybe ultimately did get to the most important piece of this, which is does she actually believe this stuff. she's a smart woman. she's campaigned well. she's earned a lot of votes out there. does she actually believe that the 2020 election was stolen? does she actually believe this time around that, well, there are some questions, why is the vote taking so long. she knows why it's taking long. it's been made clear. mail-in votes and everything else. does she believe this stuff? >> i wrote about this question in the bbc this morning. i went into my interview with her, i spent a day with her at a campaign event hosted in a retirement community a couple of hours outside of phoenix. it's a master class in retail

politics. she's really good. all of those years on camera as a tv anchor have served her well. she went in with gushing compliments about everybody in the room. she had them eating out of her hands, and yet her message is very hard core, kind of far on the right of the republican party. i went into that interview exactly wanting to answer that question, does she believe it, somebody who spent 22 years as a tv anchor in the news business, is she just spinning this for political gain. i came out none the wiser to be honest. my lunch is she doesn't because i can't believe that somebody who has dealt in facts for that long as a business would realize, would believe something for which there are no facts, but you would never get her to concede any chink in her denialism. all the republican views that found there was no fraud, the

local counties that have found that there is no fraud, nothing, she just says, there is evidence, there is evidence, said evidence is yet to be produced. she insists that it's there somewhere. we don't know where it is. she says it's there somewhere. i don't know whether she believes it or not, and i'm not sure that's the point because now millions of her supporters do, and we're seeing that play out in this campaign. >> peggy noonan writes for the "wall street journal," a piece that the entitled "maybe republicans will finally learn," she writes in part, if in 2024 republicans aren't serious about policy about what they claim to stand for, they will pick donald trump as their nominee and warm themselves in the glow of the fire as he goes down in flames. there's a gift for republicans in what happened this week. every victory carries within it the seeds of defeat. every defeat, the seeds of victory. if republicans had just won, they never would have learned a thing. they can learn now.

the old saying is there's no education in the second kick of a mule. this is the third kick. and after 2018 and 2020, maybe they will learn now. david jolly, i'm just wondering. in terms of the support for democracy that we saw, i think many more voters thought they didn't like what they saw on january 6th and perhaps was assumed. i also think that for some voters who were really busy, worried about inflation, worried about gas prices, busy within their own lives who didn't like january 6th, were they not reminded when paul pelosi was attacked just before the midterms? >> oh, absolutely. i think what we saw in this midterm is your traditionally low to medium propensity voters. those who are not highly active demonstrated they're highly informed, and they can distill multiple issues from personal protective equipmenting democracy to inflation to dobbs. i think what we saw in 2022 is a

thread from the coalition in '18 that came out to say we want to stop the direction of republicans, to '20 who said we want to stop donald trump, to '22, republicans are in trouble. peggy is right. i would suggest this is an opportunity for democrats to solidify that coalition. look outside of your party at those who have joined with you for these last four years. still ahead on "morning joe," a look at the headlines making news across the country this morning. plus, steve kornacki will join us if the big board for the latest on the races that remain uncalled. also ahead, massachusetts governor elect maura healey is our guest this morning after her historic win this week. "morning joe" is coming right back. in this week "morning joe" is coming right back there's a different way to treat hiv. it's every-other-month, injectable cabenuva.

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54 past the hour. time now for a look at the morning papers "the ”star tribune”" reports hospital workers in minnesota are facing an increasing number of attacks. new data reveals there are about 280 attacks that injured minnesota hospital staff in 2020. that is more than triple the number of assault-related injuries in 2019. "the portland press herald" covers the increase in abortions in maine. the abortion rate has increased by nearly 20% following the supreme court's decision to overturn roe v. wade. only a small portion of that increase can be attributed to women traveling to maine from other states to receive the procedure. more than 300,000 homes and

businesses across the state were left without power after the storm made landfall yesterday as a category one hurricane. the remnants expected to bring heavy downpours, strong winds and dangerous flooding as it moves northeast this morning. in louisiana, "the times" reports dolly parton's imagination library is opening a book club in the northwest part of the state, one of the poorest parts of louisiana where children often do not have easy access to books. parton's book club delivers more than 1 million free books to children in five countries every month. she is a saint. >> she is. she's wonderful. and coming up, a look at the growing pressure on donald trump to delay his big announcement next week. plus, a top republican in virginia is the latest member of the party to say it's time to move on from the former president. we'll have those comments for you next on "morning joe."

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i have written down, what it was in 2020, and i'm trying to find it. it was trying to find it. it was -- can i see that shot of steve's papers again. >> we're organized over here. >> you were looking down, rachel, the most magical part of the moment is he found what he was looking for.

i couldn't find what i'm looking for in front of me. if the party wants to move on or some o. party, such as yourself, lieutenant governor, maybe governor youngkin feels the same way, but donald trump still makes a speech next week that he wants to run for president, what would you think about that? >> i could not support him. i just couldn't. the republicans on the same ticket who he did not endorse over performed whereas his candidates totally under performed by as much as 10 points. we have a clear mission, and it is time to move on. >> my lord, that's virginia's republican lieutenant governor saying publicly what many in the gop have been saying privately. they're saying, willie, it's time to move on from donald trump. she says it so plainly. she says that the results show that it's time to move on from donald trump.

and she's telling the truth. and she's speaking truth to her own party. why can't more do this at this point. >> you're seeing cracks. mitt romney wrote an op-ed in the "wall street journal" today, not directly taking on trump but suggesting there's another path for the party forward. you're starting to see it. but, again, we have been burned by this idea many times in the past that they're going to walk away from donald trump. january 6th the most obvious case. lindsey graham on the floor of the senate, enough is enough, i'm out. ken mccarthy on the phone screaming at donald trump. and then when they felt the heat, promptly going to mar-a-lago to make nice. >> it's their get out of jail free card these results, but donald trump seems determined to announce his third presidential campaign next week, despite some allies urging him to hold off. plus, house minority leader kevin mccarthy looked like he was in line to become the house speaker if republicans win the chamber. now, not so certain, and it

could be several more days until all of the votes are counted in two states that will determine which party controls the senate. we'll explain why there's a large backlog of ball lots in arizona and nevada. welcome back to "morning joe." it's friday, november 11th. katty kay is with us, and willie, these two races, maybe a week, maybe a little more. they could make the issue of georgia being make or break for democrats moot because if democrats win these two states, uh-oh. >> exactly. and we could find out later tonight, we're going to talk to steve kornacki in a little bit about arizona potentially. nevada may be a few more days. if democrats win both of those states, nevada and arizona, then georgia becomes gravy, it would be one more seat they could win and would raise the question, do republicans go out to vote for herschel walker in a race that doesn't give them control of the senate or do they just say we're out on this one. >> front page of the "new york times," nate cohn, historically

the president's party is almost always trounced in the midterms but for the first time in the era of modern polling, the party of a president with an approval rating below 50% seems to have fared well. democrats are favored to retain control of the senate. they still could hold the house. how can we make sense of it? the results seem unusual because of two unusual issues, democracy and abortion. we'll start with the key races for senate and governor that remain too early to call this morning. in arizona, democratic incumbent senator mark kelly maintains a small lead over republican challenger blake masters. and in the governor's race, democrat katie hobbs has a slight edge over republican election denier kari lake. as of last night, there were still about 350,000 ballots yet to be counted in the state's largest county, maricopa. the first batch of votes from

those ballots are expected to be released today. in nevada, about 50,000 votes remain to be counted in the state's largest county. across the state, an estimated 40,000 additional ballots still need to be counted. mail-in ballots still will be accepted in nevada until tomorrow as long as they were postmarked by election day. republican at the moment, adam laxalt holds a slight lead in the senate race against democratic incumbent, catherine cortez masto, but she has steadily been closing that gap. in the race for secretary of state, republican jim marchant, a trump endorsed election denier, trailed cisco aguilar by 5,000 votes. in georgia, preparations for next month's senate runoff are underway now, and it is shaping up to be expensive. incumbent democrat senator rafael warnock's campaign has laid out his strategy. the campaign says it will continue to promote warnock's work with lawmakers, while

attacking republican rival herschel walker as quote completely unqualified for a job that requires knowledge of the issues and an interest in listening and learning. warnock kicked off his campaign for the runoff yesterday afternoon with an event in atlanta, calling the race one of competence and integrity. >> herschel walker has shown us he's not capable. he's not ready to do any of that. in fact, he's shown us that he's not really interested in doing any of that. herschel walker has no vision for our state or for our country. character matters. integrity matters. telling the truth matters. competence matters. in georgia, you deserve a senator who will tell you the truth and who will actually do the work. >> meanwhile, herschel walker raised more than $3 million on the first day of his runoff

campaign. speaking at an event yesterday with senator ted cruz, walker said georgia will not be divided on his watch. >> he don't matter what we are, but what i do know we are, we are americans, that's what matters, we're all americans, sdmast what we need to get back to. we need to get back to being an american rather than being something else. because that's what they trying to do. that's divided, when they dividing you, that's how they conquer. you got to get out and vote. you got to get out and vote because, you know, he hung around, he hung around and got into this runoff, and he thinking he's going to win. we need to prove him wrong and let him get out of that office. he don't deserve to be in that office representing georgia. >> let's bring in political reporter for the "atlanta journal-constitution," greg bue

bluesteen. your piece is important to look at, because as you say, warnock overcame a lot. didn't get to the majority at 50%. to win the race to get to the runoff, given the way brian kemp performed against stacey abrams, going all the way down the ballot. rafael warnock outpaced democrats in georgia. >> he outpaced them dramatically, a lot of folks around the concerned are looking at hey, how could he have gotten force into a runoff. you're right, he out paced every democrat who got clobbered. a lot of leading democrats lost by almost double digits, big margins to republicans. he maintained the strategy of working bipartisan, working across party lines. he does not want to make this race a referendum on joe biden because that would spell doom for his campaign. joe biden's approval ratings are

lower than 40% in georgia. instead, he wants to make this an issue of character between him and her shell walker and, that's why he's talking about, you know, their differences and their opinions, and their stances and their backgrounds, but also that's why he's focusing on trust worthy issues because polls show that half of georgians don't trust herschel walker and yet some republicans are voting for them. they're holding their nose and voting for them. it's control of the senate that's on the line. we'll know in a few days hopefully if that's actually the case in georgia. >> what does the runoff look like now. we have been at this, did it last year, a runoff, but this is different with herschel walker as the republican candidate. you don't have brian kemp and brad raffensperger, it's a head-to-head match up. are republicans energized to go out and vote for herschel walker. >> that's why senate control is so important because so many republicans we've talked to are voting purely because it's a vote against joe biden, it's a

vote against democratic control in the senate. if that's not on the line. if democrats have control of the senate, it's a different story, and i think that helps rafael warnock. if it is on the line, it's a race reset and a toss up, with hundreds of millions of dollars going to be spent in georgia. the other big difference than last year's runoff, this is not nine weeks. it's four weeks. you are seeing the campaigns rev up the machinery, trying to get out the vote, trying to appeal to core supporters. because, you know, it's right around the corner. >> greg, donald trump, of course, got herschel walker into the position he's in now. many republicans have already suggested he should at least delay his announcement until after the runoff. i'm sure many don't want him to show up in georgia in the next four weeks. do you think he's going to be able to resist? >> that's a great question, and i know there's some internal discussion in the herschel walker campaign about whether they want him to come out.

turnout was muted. i think the herschel walker campaign was stunned that not only did they not win outright, but also rafael warnock out polled herschel walker, he was slightly ahead of him in the final vote count. if you want to drive turn out, rev up the maga base, donald trump can do that. democrats would love to see that as well. they can inject another wedge issue in this campaign, less than about 200,000 more voters backed brian kemp than herschel walker. those are the wedge voters, the swing voters who are very concerned, very wary of herschel walker. herschel walker wants to try to get the republicans back in the fold, and it's really hard to do that if donald trump comes down and, you know, spews a lot of polarizing invective. >> political reporter for the atlanta journal institution, greg blustein, thank you very much for being on this morning,

and the house republicans have begun laying out their plans to take over control of the house. nbc news has not yet projected a winner of the house majority, but house minority leader kevin mccarthy preemptively announced transition teams for the 118th congress to ensure that the republican majority is ready to get to work for the american people on day one. mccarthy has named republican whip steve scalise to lead the implementation of the party's so-called commitment to america agenda. also congressman jim jordan and james comber will lead oversight and accountability. however, ken mccarthy may not be the one calling the shots for his party. following a meeting of the ultra conservative freedom caucus yesterday, several republicans suggested they will not support mccarthy's bid for house speaker. and with the margins in the lower chamber expected to be razor thin, the next speaker

will need yay votes from virtually every house republican in order to rise to the position. and that's not what we're currently seeing. >> kevin mccarthy has not done anything to earn my vote. there's a number of the members of the republican conference who shared the concerns, and i expect there to be a challenge. >> i think there's serious questions about leadership that in a time which should have been a massive red wave. >> will you support mccarthy for speaker? >> we're supporting folks for leadership that are going to empower members. with us now, white house correspondent for "politico" and coauthor of the play book, you -- and robert draper, "author of "weapons of mass delusion,"

we'll come back to questions about the house of representatives, but you can add a new chapter to your book after what we saw on tuesday night, and what we're seeing in these races. there's all this talk about donald trump being in the rear view mirror, easier said than done, of course, but what do you make based on the reporting you did for the book about people wanting actually donald trump, wishing for him to go away about that perhaps becoming a reality somehow politically for them now? >> sure, willie, as you and mika were talking about earlier, we have been to this dance before on january 6th, and look, there was a reason why people changed their minds after january 6th. republican members. and that's not because they suddenly were reminded of their fondness, it's that they went home and talked to their constituents. as long as the maga movement persists, as long as there are tens of millions of americans who adore donald trump, then they are not going to move on. and frankly, there's no evidence at all that constituents from the republican party, from the

hard right base that constitutes, you know, willie, the centrifugal force of the republican party that they have any any less affection for donald trump than they did, you know, a week ago, and i suspect that they will be galvanized yet again, when trump makes his announcement next week. >> you expect a full throated support from all the republicans who were with trump before the midterms to be there for him before his announcement next week. >> as long as the constituents love trump, and there's no indication that they have suddenly lost their affection for him, then, yes, they will stand by trump. >> eugene daniels, your thoughts and jump in with a question if you would like. >> that's absolutely right. we have seen this in 2016, we saw this when the access hollywood tape came out. republicans have not proven there's leadership. there's no one that wants to

take out donald trump and ruin their career. a lot of folks that could run are young, 20 to 30 years younger than him. why would they do that when they could be president at some later time or date. when you think about, and as you have been talking to a lot of these republicans as things have been shaking out, are they feeling like there is, outside of desantis, other people who would be willing to take on donald trump? we have nikki haley, for example, was someone who said she would only run if donald trump did not run. are people backing out of that because they see how weak he looked on tuesday? >> no, i don't see anyone stepping forward. desantis, it's not as if desantis has said i don't care whether trump is throwing his hat in the ring or not, i'm there. it remains to be seen whether desantis himself will stand up to trump, but, no, i don't see any other candidate who -- of any significance, that is, who

would be willing to go toe to toe with trump. >> as we reported earlier, donald trump last night went on a long, long, unhinged social media rant, purely about ron desantis, trying to cut him down to size after his huge win in florida a couple of nights ago. let's go back to the race for speaker. we'll say for argument's sake we haven't called the house yet, that republicans do win the house, just by a sliver of seats, as you can see on the bottom of our screen from our projection there. now the fight to become the house speaker, david jolly was here a minute ago, former republican congressman saying this is no shoe in for kevin mccarthy. there are a lot of people who are going to want that seat. what does that fight look like? and if he wants it, if he gets the job, what will he have to cede to marjorie taylor greene, and the caucus who says we want to start impeachment hearings tomorrow? >> it's going to look nasty. there doesn't seem to be someone

else who would be the obvious choice after mccarthy. that's the one thing that he has really going for him, but he has been through this song and dance before years ago before paul ryan was the speaker of the house. it was mccarthy who seemed poised to do it. telling them we want this, this, this, and these are the concessions, he backed down. he couldn't do that. it doesn't seem like he would back out now, so the concessions, they have made clear that they want some of these hard right conservatives that promises to possibly to impeach and investigate people within the biden world and also the president himself. that empowers people like marjorie taylor greene. that empowers people like matt gaetz who already said he was not voting for mccarthy for speaker. that gives him a lot more power. i have talked to some republicans who have been hopeful before the midterms

saying if we have a slim majority, that means that it could be marjorie taylor greene, or someone who's a lot more moderate. i don't think that's going to be the case. you're going to see hard right conservatives not support him going into the speakership fight or everybody if he was able to be speaker, they're going to be a thorn in his side, forcing him to do things that he has kind of already said he doesn't want to do. he has said he doesn't want to impeach president biden because they know that can be seen as overreach for a lot of voters. but that is not the role and the people that trump-like republicans, the maga republicans, they don't care about that. >> ticket splitters appear to have played a key role. democrats narrowly won voters who somewhat disapproved of joe biden. that group which made up 10% of all voters broke for democratic candidates over republicans by 4 points nationally.

in georgia, they backed republican brian kemp over democrat stacey abrams by 16 points, but in georgia's senate race, they preferred rafael warnock over herschel walker. a 22-point swing. in new hampshire, republican governor chris sununu won 59%. so did maggie hassan, 72-25. as gop strategist notes, the somewhat disapprovers broke decisively against candidates made in trump's image, but backed nontrump or less trumpy republicans. as "the new york times" notes, from georgia to pennsylvania, there are signs that at least some voters are resisting the complete polarization of the country. emphasizing candidate qualifications, basic likability over partisan identity alone and

sending a sharp message to the republican party that there are consequences for promoting people regarded as well outside the political mainstream. and katty kay, you know, i want to challenge robert draper's contention here that everyone is going to be here for donald trump. virginia's republican lieutenant governor who says she can't support donald trump. she just can't do it. she said it publicly, and i think her political career will live another day. she's probably done the safe thing. trump is a loser. he brings loser-dom to election cycles. how many elections do these folks want to lose before they realize perhaps there's something wrong with this candidate, even if the base is super extreme for him? >> yeah, i love that new word,

loser-dom, by the way, mika, that's a good one. it will be interesting to see whether glenn youngkin follows his attorney general. i'm watching to see whether the virginia governor has something to say on this as well. he's been careful to try and straddle both sides. i also wonder whether there's something in the difference between statewide races and congressional races and, actually, if you look at the congressional races, we still have a lot of trump candidates being returned to the house. it looks like lauren boebert may have won her race. matt gaetz, marjorie taylor greene, jim jordan. they made it in. they're in districts that are gerrymandered. at a district level if you have a hard conservative district you can run and be close to trump. the problem is for a candidate when you have to appeal statewide, and that's why you saw the trump mantle not working well for candidates running for governor, that were running for senator because they have to

appeal to moderate voters or centrist voters or even disaffected republicans as well. and the more trump seemed to inject himself into equation in those last few days of the campaign, the more that seems to have turned people off. there does seem to be a split in the house results and senate results and gubernatorial results. >> robert, you're warning we have seen this movie before with donald trump is well taken. i go back to july of 2015 when he was an early candidate and he made the grotesque comments about john mccain, who was of course an icon in the party and everyone said we can't say things like that, he's done, and his poll numbers went up, and off he went to become president of the united states, eventually. we saw it after january 6th, wii done, we're walking away. is there a difference this time because of what mika pointed out, they look at the track record, and they say, man, we should have won 40 or 50 seats in the house. we should have the majority in the senate.

there's 8% inflation. we've got a president in joe biden who we think, republicans say, is weak. he blew this for us. does that change their calculus as all, just as a cynical political strategy? >> sure. political professionals are saying this, and they're saying it correctly that trump is -- to invest in trump is to invest in loser-dom. that's not what the base of the republican party is saying. and, willie, it bears reminding viewers that there's no other candidate out there who has these kinds of rallies where people are wearing t-shirts bearing not just his name but his actual likeness, the hold that trump has on the base of the republican party is unlike anything we have seen maybe ever, and i don't know that that goes away just because of one election cycle. in fact, if there's ever reason to believe it won't go away. >> that's the trick. republicans need his voters,

despite the fact they would like him to go away. robert draper, thank you so much. his new book is titled "weapons of mass delusion when the republican lost its mind." still ahead on "morning joe," america's youngest voters played a big role in this year's midterm elections. crediting that age group with stopping what could have been a red wave this week. he joins us ahead with more on that. and also on this veterans day, we'll be joined by the executive director of operation mend, a program that helps wounded u.s. veterans and their families. also ahead, a look at the damage left behind in florida from what is now tropical depression nicole. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back.

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hour with an update on severe weather hitting florida. nbc news national correspondent kerry sanders is there with this report. >> reporter: after a deadly storm washed away miles of florida coastline and left crumbling foundations of homes and businesses in its wake, residents and visitors are still feeling the impact. >> better watch out. we're going to blow away here. >> reporter: nicole crashed into shore early wednesday as a category one hurricane, south of vero beach. lashing the state with pounding rain, heavy winds and dangerous storm surge. >> the wind is wild. >> in the aftermath, heavy flooding in st. augustine, inundating streets. in st. petersburg, 50 miles per hour winds, shutting down the sunshine sky way bridge.

severe erosion along daytona beach as well as significant flooding downtown. prompting authorities to help any way they can. while hundreds of condo residents were forced to evacuate their building after the structure was deemed unsafe, the foundation of 19 buildings now showing sign of being compromised. >> as you can see behind us here in other structures where it's just going in and eroding right underneath the foundations to the point where there's nothing else to hold it up. >> south of daytona, homes and businesses, once separated from the ocean by backyards, sea walls, sand dunes, and over 100 feet of beach are now vulnerable. >> it was that same trifecta of ian, king tide, and nicole, and it made us so unstable that things started collapsing. >> reporter: the far reaching storm also taking aim at beloved land marks. in lauderdale by the sea, this

popular fishing pier is in pieces. >> the storm is 90 miles from here, and still destroyed the pier. >> reporter: now, after the first november hurricane to strike the u.s. mainland in 37 years, communities in the sunshine state forced again to assess and rebuild. >> nbc's kerry sanders reporting there from florida. a federal judge in texas has struck down president biden's student loan forgiveness program, declaring it unlawful. the trump appointed judge yesterday ruled the program is an unconstitutional exercise of congress's legislative power. the ruling comes in response to a lawsuit filed last month by a conservative advocacy group on behalf of two borrowers who were partially or fully ineligible for loan forgiveness. the ruling marks the biggest victory yet for conservative opponents of the administration's debt relief program. white house press secretary

karine jean-pierre said 26 million people had applied for relief before the ruling, and 16 million had already been approved. the justice department announced that it plans to appeal. eugene, can you add more to this? is there more to come here? >> yeah, i think so. the administration is not surprised that this happened. when i've talked to folks that work on this issue, that work the in white house, they said over and over that they knew a lot of these lawsuits were coming. they haven't been able to implement the student loan forgiveness program since october 21st when the first judge put a pause on that. when kind of the flurry of legislative activity and executive order activity that kind of gave this white house a boost, so they feel like this was one of those things as they were going in the midterms got people excited. and also felt like the administration was doing something at keeping some of

those promises. you saw it specifically with young voters, when i was on the ground with midterms. we like that he did this. we know he's much older. we would not pick him. this is something that we have wanted to see, this striking down after the midterms is probably good for this white house, and democrats, right, because had it happened a few days ago, do these large swaths of 18 to 29-year-olds still go out and vote in historic numbers, possibly unlikely but the administration is going to keep fighting this. the doj, as you said is going to appeal, and there's other lawsuits in the hopper. this is something that could go on for a very long time and the administration knows that. >> "politico's" eugene daniels, thank you very much for being on this morning. and coming up, an incredible discovery off the coast of florida. divers were looking for a world war ii era plane. when they came across another piece of history that's been missing for almost 40 years.

nbc's tom costello will join us with that reporting. and in our 3rd hour, we'll be joined by new hampshire senator maggie hassan, the democrat cruised to victory on tuesday despite late polling that predicted the race would be much closer. "morning joe" will be right back. closer. "morning joe" will be right back [coughing] hi, susan. honey. yeah. i respect that. but that cough looks pretty bad. try this robitussin honey. the real honey you love, plus the powerful cough relief you need. mind if i root through your trash? robitussin. the only brand with real honeyand elderberry.

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against is human beings collectively is apathy and cynicism, and the power of john bono's kick drum blasts that through the earth's butt hole. steps of faith is important because you get people an arm that they lost through some tragedy or a leg that they lost. you're giving them their confidence back. it a no brainer. >> that's jason sudeikis, explaining thunder gong, taking place tomorrow in kansas city, missouri. sudeikis hosts a night of musicians and comedians united to help uninsured amputees get the prosthetic limbs they need. it's in partnership with the nonprofit steps of faith gunshot wound foundation. and joining us now is billy, it's good to have you on the show with us. i know this event is amazing. you have an amazing lineup. we'll talk about that. tell us why this is so important

to you. >> yeah, good morning, i'm happy to be here. i appreciate it. it's important to me because i'm one of these people. i lost my leg to cancer to ewing's car soma in 2005. i'm a professional musician, and a professional person and we use our limbs every day. i was lucky to tell the tale, fortunately, and so, yeah, i have been there. i know what it's like to have the tragedy of not having one of your limbs and then also being faced with, like, oh, now i need to come up with how much money in order to walk again. yeah. >> and the costs are enormous. i mean, if you could talk about, i mean, for people across the country who may not have the means getting a prosthetic leg or arm, i mean, it is just almost impossible?

>> yeah, you know, we have kind of a weird medical system in this country. i'm not sure if you guys talk about that on this show. yeah, so everything medical is expensive. prosthetic limbs can go everywhere from 5,000 to $150,000 or more. 500 people lose a limb every day just in america, which seems crazy and like i'm making it up, but i'm not. and, you know, what steps of faith does is we're able to get the prosthetic limbs at wholesale, so a little bit of money can make an enormous difference in helping somebody regain their mobility. >> billy, it's great to have you back on the show again this year. another great lineup. you've got winona judd, for people who can't make it to kansas city, how can people help

here. you're pointing to something who most people who have not been impacted by a tragedy like this are shocked to hear, there are people who need a prosthetic limb who just can't get it because it's too expensive. >> yeah, they just want to get back to work and back to walking using all four of their limbs, right, so yeah, thunder gong is something we plan all year, but it's one night, and this year it's not virtual, just in kansas city. steps of faith was in business all yearlong. we have helped 200 amputees this year, and we have a stack of applications we're wading through every day, the need for what we do, unfortunately is not going away. so, yeah, you can donate at thundergong.org. you can learn more about us there, and also our web site, stepsoffaithfoundation.org, and there's fun things you can do, we've got merchandise, raffles, and all of that money goes to steps of faith and getting people back on their feet. >> thunder gong takes place

tomorrow in kansas city, missouri, executive director of the steps of faith foundation, billy brimblecom, thank you so much for being on the story, and sharing your story. up next, nbc's tom costello joins us with the emotional discovery made by divers off the coast of florida. "morning joe" will be right back. ast of florida "morning joe" wi blle right back ♪ ♪ ♪♪ voltaren. the joy of movement. ♪♪

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47 past the hour. an unexpected discovery from divers searching the wreckage of a world war ii aircraft instead found a 20 foot piece of nasa's space shuttle challenger. nbc news correspondent covering aviation, tom costello has the details. tom, good morning. what happened? >> good morning, well, this is haunting when you see this video, it is haunting, it is disturbing. i mean, mika, i remember when challenger blew up. >> me too. >> killing everybody on board, and when i saw this video that came in yesterday, i had a lump

in my throat as i saw what these divers discovered. it is the biggest piece of challenger discovered in 25 years, and it takes you back to this very traumatic day in american history. >> yeah. >> i found something over here. >> off the coast of florida, history channel divers were looking for the remains of world war ii air craft. instead, they came across a 20 foot relic from one of america's saddest days. >> a lot of stainless steel fittings down here. this is really different. whatever this is, it's really big. >> the first clue came when they cleared the sand, heat tiles, the same protective tiles that once covered the bottom of the country's space shuttles. mike barnett was the lead driver. >> definitely an air craft, i think we need to talk to nasa. was it the heat tiles that made you realize you may have found a piece of challenger? >> definitely. we saw this piece of wreckage,

it's clearly upside down because the heat tiles are on the bottom of the shuttle, the bottom of the wings and the main body of the orbiter. >> reporter: the verdict was clear. >> you've discovered challenger. >> reporter: challenger was lost in a horrific explosion on a cold day in january, 1986. >> challenger, go throttle up. >> reporter: all seven astronauts, including teacher died. president reagan paid tribute in a national address. >> we will never forget them nor the last time we saw them this morning as they prepared for their journey and waved good-bye. and bonds of earth to touch the face of god. >> reporter: two years ago hoda sat down with some of the students who were watching the launch that day. >> did it hit you that your teacher, christa mcauliffe, had died? >> i think little by little we

processed it, but there was that glimmer of hope that we wanted her and the other astronauts to be okay. >> reporter: and the "challenger" disaster was followed by the loss of columbia in 2003. under u.s. law any space shuttle artifact must be returned to nasa. nasa said it must decide whether to recover this piece of an american tragedy. >> the discovery of this piece was mixed emotions. first reflected back to 1986 and the loves of our colleagues, friends and heros, but also a sense of discovery to find something lost for so long once again found. >> reporter: nasa now says it is consulting with the families to decide whether they will pull this piece up out of the ocean. importantly, they did recover many pieces of wreckage back in 1986, including the remains of the crew. if they leave this piece in place, then there is the risk that scavenger hunters will

recover it, put it oechlt bay. and nasa has an office of lessons learned about every fatal mass incident. they are wondering can they use this piece and apply it to that office and maybe learn more lessons. >> it will be interesting to hear the outcome of those conversations with the families is. tom costello, thank you. an amazing story. >> i'm with tom, it puts a lump in your throat. i was home sick from school that day. january 28th, 1986, watching it live on television. anyou couldn't process what you were seeing. it looked like something had gone wrong and quickly it became clear. >> i was in my freshman dorm at georgetown and everybody stopped. we were all watching. it was incredible. still ahead on "morning joe," the balance of power in congress is still unresolved this morning. but many republicans are starting to envision what leadership will look like and whether it includes donald

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herschel walker is a nightmare for liberals, he is an african-american conservative, they had belittled him, readed him like crap, his family. stand by herschel tonight. if you can give, give. if you know somebody that can give, ask them to do it. >> lord, south carolina senator lindsey graham almost coming to tears depending -- what is wrong with him? what has happened to lindsey? that is our question every year, isn't it? >> he wants to control the senate. that is it all that matters. >> and that was him tearfully defending georgia senate

candidate herschel walker whose race is headed for runoff if a few weeks. and we'll go over to steve kornacki at the big board for the latest on the other two senate races that remain up in the air this morning. the host of on-brand with don any deutsche podcast is here with us. >> hello. >> i guess i need to get that podcast part in there. it is the on brand with donny deutsch podcast. >> and you have great guests. >> you've come a long way. >> i'm a work in progress. >> and katty kay is still with us. she did "way too early," which i think she once told us that we were certifiable to do these hours. >> she is right about that. >> and then she does "way too early." >> fair enough. >> good to have you. all right. so first of all, give us your take on trump and lindsay still

pushing for herschel walker, ultimately that is for donald trump ultimately? they are never going to walk away from donald trump? >> lindsay is a sensitive guy, you know, he cares, he feels. and as far as donald trump, and i said this the other day, we're just seeing the beginning of what is going to be a pathetic but for the republicans troubling show. everyone is going that the republicans need to walk away. he is not going anywhere. >> but you've got like hosts on his networks saying that you have to walk away when the voters don't want you. >> is he going to listen to somebody from the republican party or somebody from fox? fox has already turned on him and he is already drawings lines there. trump will burn the house down with him. he might end up with just 15% or 20% of the lek elector the rat, but he has enough to still in his own way pull the lever. so the republicans have a huge, huge problem going forward. we keep saying he's going to step away. what? has anybody been watching the trump show the last six or seven

years? and as i said, best thing to happen for the democrats is he is not going to go away. i don't think that he will be their candidate. and i said this the other day, i think that he will run as an independent. he is not going to let ron desantis be president. he is a zero sum game guy. >> he had that totally insane rant. >> this is just the beginning of what we'll see -- if you think we've seen nut so far, just stay tuned. >> to his point though, the party doesn't just get to walk away from donald trump. there is no signing ceremony in the deck of a ship where he goes okay, i'm out, it is your party now. he is there forever. >> forever. >> i mean, and we never have seen him as a loser. he is a loser, always the top looking down. now he is on the bottom looking up. you want crazy, here it comes. >> let's go to steve kornacki, he is back over at the big board.

steve, good morning, we've been talking a lot about nevada. i see it up on the board behind you. and arizona this morning. and any new numbers to share that might indicate which way some of the races are trending? >> we have some big developments in nevada. it was close to midnight last night and we got a big dump of votes in from the reno area here. and we got nearly 20,000 votes in. and they actually favored the democrat catherine cortez masto by a wide margin. a bit of a surprise because i think the expectation was that it was more of an even mix based on what we knew about the party composition of the ballots that were being counted. so with that, cortez masto was able to knock the lead inside of 10,000 votes. one of the rural counties also reported out late, that is where laxalt has been running up huge numbers. so he was able to bring his lead back up to around 9,000. cortez masto had taken it down to 8,000 or so. so what is left in nevada and when will we get an answer. there are still ballots left,

there may be as many as 20,000. but officials are indicating that not all of those 20,000 are so will make it to the point of being counted. based on the update that we got last night, i think there had been an expectation that maybe the vote would be more of an even split but we'll wait and we'll see. clark county is the other biggie, this is where las vegas is. there is at least 50,000 votes, 50,000 ballots, we think a little higher to come out of here. mainly what we know them to be are ballots that were dropped off in drop boxes on election day. what has been happening in clark county the last couple nights is every update has been favoring cortez masto by 60%, 65%.

obviously if she could win reits remaining 50,000 plus that would give her a real opportunity. there are two questions in clark. number one, is there a different sort of character politically to the ballots that were dropped off in person in those drop boxes on election day than the rest of the early vote which has been heavily democratic. do more republicans just happen do that on election day. and again, you will start to see some of those ballots to find out. there is also about 7,000 or so provisional ballots from clark county, those will be counted next week. but you do imagine those would favor cortez masto a little bit, so she may be able to net a couple extra thought out of that. and then there is also douglas county which is one of the red counties here, very small, but they have to report to. so laxalt could maybe net another 1,000 or two out of that. so this is a bit of a wild card here. but i think that masto needs to

be getting about 60% of the remaining vote, you know, give or take out of clark county. if she can do that, that might be just enough to put her over laxalt and into the lead statewide. a possibility there. of course it could be so close you could be into recount territory. but the significance obviously, republicans need this one badly to make that december 6 runoff in georgia count for senate control. if democrats get this one, if cortez masto can pull out nevada, then all democrats need is for mark kelly to hang on in arizona. if you are a kelly supporter you are feeling pretty good about this because his lead has been going up. two nights ago, we were here, it was about 85,000, he has since added 30,000 votes to his statewide lead. why? mainly because mayor copy pa and maricopa and pima still had

votes left to count that favored kelly. the story will begin to shift we believe tonight in arizona because for instance in maricopa county, nearly 300,000, they are giving us the number 290,000 ballots voted off in person on election day. and in 2020, this was a pretty heavily republican batch of votes. in 2018, it wasn't. so there is some suspense here exactly what it would look like. but if you operate under the assumption that this will be a pretty strongly republican batch of votes, kelly may have banked a big enough lead here, may have built up a big enough lead where masters would just need to get such an obscene number with this 290,000. it may not be enough even if he is doing really well so erase that kind of lead statewide. so for democrats to control the u.s. senate without even needing that georgia runoff, they are feeling i would say pretty good about arizona. nevada, they certainly have a path. they would be a little bit more i'd say cautiously optimistic

about nevada. where democrats maybe are feeling very jittery this morning is in the other marquee race in arizona. you see kelly leading by 115,000 in the senate race. very different story in the governor's race. democrat katie hobbs' lead over kari lake is under 27,000 votes. we've seen hobbs continuing to run about 80,000 votes behind kelly's level. and again, that dynamic that we talked about, that 290,000 ballots or so, if they -- it is an if, but if they are republican to the extent they were or somewhere around the extent they were in 2020, that is going to be more than enough ballots for kari lake to leap frog katie hobbs and take the lead in the governor's race. and so that 290,000 is consequential. obviously there is control of the u.s. senate. but also to this governor's race in arizona. >> so for our inpatient viewers, fair to say that tonight around 10:00 perhaps on a friday night you might have a better sense of where arizona is headed? >> yeah, it was on the dot last

night, 10:00 eastern time, we got a big update of 76,000 votes from maricopa county. we'll see if they give us guidance today on exact timing. but i think what we are getting tonight is finally, i think finally that much -- you know, that much talked about 290,000 ballots that were dropped off same day, i think that tonight we'll get -- i don't think that we'll get all of them, but a big chunk of them and i think that that chunk is going to tell us is this -- because masters in the senate race, masters will need it to be like 70% republican, something like that. and if we see a batch that is 50/50 or if the democrats are actually leading with them, which we stau a couple years ago, then i think that you will pretty clearly see that masters' path is drying up. could be more complicated in the governor's race. and again if you are seeing a heavily republican vote 55%, 60%, you are probably saying that masters will eat into that kelly margin, but may not be able to overtake him.

but again, if you are seeing that, you would be able to see kari lake overtaking hobbs in the governor's race. >> so set the alarm for 10:00 eastern and come back here. we don't always talk about the race for secretaries of state, but they are crucial in arizona and nevada because you have two people on the republican side who are election deniers. and have expressed skepticism about whether they would ever allow a democrat to win a race in the case of mark fincham anyway. >> 115,000 vote lead for mark kelly in the senate race. and the governor's race as i said, kari lake the republican is doing better here, she is only trailing by 27,000 votes. i just took you through how that could be enough ultimately to get her to victory. we'll see. now, here is the secretary of state's race. the republican, this looks more like the senate race. so dynamics in the senate race retain in the secretary of state race as well. and then again, you take a look

here in the -- in nevada, the republican running for secretary of state there, he already is trailing the democrat in that race by 5300 votes. again, you take a look at the senate race, it is cortez masto who is playing catchup there. so again, there is a small difference there, you know, that is about it at 14,000, 15,000 vote difference between the two of them, but a significant difference because we're asking can cortez masto get to the point where she finishes a couple thousand votes or more ahead of laxalt. already in the secretary of state race democrats have the lead. >> steve, what can you tell us about house races and house control? >> so our model moved twice yesterday. at the start of yesterday, we were projecting that republicans would land at 222 seats plus or minus crucial plus or minus seven. this is an estimate. but it moved twice yesterday, continued down to 220 for the

republicans. again, 218 is the magic number for a party to get a majority. we now have republicans landing at 220 plus or minus seven seats. meaning there is still an opportunity for republicans to press that number up into the 220s, but also an opportunity for democrats to get to 218 to it 2 19 to just barely eek out a majority. big thing that will decide this is california because there are just a bunch of races in california which takes -- they call it election season in california. it will take weeks in some of these places to get clarity here. but just to give you a sense of it, these are all the uncalled races. so democrats need to win the bulk of these if they are going to win the house. but look how many of them. 12 of them are in california. and so democrats -- we could go through them one by one, but basically there is a lot of

opportunities here for democrats, a lot of really narrow races outside california that need to break their way. and then they just need to really kind of sweep through california. that is the kind of scenario that could actually get them to 218 or 219. again, our model thinks that it is most likely that democrats will fall like three seats short of a majority and the irony of that is if that does end up being the case, if it lands at 220, where did democrats suffer their biggest losses, it was in the state of new york. >> long island. >> it was listening island and in the catskills. the dccc. oversaw nationally and unbelievable night for democrats. nobody would have believed that friday after the election we'll be talking about democrats having to pass the house control. the guy who oversaw that lost his own seat in new york. along with a number of other democrats. and democrats had earlier in the year, they have all the political power in new york, they had earlier in the year

aggressively drawn a on mann ma oig that got thrown out by the judge. >> extraordinary. everyone talking about the possibility of democrats winning the house given the headwinds against them. we'll check back in with you a little later. and donny deutsch, a point and a question. first of all, i don't know when -- my mean, joe biden is constantly underestimated. constantly. even on cable hosts including people on our show, constantly saying is he too old. and the snl, they did a thing about joe biden. oh, my god, what if he -- you know what? joe biden seems to know his politics no matter what his age. he focused on democracy and abortion. he knew what he was doing. but my question to you, the

polls, why were they so wrong? >> here is why so many people -- i was afraid of a red wave and so many of us were. i have a question for polls going forward, emotion versus logic, gut versus head, left brain versus right brain. when you ask questions like what is the most important issue to you, that is kind of a left brain. if you said to people what are you most afraid of, what are you most of a phrase of, and if you say you're mos afraid of gas prices staying high or are you most afraid of not being able to do what you want with your body? are you more afraid of price of lettuce still staying high or are you more afraid of not being able to vote anymore, the democracy ending? those are emotions. and i think that we missed thinking about the gut. and if i was the czar of poland

going forward, how do you retool your questions, how do you get into people's souls a bit more versus the left brain. and i think that that is what they are missing. >> like january 6, people didn't like insurrectionists. >> and if you say is the insurrection important to you, not necessarily important, but what is down here in your belly. and somehow -- because basically we've been asking questions the same way the last 30 and 40, 50 years. so that is my challenge going forward. but if you look back now monday morning quarterback issues, you say what are the guttural issues. >> and they missed a lot of the young voters who won a lot of races for democrats. they are not answering -- i mean, i said it tongue in cheek the other day, but i meant it, they are not answering a spam phone call for somebody asking them about their beliefs. and then they went out and voted in droves the other night. and we'll talk to the harvard institute for politics about

that. but joining us now, maggie hassan who was successful in her bid to defeat donald bolduc 53% to 44%. senator, good morning, congratulations on your win. we had you on here a couple weeks ago when there was a bit of fear and loathing about your race, people were worried that bolduc was perhaps going to unseat you up there and flip control of the senate. turns out you win it going away by nine points. how did you do it? >> thanks for having me on, guys. at the end of the day, this is about new hampshire saying in a very resounding way that they believe that common sense is important, that individual freedoms are important, and that democracy is important. and we put together a really strong and robust grass roots campaign that we started over a year ago just talking to voters where they are, about what they care about, and about my record of following their example.

we have a real tradition of putting aside differences and solving problems together. that is what i've always worked do in the senate and we were able to talk about the work we still need to do. >> and the issues that voters say that they were interested in, it was inflation 36%, but abortion 35%. did you get a sense when you were talking to voters and all of those polls saying that it was really all about the economy, we had seen polls saying that 50% of people said that was their number one issue, were you getting a different picture even before the vote about what your voters were telling you really mattered to them? >> i was getting the strong sense that all of these things matter to voters because they have to deal with all of these things all at once in their lives. so inflation is hurting way too many families and small businesses in my state. it is certainly an issue we need to continue to work on, but i

was able to talk to people about how we're trying to lower the costs. we can right now. that is where the medicare negotiation for prescription drug prices comes in. it is why i'm focused so hard on lowering home heating costs right now in the northeast and i did in-to push the administration on steps it can take. it is why it is so important that we continue to push to suspend the gas tax while prices are so high. but people care about their individual freedoms. i remember one of our organizers saying that they had knocked on the door to talk to a man about my age i guess, mid-60s or so, and when they asked him what was important to him, he pulled his 8-year-old granddaughter next to him and said she is. and i'm voting for her. and talked about the importance of reproductive rights and making sure that we didn't go back to a time where women are

second class citizens. so people are dealing with all of these things all at once. and as the election unfolded and we got closer and closer to election day, i also began to hear more and more about people being concerned about protecting democracy. >> maggie hasson of new hampshire, thank you very much. and thanks for coming on this morning. house leader kevin mccarthy is making plans for his party to take over control of the house. but in the end, he may not be the one calling the shots. following a meeting of the freedom caucus yesterday, several republicans suggested that they will not support mccarthy's bid for house speaker. >> kevin mccarthy has not done anything to earn my vote. i think that there is a number of members of the republican conference who share the same concerns, so i expect there to be a challenge. >> i think there is serious questions about leadership in a time what should have been a

massive red wave. >> will you support mccarthy for speaker? >> we're supporting folks for leadership that are going to empower members. >> with the margins in the lower chamber expected to be razor thin, the next speaker will need yea votes from virtually every house republican. let's bring in the editor of the new republic right now, and michael, thank you very much for coming on the show this morning. what do you make of what looks like a little bit of division within these house members of republican party, and kevin mccarthy's potential loss of the speaker ship? >> that nbc report which i read this morning was really fascinating because it is really rare i think to see members of a leader's own caucus speak publicly in front of cameras the way those two did about how they are not going to support the guy. and makes you wonder how much more sentiment within the caucus they represent. let's talk about the process.

you touched on it, and it is an important point. next week there is a vote in the caucus, and that is a nonbinding vote that mccarthy will probably do fine in. but the real vote is january 3 when the new congress convenes. now, assuming the republicans have the majority, which is not an assumption we should really make at this point, but odds still favor that probably by three seats, four seats, five seats, he will need as you said every single member of the freedom caucus to be with him. because he is obviously not going to get any democratic votes. so that means that they will be able to extract a pretty big price from him as to what his agenda is going to be. they will have leverage over him, in other words, similar to the kind of leverage that joe manchin and kyrsten sinema had over joe biden for his first couple years. so not only does it present the possibility that mccarthy might not even be the speaker if they revolt, but it also tells us

that if he does settle them down and make deals and get their votes, it is just going to be a tumultuous train wreck of a two years. >> yeah, clearly the freedom caucus members if he is speaker will extract a lot from him. if you want to be speaker, you better start the impeachment hearings straight away. if not mccarthy, steve scalise is a choice. who else is out there? >> i don't know about scalise. scalise has been a pretty loyal mccarthy lieutenant. you have to look at jim juror -- jim jordan of ohio. i think a lot of them follow him. and he is one this mccarthy has curried favor with. so he has a relationship with jordan. a name i heard was jim banks. i don't know how much credibility to put in that. but, you know, i think that

there are other freedom caucus names that you might hear. but i think that that is kind of a pretty open question at this point. >> and so i'll ask you the question we've been asking this morning. you see some media entities that were very pro trump to say the least kind of moving away from him. you see some republicans being outspoken of the lieutenant governor of virginia saying flat out she cannot support him. the voters have spoken in too many ways in too many elections. does donald trump announce his bid for the presidency next week with the full support of the republican party? >> well, i think that he makes the announcement. he obviously doesn't make it with the full support of the republican party, but i think that -- you know, let's not jump to rash conclusions here about the other republican party being done with trump. a handful of people are speaking out. the virginia lieutenant governor, most notably. i mean, her words were the most

forceful. and a handful of other people are saying things. but then, you know, elise stefanik and matt gaetz saying no, we're still a trump party. herschel walker obviously because he wouldn't be where he is without donald trump. i don't think that rupert murdoch will call this shot. i don't think that the right wing media will call this shot. can i don't think that mitch mcconnell will call this shot. i think at the end of the day the base will call this shot. and murdoch will follow what the base wants. don't forget, murdoch had a feud with trump in 2015 over those things he said about megyn kelly. and there was allegedly a war between trump land and fox land, you know, after that. but that got sorted out. you know, this is an opportunity for the republican party to dump him, unique opportunity, no question about that, because his candidates did so poorly. but i think that we'll just have to wait and see whether trump still has that hold over the base because if he does, i think that they will follow. >> michael, thank you very much

for coming on this morning. we appreciate it. donny deutsch, thank you as well. i need you back up with brand up brand down. >> we'll do that next week. i think that we should do an eating edition. >> would it be edgier? >> just a variety. you are starting to go more nighttime. >> "morning joe" at night? what are you talking about? >> i don't think four hours is enough. >> let's do five hours. >> a full hour behind the scenes of "morning joe," i think it should be at home with "morning joe." >> and you could teach us cooking. >> i think that there should be more -- >> grill tips, things like that. >> yes. maybe a fifth hour. i'll ponder it. still ahead on "morning joe," former president trump makes unfounded claims of a corrupt voting system in nevada. and the officials in clark county were not having it. we'll get a live report from las

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donald trump is once again casting doubt over the legitimacy of tuesday's election results with no evidence to back up his claims. remember, he said before the election if we win, it will ob me, i did it, and if we lose, it won't be my fault. in a post on his social media site, trump wrote that clark county, nevada has a corrupt voting system. and claimed that the vote is taking so long because, quote, they want more time to cheat. later on, trump leaned in to those baseless conspiracy theories even more writing that very strange things were happening in arizona and nevada. those claims were later shot down by clark county officials

who in a statement wrote in part, quote, we have heard his outrageous claims but he is still misinformed about the law and our election processes that ensure the integrity of elections in clark county. and willie, we knew all along, we were saying all along that these would take some time. there is a process there, a little different, but nothing wrong with it. >> we'd all like to know on election night who wins. pennsylvania did a good job of getting their vote in, so no room for doubt there, but clark county, they have been transparent and said that it will take a while, maybe into next week. so they have done a good job too and systemically shooting down the conspiracy theories. to go along with his unhinged rant yesterday about elections, donald trump also went one-on-one against florida's republican governor desantis. he broke in part, news corp. is

all in for governor ron desanctimonious. >> is new york "post" no longer great because they called him something like humpty dumpty about. >> yes. he called desantis an average governor with great relations. and he attributed some of his success to the weather in florida saying that he has the rang of sunshine. the former president went on to claim his endorsement of desantis helped win the florida governor's race in 2018. trump also accused desantis of, quote, playing games by not answering questions about 2024. he wrote, the fake news asked him if he is going to run if president trump runs and he said i'm only focus on the the governor's race, i'm not looking in to the future. trump wrote, well, in terms of loyalty and class, that really is not the right answer. despite the growing calls from within the republican party to break with donald trump, the former president is moving ahead

with what he calls a special announcement next week. trump's team sent an invite to the press yesterday teasing the event at his mar-a-lago estate where he is widely expected to announce another presidential run. david jolly, that statement, we spared the viewers most of it, is family intervention stuff. dad is not doing well. let's all rush into sit with him. but my gosh, does ron desantis -- has he set up shop in donald trump's head. >> yes, he has. and there is actually one truth in donald trump's statement. and that is that ron desantis owes his political career to the former president. without question. there is nobody in america that more definitely and successfully used donald trump. and i say used, right? he was the ambassador of trumpism when he was in the house. he then uses trump to get to the governor's mansion and then he steps aside from trump and he doesn't defend him, but he also doesn't criticize him.

and the one component that this story is currently missing is ron desantis has never taken the bait. i think a lot of people are waiting to hear what is the posture of ron desantis in this moment. does he just say nice things about the president and move on? because right now he has the hold hand. he doesn't need to engage in the scrum. ron desantis has a glass yeah, fragile ego. you get him on the ropes and you see a ron desantis that is not the manufactured package you see today. how will he respond. >> and we'll look to answer that question with our next guest who says that the republican party is more maga than ever. that is straight ahead. er that is straight ahead if you still have symptoms of moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis or active psoriatic arthritis after a tnf blocker like humira or enbrel, rinvoq is different and may help. stand up to your symptoms with rinvoq. rinvoq is a once-daily pill that tackles pain,

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joining us now, contributing writer to the atlantic, you write in part a bad midterm

election is unlikely to break trump's grip on the party. why? because it is hard to overstate how radicalized and an arrest kick the base of the republican party remains. they need to make changes so their party wins. more races is not likely to gain much purchase within maga world. those who inhabit maga world are deeply alienated from institutions. and therefore a good deal less loyal to the republican party than they are to donald trump. and i'm not sure right wing pundits declaring that the republican party needs to move on from trump with sway those voters. any more than it did in 2015 and 2016. when virtually the entire gop establishment opposed trump. to complicate matters further,

the republican party today has more not fewer maga figures in it than in the past. and katty kay, you spent some time really interviewing trump voters and working on understanding them. does pete's mess a think here ring true, it may have been a blow to trump but far from over? >> yeah, i think that does ring true. after speaking to a lot of trump supporters, he could say that the election was free and fair and the supporters would already have the message that it was stolen and that wasn't going to change. i think that trumpism is in the system. and even if donald trump were suddenly to decide that he is not going to run in 2024, those supporters will be looking for another who offers some of what trump offers them. and it is the tone,

combativeness, those are the thing what is they like about him. and peter, you wrote that this election was all about donald trump in terms of that is why the democrats did so well. are you thinking that if trump were not to run in 2024, then democrats could carry on the kind of winning streak they had last night or is there another trump-like candidate that maga crowd could tap into? >> i think if trump didn't win in 2024, that would hurt the democratic process -- or hurt the republican prospects and help democrats. but you are quite right that the republican party is a maga-f ied party. even if trump were not to run for whatever variety of reasons that may go into that decision, the republican party itself is radicalized. and it is almost impossible to overstate how much that is the case.

desantis is on paper a good. . and there has been some erosion in trump's support. but he started at a high mark. and these maga voters are not like traditional voters. there almost no loyalty to the institution. political institution. whether the democratic or republican party. he got into politics because of donald trump and they would follow him to the ends of the earth. and last thing i'll say is desantis, he may not be as impressive in reality as he is on paper. very few people have seen desantis for any length of time. and when trump unleashes his blow torch, we'll see how he holds up. >> yeah, we've been saying for the last couple days as one republican after another in the new york "post" and "wall street journal" say it is time to move on, it may be wish casting. but it is not that easy. and i guess the only difference

is, he is costing them power which at the end of the day is the point of the exercise for them, losing elections in 2020 and 2021 and now in 2022 with some terrible candidates thahe blessed and forced upon the party. does that part of it, does that compel them? they can't tell maga voters what to do, but does that part of it tell republicans to turn another way? >> it could. there is no question that the results from the midterm is going to hurt trump. i do think that if the senate goes republican rather than democratic, that changes the tone of that. so georgia may have a lot to say because if republicans have the house and senate, even if by narrow margins, that is just a different cast. but look, trump is weaker than he was. but he is still the dominant figure in the republican party. and the fact that lot of murdoch's empire is turning on

trump doesn't help him but i don't know how much it hurts him. the entire political class in 2015 and 2016 was against trump and he used that to his advantage. and the other thing that i just want to underscore is just how cynical this is by republicans. and this is a guy who tried to overthrow an election, he is lawless. he is corrupt. he is cruel. this act has been playing out for half dozen years. and they either went silent in the face of it or they supported him. and the only reason that lot of them are turning on him now is because they think that he is no longer a path to power. and i'm glad if they turn on him, but it is awfully late in the game. and it isn't because of any moral center that caused him do that. any sense that this man was made learn issues and malignant threat to our country. it is because this guy helped us get power and it may be that now

he will block us to power. and that says a lot about the core, hollow core, of the republican party. >> coming up, a pre-view of the president's trip oversees. jonathan lemire is that cambodia for us. jonathan lemire is that cambodia for us you've put your dreams on hold. remember this? but i spoke to our advisor, and our vanguard investments are on track. “we got this, babe.” so go do what you love. thanks for being our superhero. only at vanguard, you're more than just an investor—you're an owner. giving you flexibility to follow your dreams. that's the value of ownership.

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with the midterms in the rear view, president biden is pivoting to foreign policy starting with a trip to egypt this morning. the first stop on a three country trip that will conclude with a face-to-face meeting with china's president. that will happen monday at the g-20 summit. the first in-person meeting sense biden took office. joining us now from cambodia where president biden will be tomorrow, the host of "way too

early," jonathan lemire. what can we expect the president will hope to accomplish out of this meeting and certainly he arrives now on foreign soil, a lot stronger and more emboldened than he was before the midterms when everyone out it would be a huge red wave. >> yeah, he has a jam-packed eye itinerary. he will be delivering a speech and then right back in the skies to head here to the capital cambodia where there will be asian state summits. and that is the next two days and then the main event the g-20 in indonesia. we've gotten word that president putin is skipping it, perhaps not wanting to go after suffering another humiliation on the battlefield. but xi jinping will be there and

there is a lot on the agenda for that meeting. much anticipated two years in the making this meeting. economic relations of course, but also expect president biden to deliver a message of warning about china aggression to taiwan. but he has to tread delicately because he wants xi jinping's help on a number of issues including further isolating putin and also potentially kim jung-un who has ramped up rocket tests. >> katty kay. >> yeah, so they will meet face-to-face for the first time and obviously all of the covid policy. but my understanding there has been almost no communication, bilateral communication, between the americans and which i sneeze the last two years. what is the number one thing that they need to out? what is most urgent? is it taiwan? is it trade? what's the sticking point? >> the short answer is all of the above. you're right, there's been a total breakdown in communications after speaker

pelosi's visit to taiwan. those conversations were only revived this particular meeting. xi jinping and president biden have spoken a couple times on the phone, not often. they had bit of relationship when biden was vice president and xi jinping was secondary in his government as well. the stakes are higher now. trade policy, taiwan big, including to push china to not help out russia too much with their war. it should be underscored how mika brought in this segment, the president comes here emboldened with a much better than expected midterms for his party and one he put democracy on the ballot. it would have been difficult, white house aides have been telling me, for him to make that argument at home, have a lot of big-lie candidates win, then come overseas and look these leaders in the face and say, look, american democracy is working. it's much easier for him to do that now because so many of the significant election deniers lost and because donald trump

appears weakened because so many allies overseas have been so worried about a possible trump return in 2024. >> jonathan lemire reporting for us from cambodia. thank you. to his point, the president was very happy after the midterms and a lot of numbers of the media but also analysts were, like, he's focused on democracy too, philosophical, focused on abortion, that's not what he's polling. that's what he focused on and once again, underestimated joe biden, that's what turned out was important to people. >> he was willing lectured on election day. >> it happened here. there was a concern. need to talk about crime. joe said you need to talk about everything, but i heard a lot of voices saying the president is so focused on democracy, on abortion. yes. he had his finger on the pulse and it turned out to be right. a lot of the polling didn't. >> yeah. abortion, pennsylvania, michigan, number-one issue.

by wide margins. he was right about that, at least. new this morning, the russian defense ministry says it is finished pulling its troops out of the west bank of the dnipro river in the city of kherson. joining us now, james debreeds, former commander of nato. great to have you with us. this looks like a headline, russia in retreat, when you look at what's happening in kherson, ukraine pushing them back, moving into some of these territories. what are you seeing on the battlefield right now? >> it's a really good day in kyiv. let's also pick up the point you just made, which is vladimir putin essentially afraid to go to the g-20. he can't look president xi, his best friend forever, in the eye. remember, these two looked each other in the eye right before

the olympics. putin was flying high. i suspect he told xi, look, this thing will be over in five days, i'll be in kyiv. here we are 8 1/2 months later and the ukrainians are about to take back the last remaining big city that the russians were able to capture. so, this is, again, a very good day in kyiv. having said all that, willie, don't count vladimir putin out yet. he's going to continue carpet bombing, continue relying on iran for more high-tech equipment. he might play a cyber card. he might do, god forbid, something with a weapon of mass destruction. he could order a full mobilization. he could energize the black sea fleet and use it more effectively. above all, he'll be watching europe, and can they hold together with high energy prices in a cold winter. i think they can. i don't like his hand of cards. but he's still got cards to play. overall, good day in kyiv. >> yeah. admiral to your point, kyiv is

not celebrating the way others might be. they're moving with caution, word this could be a strategy from vladimir putin. but to your point, when you have a man in vladimir putin who thought in five days they'd be in kyiv and they'd be having a parade and installing a puppet regime, this has completely blown up in his face. what happens from here in your estimation? how long can president putin keep this up? >> well, to your point about blowing up in his face, his generals told him don't worry, president putin, our troops will be greeted with bottles of vodka. they were greeted with bottles of flammable liquids called molotov cocktails. this is a debacle unfolding for russia. how it ends up i think is things will steady down because of winter, because both sides are going to be not quite frozen in

place, but maneuvering is difficult. you'll see air attacks out of russia. we'll get through the winter. the europeans will hold together. i think then, willie, assuming we continue to stand with ukraine, and i think we will, the u.s., the west, then i think you have the conditions for some kind of negotiate coming out of the winter. that's long way away, a lot of twists and turns. that's i think the best we can hope for at this moment. coming up, a record 12 women will serve as governors in 2023. among them, our next guest, who swept to victory on tuesday. government elect maura healey joins us straight ahead on "morning joe."

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