issue of patriotism. what do you mean by that? >> this is how a reporter can pick up on something just by listening. "axios's" alexi mccammond was at a democratic governors meeting in new orleans and noticed that two of the parties rising star, wes moore, elected governor in maryland, josh shapiro, elected governor in pennsylvania kept referring to freedom and patriotism. wes moore, who was in the 82nd airborne in the army and afghanistan, he talked about patriotism, some form of that word seven times. josh shapiro talked about freedom 14 times in his remarks, and the reason for this is concern about the democratic brand. jonathan, you have seen the polling that shows that democrats are worried that many people in the country perceive the party as being out of touch with the values of many americans. this is an effort to fix that. >> all right. good reporting there as always from our friends at "axios." mike allen, thank you very much. and thanks to all of you for

getting up "way too early" with us on this tuesday morning. "morning joe" starts right now. a beautiful shot of washington, d.c. this morning. 6:00 on the east coast. conspiracy theories, a plea for martial law, and other plots to overturn the election. we are learning a lot more this morning about what dozens of republican lawmakers were reportedly texting to donald trump's chief of staff in the days and weeks leading up to the january 6th insurrection. meanwhile, the special counsel investigating former president donald trump at the justice department wants documents from election officials in georgia. and a handful of other states. plus, marjorie taylor greene down plays her latest comments about the insurrection as republicans mostly stay silent about that. and on capitol hill, senators

are trying to buy themselves some time to avoid a government shut down. we'll have more on their stopgap plan. also ahead this morning, dr. anthony fauci joins us as he wraps up five decades of public service. a lot to talk with him about this morning. a lot of questions for him. good morning and welcome to "morning joe." it is tuesday, december 13th. joe is off, along with willie and me we have former white house communications director under president obama, jen palmieri, she's cohost of show time's "the circus" the host of "way too early," white house bureau chief at "politico," jonathan lemire, and msnbc contributor, mike barnicle joins us this morning. and willie, we start this morning with the mark meadows text messages. boy, he was receiving a lot of them from members of congress. the president's chief of staff. >> yeah, shocking stuff here, perhaps not surprising, but it remains shocking. nearly two years after the january 6th insurrection,

thousands of previously unseen text messages are revealing the lengths to which republican lawmakers went in their efforts to overturn the 2020 election. talking points memo has received 319 texts that were turned over to the house committee earlier this year by former white house chief of staff mark meadows. they show meadows in conversation with 34 members of congress. many of those lawmakers sharing debunked conspiracy theories about a stolen election in order to help then president donald trump stay in office. in one text sent to meadows just three days before joe biden's inauguration, south carolina congressman ralph norman writes our last hope is invoking martial law. please urge president to do so. it's unclear if meadows responded to that message. he did, however respond to a plan to overturn the election floated by arizona republican andy bigs. after biggs raised debunked

claims that a substantial number of illegal immigrants cast ballots, meadows responded, i like it. it showed extensive efforts by scott perry to have environmental lawyer jeffrey clark installed as attorney general in the final days of the trump administration. you remember clark was dismissed by the people at the justice department. if we have an oil spill, we'll let you know if we need you. the texts show meadows ignored multiple messages from perry, including a popular right wing conspiracy theory about an italian defense contractor stealing the election for democrats. these texts have not been verified by nbc news, may be missing context. joining us now investigative reporter for the talking points memo, hunter walker. he's one of the reporters who reviewed those texts to mark meadows. great to have you with us this morning. a couple of snapshots to members of congress who are still there

and will hold real power in about a month or so. can you sort of give us a broad view of what the texts show, beyond the snapshots. is that representative of what most members of congress are saying to mark meadows. >> our story of the meadows texts is a series we roll out over the course of this week and perhaps beyond because there's so much in there. the main take away. we're focused on members of congress yesterday, but meadows was engaging with people in local government, with right wing activists, members of congress, senators, house members. this was a broad plot at every level of government and really every level of the republican party. we see dark money groups. we see sort of street level activists like amy kramer, and they were all, you know, working together on various plans to overturn the election. the other big thing i point out here, and i think it's the most frightening thing about this message cache is this is the tip

of the iceberg. there are hints in the messages that this log that meadows provided to the select committee is incomplete, particularly in his exchanges with scott perry, he talks about moving over to signal, an encrypted messaging app and discussions that pop up out of nowhere and blatantly lack content. i'll break a little bit of news on "morning joe" this morning, i'm becoming aware of multiple instances that should be in the log if it was complete that are not there. what we're seeing, you know, is a broad plot, particularly involving members of congress, deranged conspiracy theories, questionable legal logic, and a blatant authoritarianism, and that's just the tip of the iceberg. >> so it reads like crazy, except for the fact that it had a direct line into the white house and you're talking about the chief of staff and mark meadows being receptive to some of it, based on the video we have seen, and the testimony

during the january 6th select committee that he showed extreme cowardice that day, unwilling to stand up to january 6th to donald trump. was he open to all of these conspiracy theories, did he take some to the president based on what he's seeing. >> a conspiracy theory seems to have gotten directly from mark meadows' phone to the oval office and donald trump's twitter feed. one of the more chilling ones in the story we dropped yesterday involves brian babin, a texas congressman. these texts have come out in dribs and drabs, but some of the most shocking stuff was from members of congress that people aren't aware of. ralph norman, and scott perry, in direct communication with the trump white house and off the radar of people who have watched the january 6th investigation play out. and in this exchange with babin,

he sends meadows a debunked theories theory, and meadows says already forwarded it to the doj. there were official actions taking place based on these messages, which in the case of paul gosar from info wars, a founder with white supremacist ties, and in the case of gosar, a blog, and this is where members of congress were drawing their information. >> hunter, as you went through these text messages, from the asylum wing of the republican party, it struck me in looking through the first batch that you have put out, as you just alluded to, many of the people involved are still members of congress, sitting in the house of representatives. in the rear view mirror, as you look at what they did, they tiptoed up to sedition.

they were right there at the gate of sedition. what do they do now? what do they have to say now? >> well, you know, you're making a really important point, mike. and one thing that, you know, people should note is some folks got promotions. we see ted bud, a house member now, moving on to the senate. this guy, john james who was running for office in michigan should lead the challenge there. right? and he, you know, lost a race in 2020, and said the state needed to be investigated. guess, what now he won. we're seeing this wing in some instances gaining power. i talked to ralph norman, who sent one of the most eye popping texts calling for martial law. and he sort of said that was two years ago, send me the text and i'll get back to you. of course he didn't, you could forget calling for troops to be sent in, right.

a lot of members including those that played a real leading role from what we saw from the text, ted cruz, jody hice, jim jordan ghosted us. the people who did respond were the few republicans in the messages who were not among the 147 who voted to object to the election, and they all pointed to that. this also showed in the period leading up to the vote on january 6th, they were playing with fire. >> joe and i joke about the italian guy trying to influence the election, but here it is in the white house. i heard it around the time of the elections. a friend of mine said, why aren't you looking at the italian satellite, a defense contractor living in italy is alleged to have uploaded software to a satellite that changed votes from donald trump to joe biden, that was the theory, and we laugh about it, except here it is being pushed to the white house, and by the way, don't forget, into that conspiracy theory. >> there's a number of things that strike me about this

reporting, hunter. the first is as bad as we assume things were, when we get a little glimpse into reality, it's worse than we assumed. and it is easy to laugh about these things, except, as you said, forwarding this to doj, not just becoming part of the record but having the department of justice actually act on these things. and we saw how it ended up, and when you -- i know there's more texts to come. you have a better glimpse than the rest of us about where this is going, and when you look at the totality of what you read, can you give us a picture, sometime before christmas, right, we're going to see the jan 6 report. we're going to see more of this out in the open. what does it look like to you? >> we're touching on something that is really a central thing here. i covered the trump white house, and a big question is how many people are in on the joke and how many people are true believers.

i first, you know, became familiar with the text lock when i was working on my book "the breach," which is about the january 6th investigation. i cowrote it with denver riggleman. he knows a lot of these people, and he was shocked when he opened the text log. he led the phone team, it was like looking into the mouth of madness, and even with that introduction, i had a similar reaction. adults in government, not only engaging in frighteningly undemocratic language, but their base intelligence is called into question. you're talking about the wild italian theory. people were taking it seriously. we see another instance where someone has a bizarre theory from a romanian you tube video that any of us would know not to tweet, based on stuff from 2005 that they somehow thought carried over to 2022. the information literacy of our members of congress is called into question here, and that's

part of why we thought it was more important to present more of the totality of the these texts you have seen anywhere before, and our text team made sure you can see them in a phone as they were received, because the typos, the wild links, all of this is really important. and one last point, and this is something that shouldn't be lost in this discussion. we see the pressure. we see it in realtime in these texts on people like doug ducey, brad raffensperger, arizona attorney general. scott perry, the same guy sending this italian theory is talking about lobbying to have trump pressure the italian government and pennsylvania legislatures, and you know, i think one of the things we see is if these people had given into the pressure, all of this plotting just might have worked. >> mika, the information flow following this is scott perry hears video about an italian guy, he texts it to mark meadows. meadows brings it to the attention of the presidential of

the united states. the president of the united states sicks the department of justice, using their time and resource looking into a you tube video that scott perry's friend sent him somewhere along the line. >> it's staggering. it would be a bad movie. the sad reality here is it's not a movie. it's what happened during the trump administration and january 6th. and jonathan lemire, this incredible reporting by hunter walker really lays out, i mean, this is the president's chief of staff. is that normal to be hearing from dozens of members of congress conspiracy theories, number one, and what do you make of this text by representative ralph norman about martial law? there are so many different ways to go here, but i'm just wondering what your thoughts in terms of covering the white house about the role of the chief of staff and what was going on here, what these text messages reveal? >> the chief of staff in a normal white house is a gate keeper. so it's not unusual for him to

be texting with members of congress. it is unusual for him to be texting about conspiracy theories and romanian you tube links. that doesn't happen too often. we're seeing here from meadows is that he also as gate keeper allowed some of that stuff to get to donald trump, and that also goes to show, this is the big lie, and it has been months in the making, ahead of the election, and how after the election, it accelerated with such force. that text you mentioned of congressman from north carolina talking about martial law, i'd like to flag the date on that. that's january 17th. that's after january 6th. the insurrection has already come and failed. there was already violence. lives have been lost, and they're still talking about this martial law idea, one that michael flynn had floated a few weeks prior. thankfully, it didn't come to be. hunter, i wanted to ask you as a final question and great work on the reporting, you mentioned of course this stuff has gotten in the hands of the january 6th committee.

but how about the department of justice? we know there's been some overlap and not always an agreement as to who gets what. what might they do with it, could there be potential criminal charges stemming from what they're reading here. >> reportedly the doj has the mark meadows text log. i think one of the million dollar questions, and we covered this together, that hung over the entirety of the trump administration is sort of what will government do about some of, you know, the things that might be illegal. people love to throw around on twitter that something is a crime. it's only a crime if it's charged. i think, you know, you can see legally potential for action, a lot of people have raised the idea the norman text is sedition. but, you know, will the justice department be willing to take on members of congress. will the justice department, you know, be willing to take an aggressive approach. is that healthy for democracy. that's the million dollar question. one thing i want to point out, this was not just my reporting. we have a team of five reporters

who were working on this with me for five weeks, and there's a lot more to come. this is the tip of the iceberg of what's in the logs but also the tip of the iceberg of what we're putting out on tpm this week. stay tuned. this is a really important story, and it's not over yet. >> it's amazing reporting by your team. we know so much about the events around this election, but this sheds more light on it. great work, investigative reporter for "talking points memo" hunter walker, thank you so much. >> thanks for having me. let's bring in nbc news justice and intelligence correspondent, ken dilanian. you're here also to talk about the grand jury subpoena to brad raffensperger which we'll get to in a moment. this is incredible. hunter's reporting and saying this is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of what's to come with more information. if you could put into confection -- context, if you could, what

these text messages tell us about what the january 6th committee could do or what could surface through the doj in terms of what you glean from these messages. >> mika, good morning, this is clearly something that the justice department is looking at as part of its january 6th investigation. and, you know, remember that the january 6th committee aired a lot of this in the hearing where they had the top former doj officials discussing all of the pressure that was brought to bear on them by donald trump and the people around them to investigate. remember, he said, just say the election was corrupt and we'll do the rest. they refused to do that. at the end, that may have been the closest we came to a real catastrophe. had those justice department officials gone along and raised questions of fraud with the official justice department seal behind them. they didn't do that. look, it's not illegal for a member of congress to pass along a wacky conspiracy theory or even for mark meadows to pass that along to the justice department, but collectively all

of this behavior starts to look like a conspiracy to overturn the election, and that's the question. an unsuccessful illegal experience is still an illegal experience and that's, i think, what the justice department is weighing now, along with all of this other conduct. this is one slice of what we know happened as the january 6th committee laid out in those televised hearings. >> as hunter said, there's more to come. we'll be watching for that. now to the raffensperger subpoena, jack smith, the special counsel appointed to investigate donald trump at the justice department has sent a grand jury subpoena to georgia's republican secretary of state, brad raffensperger. the subpoena was confirmed by raffensperger's office asking him to provide documents. now, a source familiar with the matter tells nbc news it does not request him to testify in person. trump called raffensperger on january 2nd, 2021, demanding he quote find the votes to reverse

president joe biden's win in the state. you remember that. georgia reaffirmed president biden's victory several times after the election in november of 2020. nbc news has learned special counsel smith has also issued subpoenas to election officials in clark county nevada. that's in addition to state and local officials in the battleground states of arizona, michigan, wisconsin, and pennsylvania. all of the states are central to trump's failed plan to stay in power after the 2020 election. they're also among the first known subpoenas issued since smith was named last month by attorney general merrick garland to oversee trump-related aspects of the investigation into january 6th. and the criminal probe of trump's possible mishandling of classified documents at mar-a-lago. it's exhausting the number of questions this former president has raised about what happened,

ken. but give me a sense of what this signifies, just the subpoena of raffensperger to turn over documents, the focus on him, and these other states. >> i think this is a very important moment in this investigation. until now, it hadn't been clear that the justice department was aggressively pursuing the conduct in georgia, given the fact that there's a state investigate down there. that was always a mystery, though. if it was illegal in other states, or potentially illegal. georgia was the best example, actually with the best evidence. they had the president of the united states on tape pressuring, trying to pressure brad raffensperger to find 11,780 votes, and if you remember from the famous conversation, trump also tried to suggest that they knew the election was corrupt, and it was very risky not to act on that. this is the guy in charge of the justice department at the time. he was almost hinting there was criminality if they didn't do

his bidding. jack myth is still in the netherlands, the special counsel, recovering from a bike accident where he hurt his leg, but his influence is being felt in this investigation. andrew weissmann, our nbc news legal analyst who is known as a very aggressive prosecutor said early on that jack smith is a golden retriever puppy compared to andrew weissmann, and you're really seeing evidence of that, not only with this set of subpoenas to now a total of six states, but also with this secret battle going on in the grand jury was trying to hold the contempt team at mar-a-lago. he's moving forward quickly and aggressively. in terms of the subpoenas to the state, if you look at the subpoena, there's a list of people. almost everyone we know of who was involved in the effort to overturn the election, rudy giuliani, cleta mitchell, john eastman, boris epshteyn.

the doj wants communications between those people and state and local election officials and they're vacuuming them up. >> that map we had up shows the reach of jack smith in all the states where he's looking. another story for you, ken, a busy legal morning. a federal judge has dismissed donald trump's lawsuit challenging access to materials seized from his mar-a-lago home and club. judge aileen cannon, who originally appointed the special master to the case and had to dismiss the case herself. the order came after trump chose not to appeal a higher court ruling that stopped the special master from reviewing the material taken in the search ending trump's month's long legal battle. bottom line here, the special master after all of that is over? >> it's over and gone and the doj has all the documents seized at mar-a-lago. it was a humiliating moment for the federal judge in florida who made such a show of creating this special master which most

legal experts thought was not warranted and the 11th circuit appeals court, including two trump appointed judges and a third republican judge, republican-appointed judge, slapped her down and said this is ridiculous. we don't have special rules for a former president. criminal intent is not entitled to a special master unless there's evidence that the justice department violated their rights and there was no evidence in this case. we spent a lot of time talking about this. you know what, we did learn some things from that protracted litigation and the appointment of special master. donald trump's lawyers were unwilling to say in court that donald trump had declassified those documents, even though trump had been saying that in public. they were unwilling to make that argument, and we learned that they may try to exert executive privilege over some of these document ifs this case goes to trial, and there didn't seem to be much of a basis for that. it allowed the public to get a better view of what was seized at mar-a-lago. in that respect, it wasn't a total loss, but legally this

will be remembered as a footnote, and again, action by a federal judge that appeared to have no basis in law. >> a footnote, ken dilanian that bought donald trump time, and that's another thing his team was trying to do was drag things out. now that the special master is out of the way what does it open the door to, how does this progress forward and what's the time line? >> i have been asking my sources the same question. the time line for mar-a-lago is certainly more accelerated than it is for january 6th. you know, nobody thinks we're going to see charges before, for example, the holidays, but no one would be surprised, if they decide to charge this case, that it could happen in the first part of the year. the recent back and forth, that all happened in secret, in front of the grand jury in washington, d.c., and where the doj tried to -- as far as our reporting tells us, they tried to get the judge to hold the office of the former president in contempt, and they were unsuccessful. that, to me, hinted -- it was a

bit of a caution flag there. it suggested to me that the doj was not able to connect donald trump personally with the alleged obstruction of justice because they weren't trying to hold him personally in contempt, and that may signal a problem in at least that that part of the case. again, many legal experts have looked at the evidence, in terms of the mishandling of classified documents, anyone else would have been charged, whether the justice department wants to bring that case or continue to pursue the obstruction of justice allegations. >> ken dilanian, thank you very much. a lot going on there. still ahead on "morning joe," what biden administration officials are saying about the ongoing effort to bring paul whelan home from russia on the heels of brittney griner's release. plus, we'll be joined by dr. anthony fauci this morning as coronavirus cases ramp up across the country.

along with the flu and rsv. also ahead, the man who was known as the king of crypto has been arrested in the bahamas. we'll take a look at the new criminal charges he's facing. and later this morning, award winning actor, ed norton, joins us with a look at his new film "glass onion a knives out mystery," nominated for a golden globe in the best movie category. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. it's time for theraflu hot liquid medicine. powerful relief so you can restore and recover. theraflu hot beats cold.

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it's half past the hour. here's a follow up on a story we were covering yesterday. the white house and democratic lawmakers are condemning comments from georgia republican marjorie taylor greene about the attack on the capitol. greene spoke saturday night on a

dinner hosted by the new york young republican club. she bragged if she and steve bannon had planned the january 6th insurrection, it would have been different. >> then january 6th happens, and next thing you know, i organized the whole thing, along with steve bannon here. and i've got to tell you something, if steve bannon and i had organized that, we would have won. not to mention, it would have been armed. >> in a statement, the biden white house called greene's remarks quote a slap in the face to law enforcement, writing quote, it goes against our fundamental values as a country for a member of congress to wish that the carnage of january 6th had an even worse and to boast that she would have succeeded in an armed insurrection against the united states government. greene responded with a statement of her own claiming her comments were sarcasm about

an insurrection. so far, minority leader kevin mccarthy has not said anything publicly about her speech, and jen palmieri, you have spent time with her, covered her for the circus, and, i mean, i will just say, i don't know how you can joke about an insurrection where people died and where our capitol building was defaced, and our lawmakers including our vice president and speaker of the house were put in extreme danger, but maybe i'm just not funny. i don't know. i have learned, though, over the course of the past six years that as it pertains to donald trump, 99, maybe 100% of all joking is true, when he says something, it's worth believing him as the same goes for trump republicans like marjorie taylor greene. what do you make of her comments and then her walk back? >> so, i mean, first of all, you know, part of the context here is that the day before she made

these remarks, a capitol police sergeant resigned from the force saying that the stress from january 6th had pushed him out of his job, and when he testified about january 6th he said, you know, he had the thought, this is how i'm going to die. this is the day i'm going to die. this is how i'm going to die. so that's sort of the sober backdrop for this, and one of the things i find telling about, you know, my take away having spent time with her is she wants to be liked. she wants to be more accepted into sort of the mainstream than she has been. and she's clever about how she plays things. so, you know, what she was trying to do in those comments was distance herself from the january 6th planning, right. now, she sent text messages to mark meadows as well on january 6th. she may have an inkling about what other text messages are out there, and she's trying to say, if i was actually in charge, it

would have worked out better for my side, but she's trying to distance herself. she tries as always to pull to the base, and this is why she has so much power in the party, you know, she was the most prolific fundraiser for the party, and stripped of her committee assignments and made a martyr for the trump base, and you know, the only energy in the republican party right now is in the sort of destructive wing o. party. she's one of the people supporting kevin mccarthy trying to get them over the finish line. meanwhile, you have people like matt gaetz trying to push back on mccarthy, and prevent him from becoming speaker. the fight is not even a proxy fight for trump. it's a fight with the people who are trying to bring the party further down these rabbit holes. it's a window into what mccarthy's life is going to be like. this is the second time since the election that mccarthy is having to answer for something

marjorie taylor greene said. if he does become speaker, this is what his speakership is going to have to be like in terms of refereeing the people that want to, you know, that live in the rabbit hole. >> jen mentioned sergeant gwinell, injured physically and mentally, as he stood in the door. this is some of his testimony before the january 6th committee. >> the rioters called me traitor, a disgrace, and shouted that i, i, an army veteran and a police officer should be executed. the physical violence we experienced was horrific and devastating, my fellow officers and i were punched, kicked, shoved, sprayed with chemical irritants and blinded with eye damaging lasers. i too was being crushed by the

rioters. i could feel myself losing oxygen. i recall thinking to myself, this is how i'm going to die, defending this entrance. >> so, mike, as jen said, sergeant gonell announced yesterday he's going to retire at the end of this week, on the advice of his orthopedic doctors, his body isn't up to the task, and his psychiatrist as well about his own mental health. these are the kind of people that stood in the doorway that marjorie taylor greene is joking about she wished they would have brought weapons on january 6th. >> yeah, some joke. we all know. we live in an age of accelerated pace of events. something happens, and it's forgotten two or three days from now. something horrific could be forgotten in two or three days, and that takes our attention span as a people, as a culture, as a nation, way, way down. people don't have the attention span that we used to have. so the events that we have been talking about this morning, the

text messages from sitting members of congress urging sedition, right up until the point of almost noontime on january 20th when joe biden was sworn in as president, the january 6th insurrection, capitol police officers fearing for their lives and being attacked by supposedly law and order people. we have all of that and yet if someone mentions harry and meghan, we go right there, and talk about that instead of focusing on the real dangers that still exist because they injected a poison into our system. the asylum wing of the republican party injected that poison into our system, and it still flows through our circulatory system as a nation. you have a huge percentage of republicans sitting in office today in the house of represent tives largely who refuse to believe that joe biden is the legitimately elected president of the united states, and i would submit that's among the

most important issues we face as a nation, and we don't pay enough attention to it today. >> and mika, not just sitting in office, but as jen said, having real power and influence over speaker mccarthy if he does become the speaker because he needs every one of their votes to become the speaker. he'll be in debt to marjorie taylor greene and andy biggs and the rest of these guys. >> marjorie taylor greene making fun of a day, it's good that we show the testimony of officer gonell again to remember and understand what they barely survived. these people, they're not serious. they're not taking our democracy or their job seriously. and that's going to be the question for voters moving forward on every level, at every election that we face coming up. and coming up on "morning joe," senate lawmakers are still working to finalize a deal to avoid a government shut down

before friday's deadline. we'll get an update on the negotiations from a member of the democratic leadership in the upper chamber. senator debbie stabenow, and a look at the efforts by the administration to track u.s. weapons in ukraine, including the possibility of sending additional american troops to the region. nbc's courtney kube will join us with her new reporting. we'll be right back. orting we'll be right back. trelegy for copd. ♪ birds flyin' high, you know how i feel. ♪ ♪ breeze driftin' on... ♪ [coughing] ♪ ...by, you know how i feel. ♪ if you're tired of staring down your copd,... ♪ it's a new dawn, ♪

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44 past the hour. a live look at new york city as the sun has yet to come up.

time to go to work. russian president vladimir putin will not hold his annual end of the year press conference for the first time in a decade. a spokesman for the kremlin did not say why the event will not take place, but suggested that it may be rescheduled for the new year. it has historically been one of the few times a year that reporters outside the kremlin pool, including foreign correspondents can ask putin questions. jonathan lemire, i'm hearing from some contacts high up in the administration that they're noticing some changes with vladimir putin. what does this signify to you, and what are you hearing? >> first of all, let's note, his annual december news conference, not only is a chance for reporters to ask questions, but tends to go two, three, four hours long. there's these marathon sessions that's sort of exhaustive and filled with lies. it is curious that he's not

having one this year, particularly on the heels of a week that he was out in public quite a bit. he rode across the rebuilt crimean bridge. he met with mothers of those deployed to this war. he was drinking champagne, and talking to officials assuring them everything was fine with the invasion of ukraine. which we know is not true. that is what american officials are zeroing in on. there's a change with putin, they believe he's getting better intelligence, in the first few months of the war, he was getting a rosy picture of how things were going. he knows how badly things are going, and there's a sense there that he doesn't want to have to take questions about the failures of his military. and of course there has been unproven speculation. we have talked about it on this show that he might be suffering from health ailments. u.s. officials say there's no evidence of that. it's chatter. that could be a contributing factor too. it seems most likely that putin simply doesn't want to face

tough questions about something, a war that is going so poorly on the battlefield and devastating russia's economy. >> the war was a central issue in the virtual meeting along g7 leaders with a focus on reconstruction, how the g7 nations plan to support ukraine in its efforts to rebuild. the nations agreed to elements of a donor system as winter weather slows the war. ukrainian president zelenskyy addressed the meeting, thanks the g7 nations for support, reminding them the financing of weapons remains criminal. and exclusive new reporting on efforts bit department of defense to track weapons shipments sent to ukraine, and why that might involve sending american troops to the region. joining us now is one of the reporters behind that story. nbc news national security and military correspondent, courtney kube. flesh this out a little bit.

i think when people hear american troops to the region, they sit up straight in the morning. what more can you tell us? >> that's right. we need to put this in very important context. there actually is already a very small group of u.s. troops who are in ukraine on this accountability mission. there's a couple dozen total u.s. military in the country. now, that includes the defense act, security forces and a very small group doing this accountability mission. what we have learned, that's carol lee and i, the department of defense, u.s. military leaders are looking at shoring up that very small group. so far they have only been able to visit a handful of locations outside of kyiv to check on the weapons stockpiles, making sure everything is getting to them and to the front lines. the u.s. military leaders are now looking to shore that up with a very small number of additional troops. we're talking single digits here. so it's less about this being

some large influx of troops. that's not the case at all. in fact, they wouldn't be going anywhere near the front lines, it's more about the fact that the pentagon is cognizant of the fact that in january, there's going to be a new -- the republicans are going to be in charge of the house of representatives, and there's a question about weapons accountability in ukraine. you'll remember at the beginning of the war, right after the invasion, the u.s. started flowing in billions of dollars of weapons. there was concern at the time that there wasn't tracking of the weapons once they crossed the border into ukraine and got into the hands of the ukrainians. there's an effort to change that in advance of republicans taking over the house. this is one of the ways they're trying to do it. again one of the concerns of sending more troops or u.s. citizens or personnel there is security of course but in addition to that you have to remember what the conditions are like in kyiv. there's not always reliable electricity. there's not always reliable

water or basic supplies. some in the administration are concerned about that. they want to make sure that they have the personnel there for this mission. but they're not taxing the embassy or putting people in unnecessary harm's way to do this, willie. >> and of course a lot of that is big russia is targeting infrastructure and the power grids across ukraine. >> republicans have come in, some of them have said, we should see if they follow through. maybe pull back on our support. it's enough for the american taxpayers now. how concerned is the department of defense and biden administration. how concerned are they, yes, it may be a completely different world come early january. >> so right now, they believe that they'll be able to maintain this mission, and for at least the next six to nine months is what they're looking at. when you ask directly, are they worried republicans are going to stop funding. most officials i'm speaking with

say look, at the end of the day, there's bipartisan support for continuing to help the ukrainians in this fight against russia. they're worried there will be more scrutiny with things like accountability. they're also concerned there's more and more calls for sending ukraine some of these weapons that the biden administration has been reticent to do over the last several months. they're looking at longer range systems. some people are talking about fighter jets, like f-16s. armed drones. those are things that the administration has been talking about for weeks now. i will say, they're not shutting the door to some of those more advanced systems, but i ask every day, the officials who i'm speaking with are saying they're just not there yet. it's not just the fact that there's concerns about this being escalatory or provocative with the russians, there's a belief that some of the longer range systems that some on the hill are calling for aren't necessary now. everyone needs to watch this space. some of these systems, particularly things like f-16s,

longer range or fighter jets, they take a lot of training. if the u.s. is looking to send some of these things in the coming weeks, perhaps before republicans take the house, and they want to get these kind of things through, they need to make decisions quickly. there's going to have to be a long lead up time for the training, not just on using systems but also on maintaining them, before the ukrainians would get them or get them into the fight. i would keep an eye on this issue specifically over the next several weeks before republicans take the house. it's possible if they're going to make decisions about some of these more advanced systems, and more packages of money, we'll hear that and we'll see that before the change in leadership. >> nbc's courtney kube, thank you very much for your reporting this morning. and still ahead, we'll have a look at the stories making front page headlines across the country. plus, more chaos at twitter. elon musk is relaunching a subscription service while dismissing a group tasked with

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it's a few minutes before the top of the hour, and we just have a few minutes left with jen palmieri, and i want to ask you, jen, what, in normal times, when we don't have conspiracy theories flying and these destructive strengths we have seen on the part of trump republicans, would republicans and democrats be doing? i mean, my first thought would be that if these were normal times, but things that had happened had actually happened, they'd be doing a bipartisan

look into the january 6th insurrection. right, a bipartisan look into the insurrection, they would be doing a bipartisan look into covid, and in the lame duck session that we're having right now, i think they would be looking to be as productive as possible. sometimes lame ducks, it could be that's where obama got the defense of marriage act passed. sometimes you find that where neither party is politically incentivized to be destructive. you can get stuff done, and, you know, we'll see, i know you're hearing soon about whether mitch mcconnell is incentivized to do that, before the asylum wink, as mike wells talks about it, takes over. >> when do you think they can purge the poise, if ever? >> there is a scenario where, you know, republicans did win some tough races in this very destructive midterms, right, they won in ohio, north carolina, wisconsin, statewide senate races. you could see a scenario where

leaders in those states come forward and say, hey, here's how we won, got the trump base out, but also were able to appeal to moderate voters. this is what, and those people would be challenging ronna mcdaniel for the rnc chair. those people would be challenging kevin mccarthy for speaker. you don't see that. instead it's the more destructive people coming forward. trump sort of broke the party, and there's not anything underneath it. >> jen palmieri, mike barnicle, thank you. and dr. anthony fauci is standing by. he'll join us at the top of the hour in just a few moments with his message to the next generation of scientists. "morning joe" is coming right back. due to a rise in covid, rsv and flu cases, new york city health fishes issued an advisory urging people to wear masks again. and i think they're getting tired of these announcements

because this one felt a little more casual than the rest, take a look at this. >> another one. >> that's it. that's it over the last 100 years, lincoln's witnessed a good bit of history. even made some themselves. makes you wonder... what will they do for an encore? ♪♪

elon is being slammed for a tweet he posted yesterday, my pronouns are prosecute and

fauci. fauci is like, much like a tesla battery, elon is on fire. you can tell fauci wasn't having it, because he wrote back, congrats on making twitter the johnson & johnson of social media. >> welcome back to "morning joe." we have a lot to get to this hour. dr. anthony fauci is standing by. we'll talk about the tripledemic hospitals are facing across the country, and what's next for him after 50 years in public service. also ahead, minority leader mitch mcconnell is threatening to delay a government funding bill unless democrats meet his party's demands. plus, the man who was the face of crypto on capitol hill is in federal custody this morning. we'll explain what led to him facing serious fraud charges. and with brittney griner now freed from a russian prison, the biden administration gives an update on the efforts to bring home another american who is still locked up over there.

paul whelan. but let's get right to the director of the national institute of allergy and infectious diseases for now, and chief medical adviser to the president, dr. anthony fauci. it's so good to have you lack on the show. and dr. fauci, i'm going to put you to work again as we start this interview because state officials are urging americans to get vaccinated before gathering for the holidays, as cases of covid-19 are soaring nationwide. according to the cdc, 30,000 people currently in the hospital have tested positive for covid. up 30% since thanksgiving. and the average daily covid death rate is now 426. a nearly 62% increase from last week. health officials say the current tripledemic of rising covid, flu, and rsv cases, along with an over extended health care

work force are pushing hospitals to the brink. doctor, can you comment on this situation, especially with the hospitals and how they're coping with this tripledemic and how people should look toward the holidays given these challenges we are seeing on three fronts? >> well, you've reported it accurately. we are seeing an up tick in cases followed by an up tick in hospitalizations, and as you showed, there's a percentage, more than 60% increase in deaths. we have done much much better recently than we had a year ago this time. if we were having this conversation, there would be literally hundreds and hundreds of thousands of cases and 3 to 4,000 deaths. we're down now to three to 400 a day. that's not good. we still need to do much better than that, and the danger as we get into the colder months of the hate fall and early winter, superimposed upon the holiday season gathering, that's not a good combination, and that's the

reason why we're telling people, we have a good booster updated vaccine available, and we are not doing well enough in people getting vaccinated. we only have 68% of the total population vaccinated, about 50% of those have received a single booster, and only 13% of the eligible population for the updated boost have gotten boosted. we've got to do much better than that, particularly given what you said. we're getting cold weather. we're getting an uptick in cases, and we have the holiday season where people are congregating indoors. we have the wherewithal to do something about that, and that, i hope, is a call to people to realize how important it is to do that, to get vaccinated, to be careful. wear a mask where appropriate in indoor settings. when you have a crowded situation, get tested. when you congregate, for example, with family, it's very easy to get tested and show that you're negative before you go in

and perhaps expose a vulnerable member of your family. >> so i want to ask you about the specifics of the timing of getting a booster. so for some people, it's a third booster. for me, it would be a fourth booster. how long after having covid, or, for example, i got a text saying that you shouldn't get a mammogram. you have to space that out. what are the things we need to know about getting that booster and should everybody get boosted? >> certainly the answer to your last question is, yes, everybody should. the timing is as follows. if you have been infected with covid, you wait three months minimum to get the booster. if you have had a booster in the past but not the updated one, the bivalent ba.5, you wait at least two months before you get

the next shot. that's the timing. that's easy. things like avoiding a mammogram soon after you get a boost, that's really related to if you get a shot in the arm, you could have maybe an inflammation of the lymph nodes, and that's something you don't want to complicate the interpretation of a mammogram, but that's the only reason for that. >> interesting. >> dr. fauci, good morning, good to have you on with us. you have served seven presidents, beginning with president ronald reagan, republicans and democrats. can you put in context what the last, gosh, almost three years now have been like for you in comparison to the other crises that you have been through, because there has been hiv/aids, of course, zika, bird flu, the list goes on and on. not just in terms of the disease and the numbers and everything we've seen in it country, more than a million people killed, but in terms of being the face of it, and managing the information that comes out to the public? >> yes, it's a great question,

and it really has been very unique. you're right, i've had the opportunity to be able to be in the eye of the hurricane of multiple different outbreaks over the years. but they have been really quite different than covid. with hiv, which is a serious pandemic, it's still ongoing, it was a smoldering, gradual over a period of time extended now, we're in our 41st year of it. it was very mysterious in the beginning. it's selectively at first involved individuals of certain groups, particularly men who have sex with men, and we found out that globally, it was really could infect anybody, particularly in the developing world. we have had blips with others. we have had ebola, zika, pandemic flu of 2009. the unique nature of this is that it's three years of really essentially wearing down the country. this was hopefully in the

beginning when it first came out, we thought we would have a big blip of an outbreak, and it would go away, and we would be done with it. here we are, going into the third year of it, and we are still in the middle of a pandemic with the numbers that you just showed. that's completely unprecedented to have that amount of stress on the system and the durability and the duration of the stress is extraordinary. >> and as you look back, dr. fauci, now, with three years of hindsight, part of science, as you know very well, is learning. okay. maybe we got this right. this wrong, the early days of the pandemic, we were all home, and people were leaving their groceries in the garage because we thought it was contact with the card board boxes. all of those things that turned out not to be true. we know children tolerated it better than we thought, and schools probably didn't need to be closed as long as they were. what are some of the things you learned or regrets you have over the last three years? >> well, i think you said it

very well. it has been a moving target particularly in the early months going from january 2020 throughout the first year. you know, understanding the virus, and how it transmitted and having to make recommendations in realtime when you don't have all the information, and it's so easy and true. if we knew in january and early february the things that we learned over months and a year about the virus, we certainly would have done things differently. and that's really one of the things you have to deal with. you have to deal with the information you have and make your best judgment at the time. if that information changes, which certainly it did with covid because it's been so dynamic in our understanding about the virus, then you have to make changes in things like your understanding, your recommendations, and your guidelines, and that's the reason why you saw things evolve much much over the first year, and even to today, understanding

the different variants how they have evolved over the years. >> it's amazing, dr. fauci, we still, three years on don't know precisely how this started. you said most of the research, the peer-reviewed research shows that it was transmitted from a bat to an intermediary host and to humans starting a global pandemic. there are others who believe it leaked out of a lab in china. you said you have an open mind to that, you just want to see the data. why is it that we don't know. it strikes me as an important point to know for the future, why is it three years on, we don't know how this pandemic started? >> it's not that unusual. you know, the first covid, remember, the sars-cov-1, it took a while for us to nail down completely and unequivocally that in 2002, when we had that outbreak, it took a while of a few years to find out it was a bat to a civic cat which people

take into the markets and then into humans. it's not that unusual to not know right now. the problem we have is that because of the tension between china and the united states right now, we don't have the opportunity to go and do the kind of surveillance with animals there, do surveillance to find out was it the same sort of thing, which many of the evolutionary virologists in the peer-reviewed papers that i had mentioned that you just referred to feel strongly that it very very likely was that. but we haven't nailed it down. it would be so much better if we had open transparency and communication, which is really a problem because there's a great deal of hostility now between china and the united states. >> and there's a lot of disinformation. dr. fauci, you wrote a guest essay for the "new york times," looking back on your decades long career in medical research, and it's your message to the next generation of scientists and in it you reflect on

disinformation about the covid-19 pandemic. and you write in part, quote, the united states is reminded of the importance of continued investments and basic and clinical biomedical research. the major successes of the covid-19 pandemic have been driven by scientific advances, particularly life saving vaccines that were developed, proven safe and effective in clinical trials, and made available to the public within one year. an unprecedented feat. other lessons are painful, such as the failures of certain public health responses domestically and globally. we must also acknowledge that our fight against covid-19 has been hindered by the profound political divisiveness in our society, in a way that we have never seen before. decisions about public health measures such as wearing masks and being vaccinated with highly effective and safe vaccines, have been influenced by disinformation, and political

ideology. it is our collective responsibility to ensure that public health policy decisions are driven by the best available data. scientists and health workers can do their part by speaking up, including to new and old media sources, to share and explain in plain language the latest scientific findings as well as what remains to be learned, and i guess my question to you out of that is what happens if the disinformation is coming from the president you're working for in realtime? what did you learn about what scientists need to do to step up and push back against disinformation? >> yeah, i mean, that is a difficult issue to address, and the only thing we can do while maintaining people's freedom to say what they want to do is to really get out there and be very proactive in putting out

science-based, evidence-based, data-based information, because it seems like the people who spread the disinformation are very energetic and seem to have nothing else to do but do that, so we've got to be out there. scientists in the general public and those who understand the facts and get out there and talk about true and correct information. because disinformation is bad under any circumstances. when you inject it into a situation when you're in a public health crisis, disinformation can be the bane and the enemy of good public health practices, and we have seen that, and that's what i referred to in the article, an excerpt of which you just read that it can be dangerous to the health of the nation when disinformation dissuades people from making use of what could be life saving interventions like

vaccinations, wearing a mask and abiding by good public health practices. that would be horrible to see people suffer and die because of disinformation. >> dr. fauci you're stepping down from your public post, and thank you for your public service. it seems many won't let you leave the spotlight. you have become an unlikely right wing boogie man. we showed the elon musk tweet, and more than that, republicans are about to take control of the house of representatives in a couple of weeks, and they made very clear they want to make you an issue, they will call you to testify, perhaps via subpoena, and investigate you, and i want to get your thoughts on that, and how are you preparing? >> well, first of all, i have always throughout the many years, now over 40 years that i have been -- almost 40 years that i have been director of the institute, i have testified before congress literally hundreds of times. and i respect the concept of oversight.

so i'm perfectly willing to testify before congress about any issue that they want to look into. but, you know, to me it's come on, i have nothing to hide, i've done everything that i believe should have been done in the arena of public health and science, and i would be more than happy to explain that publicly before a congressional committee. >> dr. anthony fauci, for all of us here, thank you for your service. we'll see you again soon. and we really appreciate your coming on the show this morning. >> thank you very much. good to be with you. >> thank you. and speaking of one of the issues mentioned in the interview, twitter ceo elon musk has dissolved the company's trust and safety council. didn't need that, i guess. members were informed last night via e-mail that the group would be disbanded. just moments before the council was set to meet with twitter representatives. that e-mail, which was provided

to nbc news reads twitter was quote reevaluating how best to bring external insights into our product and policy development work. and that the council is not the best structure to do this. the council was established in 2016 and made up of about 100 independent volunteers who offer the company outside expert advice about online safety, and this will be a conversation that continues as we deal with disinformation and these public platforms. still ahead on "morning joe," an update on wnba star brittney griner's physical and mental health following her detainment in russia. plus, a huge group of migrants crosses into texas. we'll have the latest on the surge at the southern border. and later this morning, actor, edward norton joins us with a look at his new film, glass onion, the knives out

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and you can do it all with your eyes wide open. 23 past the hour. we're learning more about wnba star brittney griner's time readjusting to life back home. state department spokesman ned price said that as of yesterday, griner was still undergoing health evaluations and treatment at the san antonio medical center that she checked into after flying back to the u.s. price added that the timing of griner's eventual release from the hospital has been left up to her and her family. but while the star athlete recovers from her ten-month detention in russia, her agent tells espn she's already picked up a basketball. playing on sunday for the first time since being wrongfully detained last february.

that agent says griner isn't sure if or when she plans to return to the wnba. but that she could issue a statement this week. willie. >> meanwhile, biden administration officials met with the family of former u.s. marine paul whelan yesterday to discuss a strategy to secure his release from russia. speaking to reporters yesterday, officials said efforts to bring whelan home are ongoing, though russia has not been willing to negotiate quote seriously or constructively. the big challenge we had over the course of the past several months is that what russia was asking for to secure paul whelan's release was not something that we had to be able to give. that is a problem we are trying to solve. our commitment to this is absolutely rock solid, intense, and this is as high a priority as the president has. >> we are going to be creative.

we are going to be relentless in working with paul whelan's family, his loved ones, and in turn with the russians to see this case resolved as soon as we can. we are determined that a plane will be dispatched to russia before long to bring paul whelan home. our message to paul, our message to every american who is wrongfully detained. hang tight, keep the faith, we'll come to get you. >> joining us now, cohost of show time's the circus, john heilemann. u.s. correspondent for bbc news katty kay, and pulitzer prize winning columnist at "the washington post," eugene robinson. we heard from the state department, hang in there, we'll be there before too long is the message for paul whelan. there was outcry that he was not included in the deal. great news that brittney griner is home, but the united states gave up arguably its biggest bargaining chip in viktor bout. would have liked to have seen whelan there.

how thorny is this for the biden administration to get paul whelan home. the question is what does the united states have left to give up for him? >> the white house has made it clear it wants to be creative but doesn't want to do anything that might impact the mission in ukraine. you have to take ukraine off the table, you're left with russian prisoners who are here. none of the status, you don't have high profile spies that they want returned. there is somebody sitting in a jail in berlin in germany that the russians have raised before. someone that has been charged with manslaughter, that killed a chechnyaen leader. they would like to get them out, and they have approached the americans earlier this summer about trying to do a deal with the germans to get him out. so far the germans haven't played ball on that. they aren't interested. every country around the world is looking at this as a potential prisoner swap for their own people, so if you are germany or the united kingdom, and you hold a high profile russian, at this point, you

might be thinking, i don't know when i'm going to need that high profile russian to get my own people out. even though john kirby told us on this program last week that they were talking to their allies, if you're an ally of the united states would you hand over one of your high profile russian prisoners in order to get an american out. as we see this chess game going with prisoners, awful trading going with prisoners, it probably becomes less likely. they're sounding bullish, remarkably bullish, to think we're going to have a plane going there. i don't see what cards they hold. >> i was surprised the how kind of equivocal that statement was. john heilemann, the white house met with whelan's family. i don't believe that happened during the trump administration. and yet the reaction by republicans, some republicans, is quite critical. what do you make of that? >> hi, mika, i make of it that

the republicans will have no consistency, happily to engage in nakedly hypocritical critiques of democrats to score stupid points on conservative media. look, no one -- consistency is not just the hobgoblin of small minds, it's not the hobgoblin of anybody in the republican party. they don't care about being consistent. their attitude is they hold joe biden to a different set of standards than they hold donald trump to, and i think, you know, we can make the point that they are inconsistent. they're hypocritical, but it doesn't matter to them because they're playing for a different audience than we care about, which also doesn't care about consistency, it's are we owning the libs. brittney griner made for a convenient target in that regard, and they're going to make the points they're going to make, and we're going to point out that donald trump did nothing for paul whelan, in the entire time that he was in office, and it won't matter to

them, but it is an important point to make. >> while we're at it, the white house and democratic lawmakers are condemning comments from georgia republican marjorie taylor greene about the attack on the capitol. greene spoke saturday night at a dinner hosted by the new york young republican club. she bragged that if she and steve bannon had planned the insurrection, it would have been different. >> then january 6th happens, and next thing you know, i organized whole thing, along with steve bannon here. and i want to tell you something, if steve bannon and i had organized that, we would have won. not to mention, it would have been armed. >> so gene robinson, claims she was being sarcastic, how do you

crack jokes about an insurrection that destroyed the lives of capitol police officers, killed people, you know, the list goes on. take a look at what happened on january 6th and find me the funny in there. >> there is no funny in it, and to say we would have won and it would have been armed, that's just -- you know, horrific, and awful and ridiculous, and unacceptable things for anyone to say, especially a member of congress, especially a member of congress who's going to be highly influential, essentially part of the leadership in next congress under kevin mccarthy, assuming kevin mccarthy gets to be speaker. this is, you know, get used to it. this is what we're in for for the next couple of years as long as republicans are running or trying to run the show in the

house. and it's just completely unacceptable. but there we are. >> you know, john, we've denied marjorie taylor greene oxygen to the extent you can over the last couple of years, but gene makes the important point that now kevin mccarthy if he wants to be the leader with this slim majority, needs marjorie taylor greene. he needs all of these total quack conspiracy theorists on his side. he's going to owe them something. they're going to have real power in the next congress. >> we did an episode on marjorie taylor greene, and people would say, you shouldn't give her oxygen. that's what she wants. she has plenty of oxygen. it's not -- she didn't care, really, doesn't care about being on msnbc. she doesn't care what's said here, she doesn't care what's said on show time's "the circus," she has a giant platform, and if you go down to her district, she's a rock star there. and she is nationally one of the most potent fundraisers in the republic universe.

not because the mainstream press pays attention to her, it's that she has this giant independent power base that exists in that orbit, which is now a separate sphere, and she is, i think, you know, she is going to call the tune. gene is right. we're going to have to get used to it. she's going to operate with immunity. what she said is ridiculous, what she said is a million things, she's testing the bounds of her power there. i will say what i'm going to say, and no one in my party is going to push back on me. they recognize in some ways i have the pulse of the donald trump base, in some ways more than donald trump does. i am one of the most powerful people in this party. i have kevin mccarthy by the, you know -- >> sure. yeah. >> she's got kevin mccarthy in her hands. and it's fate. if she turns on kevin mccarthy, he's not speaker anymore. and we know how much kevin mccarthy wants to be speaker. and she's letting everybody

know, including kevin mccarthy that she had say what she wishes and no one will do anything to stop her. she's going to flex that muscle all the time because she wants to make sure everyone is wear of her power, and that's how she keeps the kind of influence she has is by exercising that kind of what we think of as disgusting, but what she thinks of as a demonstration of the fact that she's untouchable in her caucus. >> katty kay, a lot of people rightly celebrated the most high profile election deniers were defeated this past november in the midterms, but a lot of them won, particularly in the house of representatives. a lot of republicans believe joe biden san illegitimate president, are supportive of what happened on january 6th, will be in office come january. we heard from marjorie taylor greene as a preview of what to expect in a republican led house of representatives. mccarthy, as just discussed is going to be beholden or mccarthy

will lose, and odds it will be to mccarthy's right. that's one option. this here from marjorie taylor greene won't be this extreme, isn't this sort of rhetoric, this refusal to engage in reality, isn't that what the republican party has to offer come january. >> i think as john says, get used to more of this. she has no reason and no interest in dialing it down. her brand is this. a bit like kari lake's brand was election denialism. marjorie taylor greene, shock tactics, own the libs, stand somewhere to the right of donald trump. he's not going to dial it down. the one thing the midterms showed us that was so interesting is that in districts, house districts that have been gerrymandered to become more extreme on the right of the republican party, people like marjorie taylor greene can and did get elected and they can and will wield influence in the

next congress. at the statewide level, when you have to include independents and moderate voters, they can't get elected. that was the lessons that came out of the midterm elections. it just means that we're going to have a sort of very very disruptive two years in congress with more of this kind of tone. more of this kind of attitude. it doesn't mean they have any more chance. it diminishes their chances of getting elected at a statewide level. the more you hear of this, the more it turns off the voters, and the reason kari lake didn't get elect instead arizona as governor, people didn't like the tone of what she was saying. democratic senator joe manchin of west virginia appears to be leaving the door open to switching parties in the future. he was asked by reporters yesterday about senator kyrsten sinema's decision to become an independent. and here's some of what he had to say. >> but i have no intention of

doing anything right now. whether i do something later, i can't tell you what the future is going to bring. i can only tell you where i am and my mindset and what i want to accomplish in the senate. i'm not a washington democrat. i don't know what else to tell you. but i have a lot of friends that are washington republicans. we'll see what happens there. people are registering more for independents than any party affiliation. they're sick and tired of it. if i can continue to work and patch up differences and bring people together, i'll do it. >> john heilemann, what is that about? >> well, that's about, now apparently we're being canadians today. >> west virginia. >> west virginia or toronto, i'm not sure which. what that's about is joe manchin doing what he does, telegraphing to the people of west virginia who are vastly supportive of republicans in general, donald trump in particular, and yet joe

manchin gets reelected all the time, joe manchin is part of the national democratic party. he signals that in a million ways. he has flirted with the notion of declaring himself an independent in the past. it's part of how he maintains his electoral stability, no other democrat in the country could get elected in west virginia, despite some people's fantasies about what's possible there. in the end, whether it's kyrsten sinema or joe manchin f you regard them as problems, and many people do. you don't regard how they label themselves as the problem. what you regard as the problem is how they vote. and what is necessary to secure their votes, you know, kyrsten sinema said, she's going to continue to vote how she voted all along. is she going to continue to caucus with democrats, nothing is going to change. i think joe manchin is in the same place. he knows what voting record and what his positioning on various issues will continue to get him

reelected in west virginia. that's a problem for progressive legislation going through but if joe manchin tomorrow woke skpup -- up and decided he was an independent, he would be the same degree of problem that he is now, and sinema, the same thing. so i think, you know, they are a problem for democrats in a narrowly divided senate. they're a problem in what they believe in. what they label themselves as is the lest of the problem, the biggest part of the problem is their obstinacy on issues that are considered mainstream in the democratic party now. >> john heilemann, thank you very much for being on this morning. and coming up, while the nation's health care system is strained by soaring cases of covid, flu, and rsv, fentanyl overdose is emerging as a leading cause of death for american adults. we'll check in with a top health expert on the growing opioid

epidemic next on "morning joe." d epidemic next on "morning joe.

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42 past the hour. fentanyl overdoses are a leading cause of death for americans aged 14 to 49 according to a new analysis by "the washington post," amid the deadliest drug epidemic in american history. more than 100,000 americans died from drug overdoses last year with 2/3 of those deaths tied to fentanyl. and the same death toll is expected this year. that averages to nearly 200 people dying every single day from fentanyl, a powerful,

synthetic opioid that is cheap to produce. the painkiller was developed 60 years ago to treat intense pain from ailments like cancer. it is 50 times more potent than heroin, even a small dose can be fatal. joining us now, the president and ceo of the hazel and betty ford downed foundation, dr. joseph li. thank you for being on this morning. explain how we got here. how is it so deadly, and such a small amount? how is it being ingested? how is it being abused? how did we get to the point where it's one of the leading causes of drug overdose deaths? >> that's a great question, and to catch up the audience, we're in the third phase of the opioid decade. a decade ago, everybody heard about oxycodone and pain medicines being over prescribed,

and in the second phase, that evolved into the demand and use of heroin. the black market got very competitive, and fentanyl came into the mix. fentanyl is a synthetic opioid, cheaper to manufacturer, easier to hide, harder to detect. it became popular in the black market as a substitute for the real thing, so to speak, and small quantities go a long way. a lot of people started to die accidentally. they didn't know what they were taking had fentanyl in it or they thought they were taking another pain medication. that's why we see the tragedy you see in the news. >> those that find fentanyl lacing, where, what drugs, what are people taking when they don't know that fentanyl is actually in there and it kills them? >> well, you know, the way the black market works, and i know this being an addiction medicine doctor working on the front line

with young people who have been very entrepreneurial over the years, i saw this happen over the past decade. you see people dealing drugs and organizations that are dealing drugs cut things into substances to maximize profit, and they want to cut something into it that has a pop to it, and so feintal does. they will cut it into opioid medication, and cutting it into other medication and drugs that people take, xanax and sedatives. i saw a young people who didn't know they were taking fentanyl. they thought they were taking xanax. and turned out they were taking fentanyl, and some of them across the country passed away. >> that is incredible. what are some of the things that the government can do to help, and what are some of the ideas to try and push back against this epidemic, especially given how challenges it is. it is much easier to produce and get around, given how small an amount can cause such a big

effect. >> yeah, to really tackle this problem, it's a complicated problem. you need to deal with both the supply and the demand. that's what the current drugs are. dr. raul gupta says, and i agree with him, you know, on the supply side, it can't be doubling down on tactics that haven't worked, over incarcerating and prosecuting people. freezing assets of people who use bitcoin to work with labs to bring drugs into the country. and you have to work on the demand side, more treatment, more medicines for opioid reversal like nalaxone. you need more than just government policy. you need a way to incentivize mainstream health care. hospitals and health organizations, they want to help

with the opioid epidemic, but they have a problem. they don't know a lot about addiction, and number two, the financial math in building services for addiction and other behavioral health, it just doesn't work for them, and so they don't know how to do it, and they don't have the financial incentives to do it. as a country, you're seeing a lot of the addiction treatment happening on the fringes, and not in the mainstream, and that's a problem. >> dr. lee, as you know, this is terrifying for parents across the country because there's so much of this stuff circulating out there. you have touched on this. all of these stories, a kid takes a xanax, they ordered it online. not through their pharmacy. they didn't get it through a parent, and they die because there's fentanyl, and young people trying recreational drugs, maybe for the first time and there's fentanyl in it, and they die. they overdose. what would you say to parents about keeping an eye on this stuff, monitoring, checking in with your children so that we can at least start at home by stopping some of this? >> yeah, you know, the education

and prevention efforts, i would ask for parents to advocate for their school systems to invest in prevention efforts. it's not a cure all but it helps. you can't mess around with fentanyl. back in the days when people were drinking alcohol and using other substances, you would get a second and third round. with fentanyl, people that are naive, don't know about opioids, end up overdoses, people who are experienced, overdose. we have seen this at celebrity levels and high profile and young people as well. parents need to up the game in advocating for prevention, education and really strong ties to relationship building and communication with their young people. >> all right. president and ceo of the hazelton betty ford foundation, dr. joseph lee. thank you very much for being on this morning. we appreciate it. and still ahead on "morning joe," the man who was known as

the king of crypto has been arrested in the bahamas. we'll take a look at the new criminal charges he is facing. and a note as we go to break, more than 1 million women have left the work force since the covid-19 pandemic hit, and now companies are offering all kinds of benefits to retain great employees and recruit new talent. this includes fertility benefits. think about this, freezing, ivf, surrogacy. tammy's son is on the cutting edge of this with cart technology, teaming up with 800 companies to add fertility care to their coverage, and now women are being more to ask for ferti benefits before accepting a job why they negotiate it. take a listen. you told know your value women are starting to feel more comfortable asking for fertility

benefits. >> yeah. >> i want the know what that looks like but like negotiating for a job? >> yeah. >> they do that? how do they ask? >> a few different ways. employers say we are trying to recruit and win this candidate and asking us whether or not the health plan and coverage includes fertility benefits. or, employees going to employers through women's groups, lgbtq groups asking for equal access. i think this is a reason it's grown is people feel much more comfortable in the culture talking about the issues. >> you are in an interview. you negotiate. you can say i'll join the company if you help me freeze my eggs. >> that's right. if you help me through my pregnancy. menopause. >> to see my entire interview

with tammy on the future of fertility benefits head to know your value.com for more. "morning joe" will be right back. even walking was tough. i had to do something. i started cosentyx®. cosentyx can help you move, look, and feel better... by treating the multiple symptoms of psoriatic arthritis. don't use if you're allergic to cosentyx. before starting...get checked for tuberculosis. an increased risk of infections some serious... and the lowered ability to fight them may occur. tell your doctor about an infection or symptoms... or if you've had a vaccine or plan to. tell your doctor if your crohn's disease symptoms... develop or worsen. serious allergic reactions may occur. watch me. ask your rheumatologist about cosentyx.

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i'm rich barnes. it's hard for people to k how much their accident case is worth.h barnes. t ouour juryry aorneneys hehelpou just a few minutes before the top of the third hour of "morning joe" and, gene robinson, there are world cup semifinals today and the matches have so far -- i know watching joe glued to the of the they have been thrilling. you have a piece out this morning. the world cup is thrilling and that's a problem and you talk about sports washing. tell us about it. >> qatar has a pretty bad human rights record, especially the non-respected human rights of the migrant workers who built the new stadiums and the new metro and all the new facilities. thousands are reported to have died during this construction

why the lives are controlled and almost like involuntarily servitude. and they can't go home. they can't switch jobs. they can't do anything. it is a terrible situation and yet we forget about it and we ignore it because the matches are thrilling. something really special about world cup soccer and it is exciting. something like 5 billion people in the world agree with me and will watch part of the spectacle. so qatar gets people to focus on the competition, polish up the image and we sort of look past the fact that the stadiums built under the most appalling circumstances. >> thank you for writing that and thank you for being on this

morning. really appreciate it. it turns out dozens of republican lawmakers were texting with mark meadows the ideas for overturning the 2020 election. we will have new reporting on the messages, next on "morning joe."

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marjorie taylor greene will be in charge in a few weeks because kevin mccarthy struck a corrupt bargain with her to be speaker so he is going to allow under their tent somebody with a fever dream of an armed insurrection that's successful against the u.s. capitol. by the way, she didn't say she was embarrassed by what happened at the u.s. capitol. if anything she was embarrassed that it failed and if she was a lieutenant she would have

ensured it succeeded. >> eric swalwell is one of democratic law firms calling out marjorie taylor greene to brag how she would have won on january 6 if she planned it and would have been armed as we learn more about the deranged pitches to overturn the 2020 election that republican members of congress sent to donald trump's chief of staff mark meadows and there's green on the futures board but that could change when a key report on inflation comes out this hour. welcome back to "morning joe." it is tuesday, december 13. jonathan, katty kay with us. willie, the white house chief of staff, the president's chief of staff is the gatekeeper, takes in ideas from the members of the administration or congress on

policy and ideas to talk to the president about and he sort of tries to direct and keep people away or get access for them. in this case, it's conspiracy theories and possibly martial law that mark meadows was dealing with. >> the gate was completely open. we learn more about that this morning. nearly two years later thousands of unseen publicly text messages revealing the lengths republican lawmakers went. there's 2,000 text messages to the house january 6 committee this year by former white house chief of staff meadows in conversation with at least 34 republican members of congress

with many lawmakers sharing debunked conspiracy theories to help then former president trump stay in office. in a texz before the inauguration ralph norman writes our last hope is invoking marshal law with mar martial spelled incorrectly. he did respond to a plan to overturn the election floated by andy biggs after raising claims that immigrants cast ballots. meadows said i like it. the text also shows efforts by pennsylvania congressman perry to have an environmental lawyer installed as attorney general in the final days of the trump administration. clark's name from the january 6 committees told if there's an oil spill we'll call you

otherwise beat it. after responding once meadows ignored the texts of a theory about an italian defense contractor stealing the election by satellite for democrats. it may be missing some context. nbc reached out for a response. jonathan lemire, should remain shocking that you had a large group of republicans plotting to overturn the results of the election with the help of the white house chief of staff. >> we knew some of this already but the trove of texts shows how tireless this effort was to get donald trump to stay in office. some representatives from states in constant communication with the chief of staff to the

president indeed the gatekeeper, the person in a normal white house to keep nonsense like this away from the president but meadows gets it to the oval office and the resolute desk and donald trump wanted in that window between election day and january 6 no theory too outlandish to consider. what they settled on was the scheme to throw out electors and have mike pence certify trump on january 6 and did not happen but as we noted earlier even after the insurrection and after lives were lost that day the citadel of the democracy came under assault republicans didn't give up and thinking about martial law before the inauguration and we know to this very day donald

trump still pushing the big lie and republicans with him. >> people did stand up in the moment against the likes of these republican congressman and the president. one of them was not mark meadows. we have seen now in testimony from the january 6 commit tee how cowardly he is on january 6 saying i'm not telling the president that information, the truth. this stuff made it from the darkest corners of the congress handed over to mark meadows to the president of the united states who in the case of the italian satellite siced the department of justice on this theory. >> the fact to use the branches of government to try to investigate the frankly crackpot theories shows a level of desperation and determination. i guess it is that combination. we have seen in germany arrests

of people trying to overthrow the government. we think it's ridiculous to believe there's an italian satellite and think anyone would believe that but you can put crackpot with determination and a certain amount of organization and access to authority and it's modeled on january 6 in germany. i think what happens with these texts? what happens with the department of justice's own investigations now and what can they do with them given what will happen with change of party leadership in the house? >> jonning us now democratic congressman jim himes of connecticut to talk about a new documentary that we are going to focus on in a moment. i have to ask you about your

colleagues. behavior is like this, not against the law to send a text, but aren't there consequences -- there are for those that participated in the insurrection and some colleagues now serving and the former president trump pushing it. >> that's absolutely right. i was at the opening last night about the documentary about nancy pelosi and ran footage of what happened on january 6 and even though two years ago for people like me in the chamber that day it was traumatic to relive that. here's the thing. there are a dozen or so members of this house of representatives though they take an oath to the constitution assuming the office they don't believe in the constitution. they care about donald trump, firearms, obsessed with

violence. not 50 members of the republican party but a dozen. paul gosart put up a tweet agreeing with donald trump said abolish the constitution to put me up. they have to reflect who they want people who would bring back a monarchy. that's precisely the group of people that's going to create chaos not for my side of the aisle but republicans because they are going to work very hard to prevent kevin mccarthy from becoming speak every of the house. >> so then who -- what are the possibilities if kevin mccarthy is not speaker of the house -- we look at marjorie taylor

greene. she is growing in power in congress. >> yeah. no. that's right. it's funny. if those folks lived in a rational world who's the alternative? that's not the world those folks live in. a dozen members on the republican side not interested in the constitution and the liberties and freedom but promoting the interest of donald trump and their own interests on television and they don't have to answer the question what's your plan? at the core is chaos and anarchy. they don't have a plan. they just want -- look. you heard her celebrate january 6. you know? bewould have succeeded and we would have been arm jd they celebrate because it's the chaos and the anarchy that is fuel to

their fire. >> congressman, you are chairman of the select committee on economic disparity and fairness in growth. you have been working on and i mean executive producing a documentary film to premier tonight entitled "grit and grace: the fight for the american dream" telling the story of three people united in the goal to achieve success in america. here's a preview. >> in june of 2021, democrats and republicans in congress came together to study and propose solutions to our growing economic divide. >> in the wealthiest country in the world most people struggle economically. >> people are trying to move up. often we see things get in the way of that. >> here are three stories that capture the hunger, passion and

love that define love. >> i met the boys. >> a woman who found passion in sharing the cull which you shall's riches. >> i could contribute to this country. >> joseph graham jr. still ambitious in the face of injustice. >> we achieve human dignity in a legacy to leave beheend to them. >> a legacy of grit and grace. >> wow. that is sjp narrating that. it is a documentary film produced by congress and as the ep, congressman, what are you hoping to accomplish with this? >> when speaker pelosi asked me to chair this committee we thought we'll produce a report with recommendations and we did that. this takes me back to january 6.

i thought here's an opportunity to tell american stories and when you get out of washington d.c. you discover that people are not stereotypes and you heard from the three real people who are struggling with dignity and hope and aspiration and had a really tough time but wake up deciding that this is going to be their day and we were just talking about a brutal moment in the history, january 6. these real americans despite the challenges are optimists, aspirational and the very best of america. the report will speak to the head. this speaks to the heart. if you watch this 30 minutes and don't feel like we need to do more, i don't know that i can help you. >> to your credit and the team this is one of the few things in american culture stripped of politics and talking about the economy and people from the

country and the parties and the pursuit of the american dream. we talk about so much every morning on this show that's important but most people wake up and just say how am i doing? how can i do better? from your vantage point how can you help people do better? >> there's a policy discussion to be had. if you read the report it won't surprise you to know that we need to invest in the youngest americans. other countries invest more in their children. when they grow up there will be a cost to pay for that fact. point two, this gets back to the documentary, we need to fix something in this country. we need to fix something in this country that i think donald trump broke. donald trump realized that there's huge political power in

making us hate each other. that guy's a maga guy. that guy's a socialist democrat. then the less we feel the empathy we need to understand we have obligations to each other and need to do better. if we don't get that empathy we're not going to succeed on the policy front. >> congressman, welcome to the world of television production. if you need a new job give us a call. that's what we do every day. we saw january 6 which was a well produced report effectively, investigation from the committee. you are now doing this. is there a sense in congress to do something else to break through to people, specifically in a way that's more human and less partisan? perhaps the old way of producing

reports needs to be confined to history. >> i'm glad you asked that. it wasn't a coordinated effort but you are right. this documentary and the way that the january 6 committee told the story are breaks from the way congress does hear thags are boring with people like me pontificating for five minutes. yes, you know, go to the core of the problem we are addressing. people think what happens in the congress they don't choir or listen to me and don't know me and if we find ways to listen and communicate in compelling ways we every going to help stitch back the confidence that i would hope americans have in their democracy. >> you can watch that documentary tonight.

congressman himes of connecticut, thank you for your time this morning. >> thank you. sam bankman-fried the founder of ftx is arrested in the bahamas after u.s. prosecutors filed charges against him brought by the justice department and the securities and exchange commission for the collapse of his firm. we'll talk about that in the next hour. all right. still ahead on "morning joe," the doj special counsel to investigate former president trump has issued a new subpoena to georgia's secretary of state. nbc's ken dilanian joins us on that marjorie taylor greene said she was sarcastic when she said january 6 would end differently if she was in charge. you are watching "morning joe."

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jack smith special counsel to investigate former president trump at the justice department has sent a grand jury subpoena to georgia's republican secretary of state brad raffensperger. a source tells nbc news he doesn't have to testify in person. trump called him in 2021 to find the votes to reverse president biden's win in the state. you remember that. georgia reaffirmed president biden's victory several times. nbc news has learned specific

council smith issued subpoena to 0 election officials in clark county, nevada in addition to state and local officials in states of arizona, michigan, wisconsin and pennsylvania. all of the states are central to trump's failed plan to stay in power after the 2020 lengs. also among the first known subpoenas issued since smith was named last moby attorney general garland to jove see trump related aspects of the election and the mishandling of classified documents at mar-a-lago. it is exhausting the questions he has raised about what happened. give me a sense of what this signifies, just the subpoena of raffensberger to turn over documents, the focus on him and the other states. >> i think this is a very important moment in this

investigation because until now it wasn't clear that the justice department was aggressively pursuing the conduct in georgia given the fact there's a state investigation. that's a mystery because if it's illegal in other states georgia was the best example with the best evidence. president trump on tape to pressure brad raffensberger to found 11,780 votes. if you remember from that famous conversation trump tried to suggest they knew the election was corrupt and risky not to act on that. he was almost hinting there's criminality there not to do his bidding. jack smith is in the netherlands recovering from a bike accident but the influence is felt in this investigation. he is moving forward quickly and

aggressively. in terms of the subpoenas to the states there's a list of people almost everyone we know of involved in this effort, rudy giuliani, bill sepian, they want the communication between them and the state and local election officials. >> that map shows the reach of jack smith and the states where he is looking. another story for you, a federal judge dismissed former president trump's lawsuit challenging the government's access to materials seized from the mar-a-lago club and home. judge cannon appointed the special master to the case. the order after trump chose not to appeal that stopped the special master.

ending trump's month's long legal bat jl the special master after all that is over? >> over and gone. the doj has the documents seized at mar-a-lago and a humiliating moment for the federal judge in florida creating a special master and the 11th appeals court slapped her down and said this is ridiculous. we don't have a special rule for former president. unless there's evidence that the justice department violated the rights and no evidence in this case. we spent a lot of time talking about this. you know what? we did learn from that protracted litigation. donald trump's lawyers unwilling to say in court that donald trump declassified the documents but trump had been saying that

in public. we also learned they may try to exert executive privilege over the documents if the case goes to trial but that there doesn't seem to be a basis for that so it allowed the public to get a better view of what was seized at mar-a-lago but this is remembered as a footnote and an action by a federal judge with no basis in law. >> a footnote that bought donald trump time and some would argue that's another thing that the team was trying to do is drag things out. now that the special master is out of the way, how does this progress forward? what's the timeline? >> the timeline for mar-a-lago is certainly more accelerated than january 6. nobody thinks we'll see charges before the holidays but no one would be surprised to charge the

case in the first part of the year but the recent back and forth that will happen in secret in washington, d.c. where the doj tried to as far as the reporting tells us to get the judge to hold the office of the former president in contempt and hinted a bit of a caution flag there showing that the doj is not able to connect donald trump personally with the alleged obstruction of justice not trying to hold him personally in contempt and may signal a problem in that part of case but many say in terms of the mishandling of classified documents anyone else would have been charged by now. the question is whether they want to pursue the potential obstruction of justice allegations. coming up, a guest

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the white house and democratic lawmakers are condemning comments from georgia republican marjorie taylor greene about the attack on the capitol. greene spoke saturday night at a dinner hosted by the new york young republican club bragging that if she and steve bannon planned the january 6 insurrection it would have been

different. >> then january 6 happens and next thing you know that i organized the whole thing with steve bannon here. if we had organized that we would have won. not to mention it would have been armed. >> in a statement the biden white house called greene's remarks a slap in the face to law enforcement. writing, quote, it goes against our fundamental values as a country for a member of congress to wish the carnage of january had been worse and would have boasted to succeed in an armed insurrection against the united states government. greene responded with a statement claiming the comments were sarcasm about an insurrection. minority leader kevin mccarthy has not said anything publicly

about the speech. jen, you have spent time with her. covered her for the circus. i don't know how you joke about an insurrection where people died and the capitol building was defaced and our lawmakers including the vice president and speaker of the house put in extreme danger. maybe i'm not funny why i don't know. i have learned that as it per trains to donald trump maybe 100% of joking is true. it is worth believing him. the same goes for i believe trumpy republicans like greene. what do you make of her comments and then the walk-back? >> part of the context is the day before making remarks a capitol police sergeant resigned from the force saying the stress from january 6 pushed him out of

the job and testifying about january 6 he said he had the thought this is how i'm going to die and this is the day i will die. this is the sober backdrop for this and a telling thing about she -- my takeaway from having spent time with her is she wants to be liked, wants to be more accepted into the mainstream than she has been and clever about how to play things. trying to do in the comments is distance herself from the january 6 planning. she sent text messages to mark meadows on january 6. she's trying to say if i was actually -- i'm not in charge. if i was it would have worked out better for my side and then also tries as always to pull to the base and this is why she has

so much power in the party. she was the fifth most prolific fund-raiser for the party and made her a martyr for the trump base. the only base in the party is the destructive wing of the party. trying to get kevin mccarthy over the finish line. matt gaetz is trying to push back. the fight is not even a proxy fight for trump but a fight with the people to bring the party down the rabbit holes. and it is a window into mccarthy's life the second time since the election that he's having to answer for something that greene said. it is like this is -- if he does become speaker this is what his speakership will be like in

terms of refereeing the people that live in the rabbit hole. >> jen mentioned the sergeant of the united states capitol police injured physically and mentally standing in the door. here's the testimony before the january 6 committee. >> the rioters call me traitor. a disgrace. shouted that i -- i an army evacuate ran and police officer should be executed. but the physical violence we experienced was horrific and devastating. we were punched, kicked, shoved, sprayed with chemical irritants. i was crushed by the rioters. i could feel myself losing oxygen and recall thinking to myself this is how i'm going to

die. >> mike, as jen said, he retires on the advice of his doctors. his body isn't up to the task. and his psychiatrist, as well, about his own mental health. they stood in the doorway that greene is joking they wish they brought weapons on january 6. >> some joke. you know, we all know we live in an age of accelerated pace of events. something happens and forgotten two or three days. takes the attention span way, way down. people don't have the attention span we used to have. so the events to talk about this morning, the text messages urging sedition until almost

noontime on january 20th, the insurrection, capitol police officering being attacked by supposedly law and order people. we have all of that but if someone mentions harry and meghan we talk about that. they injected a poison into the system. they injected that poison into the system and still flows through a circulatory system as a nation. you have a huge percentage of republicans sitting in office today in the house of representatives largely who refuse to believe that joe biden is the legitimately elected president of the united states. that is among the most important issues as a nation and don't pay enough attention to it today. >> not just sitting in office

but real power and influence over kevin mccarthy if he's the speaker needing the votes to become the speaker and will be in debt to them. >> these people making fun of a day, marjorie taylor greene, it is good to show the testimony of the officer again to remember and understand what they barely survived. these people, not taking the democracy -- they're not serious and not taking the democracy or their job seriously. that's going to be the question for voters move forward on every level, at every election we face coming up. on "morning joe," our next guests got a big promotion in the u.s. senate. michigan's debbie stabenow elected to the number three position in leadership and she joins us to preview the party's

priorities in the new year. that conversation is just ahead on "morning joe." they were the first to be verified by usp... ...an independent organization that sets strict quality and purity standards. nature made. the number one pharmacist recommended vitamin and supplement brand.

russian president vladimir putin will not hold his annual end of the year press conference for the first time in a decade. a spokesman for the kremlin did not say why the event will not take place but suggests that it might be rescheduled for the new year. it has been one of the few times a year that reporters outside the kremlin pool including foreign correspondents can ask putin questions. jonathan lemire, i'm hearing from some contacts high up in the administration that they're noticing changes with vladimir putin. what is this signifying to you? what are you hearing? >> let's note the annual december news conference not only is a chance for foreign reporters to ask questions but tends to go up to four hours

long and marathon sessions that are exhaust i and usually filled with lies. this is on heels of a week being out quite a bit. he met with mothers of those deployed to this war. he was drinking champagne and talking to officials to assure them. that is what american officials are zeroing in on. there's a change with putin. they believe he is getting better intelligence. he was getting a rosy picture and now he knows how badly things are going and a sense there he doesn't want to have to take questions about the failures of his military and there's been unproven speculation and talked about it on this show to suffer from health ailments but no evidence

of that. so that could be a contributing factor, too. seems most likely that putin doesn't want to face tough questions about a war going so poorly and devastated russia's economy. >> that was a central issue yesterday among g7 nations and how they plan to support ukraine to rebuild and agreed to elements of a new system to fund ukraine in the short and long term as winter weather slows the war. president zelenskyy thanked the nations for support while reminding them the financing of weapons is critical for his cub. nbc news has exclusive new reporting to better track weapons shipments sent to ukraine and whether that might involve sending american troops to the region. >> wow. >> behind that story is

correspondent courtney kube. good morning. flesh this out. when i think people sit up hearing american troops. what can you tell us? >> that's right. we need to put it in context. there is already a very small group of u.s. troops in ukraine on this accountability mission. there's a couple dozen total u.s. military in the country including the defense attache, security forces and doing the accountability mission and we learned that the department of defense, u.s. military leaders looking at shoring up that very small group and only visited a handful of to visit a handful of locations outside of kyiv to check on these weapons stockpiles and see exactly how the ukrainian stockpiles, making sure everything is getting to them and getting to the front lines. so the u.s. military leaders are now looking to shore that up with a very small number of

additional troops. we're talking single digits here. so it's less about this being some large influx of troops. that's not the case at all. in fact, they wouldn't be going anywhere near the front lines. but it's more about the fact that the pentagon is cognizant of the fact that in january there's going to be a new -- the republicans are going to be in charge of the house of representatives and there's a real concern that there are going to be a lot of questions about weapon accountability in ukraine. you'll remember that at the beginning of this war, right after the invasion, the u.s. started putting billions of dollars of weapons. there was concern at the time there wasn't a lot of tracking of those weapons once they crossed the boarder into ukraine and got into the hands of the ukrainians. there's an effort to change that in advance of republicans taking over the house. this is one of those ways they're trying to do it. one of the concerns of sending more troops or any u.s. citizens

or civilians or personnel there is security of course. but you have to remember what the conditions are like in kyiv. there's not always reliable electricity or water or basic supplies, so some in the administration are concerned about that and want to make sure they have the personnel there for this mission, but they're not taxing the embassy or putting people in unnecessary harm's way to do this, willie. >> of course a lot of that is because russia is targeting infrastructure and the power grids in major cities across ukraine. you mentioned republicans coming in. some have said, we'll see if they follow through, we should stop having a blank check to ukraine, pull back on some of the support, it's enough for the american taxpayers. how concerned is the department of defense and the biden administration, how concerned are they that, yes, it may be a completely different world come early january? >> reporter: so, right now they believe that they'll be able to maintain this mission for at least the next six to nine months is what they're looking at.

when you ask very directly are they worried that the republicans are going to the stop funding, most of the officials who i'm speaking with are saying, look, at the end of the day there is bipartisan support for continuing to help the ukrainians in this fight against russia. but they're worried there will be more scrutiny with things like this accountability. they're also concerned there's going to be more and more calls for sending ukraine some of these weapons that the biden administration has been a little reticent to do in the last several months. a couple they're looking at are these longer-systems. some people are talking about fighter jets like f-16s, armed drones. those are things the administration has been talking about for weeks now. they're not shutting the door to some of those more advanced systems, but i ask every day, the officials i'm speaking with are saying they're just not there yet. it's not just the fact there's concerns about this being escalatory or provocative with the russians, there is a belief that that some of these longer-range systems some on the

hill are calling for just aren't necessary right now. but everyone needs to watch this space because some of these systems, particularly things like f-16s, longer range or fighter jets, they take a lot of training. so if the u.s. is looking to send some of these things in the coming weeks, perhaps before republicans take house and they want to get these kinds of things through, they need to make those decisions pretty quickly because there's going to have to be a long lead-up time for the training not just using these systems but maintaining them before the ukrainians would even be able to get them and get them into the fight. so i would keep an eye on this issue specifically over the next several weeks before republicans take the house. it's possible if they're going to make decisions about some of these more advanced systems and more packages of money we'll hear that and see that before the change in leadership. coming up, three-time oscar nominee edward norton is standing by. we'll talk about his highly anticipated new project. yes, it's the next "imp. >> -- knives out" movie.

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new york just passed a law that makes all gift cards purchased in the state valid for at least nine years. you know you got someone the perfect gift card when it takes them 8 1/2 years to use it. >> welcome back to -- it is that time of year -- to "morning joe," 6:00 a.m. on the west coast, 9:00 a.m. on the east coast as we dive into the fourth hour of "morning joe." let's get to some breaking economic news. the metric that measures inflation, the consumer price index, rose slightly, less than expected in november, up only 0.1%. economists had been expecting 0.3%. it puts the inflation rate at 7.1% from this time last year. in a moment we'll speak to cnbc's andrew ross sorkin on

what this number means for economy, but first what it means politically. we're joined by democratic senator debby stavinoha, chairwoman of the democratic policy and communications committee, a position that will be elevated to the number three position in senate leadership in the upcoming 118th congress. congratulations. welcome back to the show. >> thank you, mika. >> good to see you. >> good to see you. >> let's start with that number that just crossed. you're on the finance committee. i'm just wondering what you think of it, how you think it will impact americans, and what more can congress do to help americans who are hurting. >> well, i think it's really good news, the second month in a row that the cpi is going in the right direction, and when you couple that with 10.5 million jobs created in the last two years, the most ever of any president in their first two years -- i was with a group