tv Morning Joe MSNBC December 22, 2022 6:00am-7:01am PST
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folks that came with him today. and so i think it's important for him to know we are going to do everything in our power, everything in our power, to see that this succeeds. >> that's president biden speaking about ukrainian president zelenskyy, pledging continued u.s. support during their joint news conference yesterday, and that came just hours before zelenskyy's extraordinary address to a joint session of congress. we have much more on his historic trip to washington in just a moment. also ahead, the january 6th committee releases dozens of witness transcripts that all have one thing in common -- the fifth amendment. meanwhile, a massive spending bill to keep the government hits a snag in the senate, putting lawmakers on the clock to get it approved before tomorrow's deadline. and massive snowstorms moving in. plus, that major winter storm set to impact just about every corner of the country with millions bracing for heavy snow
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and freezing temperatures. and it's set to arrive at the peak period for holiday travel. welcome back to the fourth hour hoff "morning joe." it is 6:00 a.m. on the west coast, 8:00 a.m. in the east. 9:00 a.m. in the east. elise jordan and jen psaki are back with us. and joining the conversation, national affairs analyst executive editor of "the recount" and the host of "hell and high water" podcast john heilemann. and alayna treene. historical what happened in congress and the white house yesterday. your take-away. >> i mean, joe, what a year for zelenskyy. i mean, if you step back and look at it, you think about ten months ago a guy who was not beloved in his own country, not beloved in the west, someone who
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was seen at kind of not up to the job, someone who had been roundly derided by everyone across world stage, you know, is thrust into a moment where his mettle the tested and in ten months becomes arguably the champion of democratic freedom in the world. you know, people forget, you know, he's done this at the joint session of congress thing before. back in april i think tsms we did the virtual version of this speech and he was -- he brought a master class then in how to address a joint session of congress. he. in, at that point was going around the world rallying support for ukrainian cause and doing speech after speech to national legislators, and each of the speeches was different, each of the speeches was masterful, and he gets to do this one last night in person at the end of this year that can only be described as, you know, truly one of the most meteoric, unexpected, and extraordinary
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ascensions in the public consciousness of anyone we've seen in our lifetimes. and of course the main thing that strikes me because i'm, you know, pathological on some level, is the juxtaposition of that man we saw last night who's become the emblem of democratic norms and freedoms juxtaposed against the former president of the united states who may be, may be about to get his final comeuppance or the beginning of his comeuppance for the desecration of the values that zelenskyy now represents. you now see donald trump essentially having a committee of congress saying you, sir, betrayed democratic standards and norms and we're trying to hold you to account. it's an amazing moment, a moment made for the movies if you put it in a script, as they say. you get out of most rooms in hollywood, but it was extraordinary what we saw unfold yesterday. >> it was.
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alena, the congressional correspondent for axios, talk about last night, what happened, and also i think some images that americans can celebrate. we hear about partisanship all the time, but my gosh, last night, so many republicans, so many democrats standing shoulder to shoulder in support of president zelenskyy and the people of ukraine. >> yeah, it was remarkable, joe. i was in the room or in the house chamber last night while president zelenskyy was giving his speech, and it was very powerful. i will say there's no substitute for being in person. i think having him there, watching him, seeing him plead for more aid, asking lawmakers not to give up, to continue the assistance, saying that they really changed the game. he said that over and over again. he thanked them countless times for the funding that they have sent and said you can speed this war up. and it really was a powerful
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moment. and you're right, i mean, to see republicans and democrats alike applauding him, several standing ovations for the ukrainian president. i mean, there were a couple i will say just to mention, a few members, matt gaehz, lauren boebert who remained seated and did not applaud him and that was a symbol of them being against adding more assistance or funding to ukraine. but i think it really was -- he was there and he hit the attended points he needed to, which is please to-do not give up on us, we can win this war, and we need the united states as continued ally to remain victorious. one more thing i'll add as well, the timing of this, if you look back about 81 years ago, winston churchill during world war ii came on december 6th of 1941 made a similar plea to congress, asking for help and coordination in the war. you can see the comparisons that
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president zelenskyy was using. he talked about world war ii. he talked about how the united states and american assistance changed the game in that war. and he -- it was christmastime then and it's christmastime now. he kept bringing up merry christmas, we need you, and thank you. >> the parallels really are so extraordinary, and so many people have looked at churchill and zelenskyy, compared the two positions they've been in. it's certainly not an overstatement. in fact, the zelenskyys, the family in more danger than churchill and his family ever were. the comparisons are pretty extraordinary. elise, we hear talk about how a new republican congress may make it more difficult for the ukrainians to get funding, but you look at the words of, say, mike mccaul, who's going to be running, gregory meeks is chairman right now of the foreign affairs committee,
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actually the future chairman of that committee is a republican is critical of the biden administration for anything, it's for not going far enough. i really do -- i understand that there are the outliers, there are the people, the isolationists, the surrender caucuses, as republicans use to say of democrats at the beginning of the iraq war, well, here's the real surrender caucus to vladimir putin, you have a group of people who don't want continued support of zelenskyy and ukraine, but i really do think that's the exception and not the rule. anybody that doesn't believe me, they should just see what the future republican chairman of the foreign affairs committee is saying about what he thinks we need to do to support ukraine. and it's usually more, give them more. >> joe, i wonder, though, who is going to prevail in this fight just because the republicans who
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do support giving more aid to ukraine, they are at somewhat of a disadvantage in the media cycle and the media that republican voters are listening to right now. and so, what you see with these lawmakers mirrors what you hear from republican voters who one side completely is pro putin, the other side is very traditional republican, we've got to counter russian aggression. and so, in this new fight, who is going to prevail, that's the big question, looming question that i'm watching in 2023 when congress resumes. >> you know, john heilemann talked before about two things going on at once, obviously president zelenskyy catching so much of the nation's attention last night, but also we're still getting the aftermath of the january 6th report, the full report from the committee, expected to be released today. it was supposed to come out yesterday, but the panel pushed it back a day, maybe because of
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some logistical problems, printing an 800-page report, but i think probably they didn't want to stem on the ukrainian president's headlines. >> yeah. i don't think there was a printer issue. >> i heard the printer issue. i think they can print docs on capitol hill. i've seen it. the committee did release, though, some new information yesterday, a batch of transcripts of 34 witnesses who repeatedly took the fifth amendment while testifying before the panel. here's some of the notable names on the list who answered few or no questions at all. john eastman. he cited, how ironic, his fifth amendment right 155 times. hirschman said get yourself a good criminal lawyer. yeah, he needed one. that's what hirschman told him. he's of course a trump lawyer, eastman is. but the committee has called the mastermind behind the fake electors plot. and roger stone responded with
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the fifth more than 70 times. white nationalist nick fuentes, former national security adviser michael flynn, and bankrupt conspiracy theorist alex jones also pled the fifth and also questioned leaders of the far-right militia groups and the proud boys, but both used the fifth amendment. it's fascinating, jen, because if we go back and we do what donald trump always said about the fifth amendment, kind of harsh. alex, do we have that clip? let's listen to donald trump in his own words. >> taking the fifth, i think it's disgraceful. what happened? he pleaded the fifth! right? he pleaded the fifth! the fifth amendment, fifth amendment, fifth amendment. horrible. horrible. if you're innocent, why are you taking the fifth amendment? >> let's see here.
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i have disgraceful, he said it's disgraceful, horrible, horrible, and the mob takes the fifth. jen, as our good friend john heilemann always says, whenever trump talks, it's either projection or confession. i'm not sure which one it is here. doesn't look good for him or his band of insurrectionists. >> yeah. he must have been so disgusted reading these transcripts, joe. i mean, i'm just kidding, obviously. look, i think reading through these transcripts was also -- what was more interesting probably than the answers, which was a lot of versions of pleading the fifth, but were the questions and when they pleaded the fifth, not just in response to questions like how old are you or where did you go to school, which many pleaded the fifth to, but also questions like roger stone was asked about what he thought of coups taking over government, and he said, "i plead the fifth." others were asked about the rule
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of law and whether they think the rule of law should be a part of what we respect in the united states. they pleaded the fifth. so there's a lot to unpack here, but the questions and the refusal to answer not just basic information but information about who we are as a country is also quite telling in terms of who these characters are whose transcripts were released last night. >> i keep going back to a lot of the questions that liz cheney asked michael flynn, the former general. >> michael flynn, yes. >> it's remarkable what he pled the fifth to, just the most basic american values to and virtues, he pled the fifth to. you know, john heilemann, i always found in politics is most powerful political ads you could put up there, simply putting the kwoemts of your opponent, letting them sit on the page with a lot of white space around
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it. it's the most powerful thing. prosecutors always find the most powerful worlds to use against somebody who's been indicted. their own words, let those words hang out there. this has happened time and again to donald trump. this january 6th committee, i suspect any future indictments that come forward, they will be indictments, legal or political, that come because of words that not only donald trump said himself but his closer advisers said or, as we saw throughout the entire january 6th process, the words and the testimony of his former staffers. donald trump, if, in fact, if he gets indicted and convicted, he will be indicted and convicted because of his words, the worlds of his family members, the words
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of his closest advisers, and the worlds of his former white house aides. is that not fitting? >> oh, so fitting, joe. i've heard you many times over these many years this program has been on the air now stretching into the six or seven hours a day, you know, refer to yourself as a simple country lawyer. simple is the key word. i'm a simple beat reporter. the thing about donald trump and the invocation and the fifth, the guys in the mobs take the fifth, i hate to say it, the guy's not wrong. i mean, in one sense. we understand the constitutional right to not incriminate yourself. that is an important part of the constitution we both support. but, you know, when you see people who are involved or proximate too or sometimes neck deep in plotting the coup against the united states government in the middle of an
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insurrection, pleading the fifth over and over to such questions like the ones jen psaki was talking about, okay, you can't incriminate yourself on those fronts but it doesn't look good. those are people who, you know, were honest, would hang them in the eyes of the court. trump, i hate to give him credit, but at the gut level it's why in civil cases we allow people to take the fifth a dispositive way. i think it's a very powerful thing, especially in the context of the fact that one of the most powerful things the january 6th committee did and will be remembered for is punching a hole in the notion that it's a kangaroo court, that it's a partisan witch-hunt, by only putting on the stand over and over again republicans, republican, republican, republican. there are no democratic hack partisan witnesses in this thing. it was republican after
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republican, trump loyalist after trump loyalist, people who served trump, inside the white house serving trump to the bitter end when many others had left the white house long before. these people stuck with trump to the end, and those people then in some of the wilder assortment of his co-conspiracists were taking the fifth. we'll see what the justice department does. i'm sure there will be things in the report we want to comment on as the day goes by, but i have to say i think in the end here we're going to have a very compelling legal and more important kind of commonsense case where the framework of what it is that trump did wrong and what it is that trump must be held accountable for is laid out for all to see. as you said, the words black and white on the page speak loudest. and the words of trump associates speak louder than that. boy, it will be hard for the doj to look away. >> from trump's own people, and
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that is the brilliance of bennie thompson. not only did he use trump's people in setting up the testimony against trump, he had liz cheney, the conservatives' conservative, a conservative that had a higher acu rating than anybody else, bennie thompson repeatedly put her out front to show just how bipartisan this to january 6th committee was and the impact has been devastating to donald trump and probably a good reason why 20 million people watched the opening and millions watched other hearings and why so many people went out and voted and said democracy in the midterms was in the forefront of their minds. >> liz cheney has received, and rightfully so, a lot of praise for her role on the january 6th committee and her bravery, but congressman thompson also deserves praise for putting country over self and checking -- he just didn't have any of the ego that so many
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congressional members have when they are presented with a microphone and a large stage. i am curious, though what's going to happen now with those congressmen who choetz not to show up and speak to the committee and they didn't respond to subpoenas. you've got four republican members, including kevin mccarthy and jim jordan, that have been referred to the ethics committee. so how does that play out now? at least those who were interviewed gave the fifth, but those members didn't even show up. >> yeah. what an incredible cell phone, one more cell phone by republicans. it's getting boring now. the very people who are going to be try to issue subpoenas over the next couple years, the very people running the u.s. house of representatives, are going to be republicans who ignored congressional subpoenas. good luck with getting anybody to respond to your subpoenas over the next two years. also today, the senate is holding a rare early morning session to finish work on a massive spending bill. the upper chamber originally
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hoped to finish on amendments and pass the bill late last night. didn't work out that way. eat's bring in ryan nobles, nbc capitol hill correspondent. ryan, do senate leaders have a path forward here? >> reporter: things are a little precarious. they do not have a deal yet, and the holdup right now comes in the form of requests from senator mike lee of utah for an up-or-down vote on extending title 42, which is of course a very contentious issue here on capitol hill. and lee seems pretty willing to kind of play chicken with this omnibus bill and hold out until he get what is he wants, which is a vote that could likely pass if it were just a simple up ordown majority. but the problem with that, joe, is if it were to pass the senate and then go to the house, it has the potential of blowing up the sbirp omnibus bill because there are not enough votes in the house in order to pass the bill with that title 42 amendment
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attached to it. so what's happening right now is that chuck schumer is attempting to negotiate his way out of this. kyrsten sinema and thom tillis this morning having released an alternative amendment that would allow for an extension of title 42. that would also be a different threshold. it would require 660 votes to pass, and there is some hope they can convince mike lee and other senators part of this effort to agree to that vote and allow this process to move forward. but against the backdrop of all this, joe, is this pending winter storm. and right now in many ways it serves as chuck schumer's best friend and his worst enemy because it's going to require them to move quickly in order to get these votes on the board so they can all head to dca and get out of town before the storm hits. but if the negotiations drag on too far andflights start getting canceled, the senators
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will be stuck here and that's when we get into friday and that's when there's a risk of a government shutdown. i don't want to sound the alarm bems quite yet, but at this point there's not a deal and they're still trying to figure out a path forward and the storm makes everything a little more complicated. >> things are getting precarious on capitol hill. ryan nobles, thank you so much. alena, unfortunately this reminds me of battle days as we're trying to get to break back when i was on the hill, and, man, these massive omnibus bills, we had to get them done to get out of town, but people in my sort of caucus, the group of people i worked with, we hated these omnibus bills. we usually voted against them. and you actually wrote an article in "axios" about the fighting over this bill. tell us about it.
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>> yeah. well, many republicans agreed with how you used to feel, joe. they hate it too. i think, you know -- and on both sides -- both in the house and the senate, people want to go back to regular order. i wrote about how at the senate republican lunch yesterday senate republicans invited kevin mccarthy as well as the heritage president kevin roberts to come and talk about their priorities for the 118th congress as well as, you know, the current omnibus bill but really focusing on what is the future of these funding negotiations, what do they look like, and virtually everyone agreed that it can't be the way they're doing it now. the process needs to be a little more extensionive. it can't be rushing up until these deadlines that we've seen happen over and over again, and wanting more time to read the bills, more time to look at amendments and to have these votes. of course easier said than done, and there's no -- they often goes up to a deadline because that's the only way people are able to get this done.
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there is some disagreement as well, and the big thing i took away from that lunch is where mcconnell and mccarthy really differ. when you look at these funding bills, mcconnell is for this package. he recognizes they do not want to have continuing resolution or short-term funding bill and have to look at all of this again in the new year when republicans are coming in to have the house majority. it's going to really complicate the new term if they do that. while mccarthy on the other hand at least publicly is saying he's still opposed to this, he does not want any republicans in the house voting for it. he's been whipping against it. and so big difference there. and i think, you know, it's just one example of how tricky these negotiations are going to be moving forward when you have potentially kevin mccarthy as speaker. we'll see what happens on january 3rd if he can get the 218 votes. but having someone like him and how he approaches these funding negotiations versus someone like mcconnell, who's much more traditional and really more real
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realistic i would argue in these fights, another symbol of how the strategies to these funding negotiations will be. >> right. and one thing that mitch mcconnell knows, that maybe kevin mccarthy knows but he can't even admit it to himself, better to pass the massive spending bill and blame it on democrats than have republicans, so-called conservative republicans who are anything but -- i mean -- i'm sorry, i've just got to say it, their deficit spending under trump was outrageous. but a new republican congress doesn't want to pass a massive omnibus bill and have it on their record. and mitch understands that. i guess some of the republicans will be taking over the house don't. congressional reporter for "axios," alayna treene, thank you so much. greatly appreciate it. john heilemann, let's just finish up talking about kevin mccarthy really quickly.
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how bad is it? we've seen how mccarthy has had to degrade himself time and time, speaking out against a peaceful transition on january 6th, and then groveling and getting a picture with him a couple days later. now he actually is putting himself on the side opposite of ronald reagan, of margaret thatcher, of cold war years that fought against russian aggression. he's now debasing himself to actually put himself in the camp of, you know, the lindberghs of this congress. >> yeah. well, think about it. across the board, joe, first of all to the point you made a second ago, kevin mccarthy and mitch mcconnell know exactly the same things. both of them want this big bill to pass in their hearts. they understand what you just
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said about better to blame it on democrats nape also understand that they can both read the election results and what happened to republicans in 2022. it would be bad for the republican party's electoral future if they were blamed for shufting the government down now. it would be worse for their electoral future if they were blamed for shutting down the government in january or february, kicking the can down the road. both see that, but mitch mcconnell is ready to bite the bullet, and kevin mccarthy thinks by biting the bullet and passing this bill he won't win the speakership. it's that simple. everything for mccarthy is how do i get this brass ring he's been chasing forever, he'll do anything, abase himself, debase himself, whatever he has to do, and that right now means taking totally irresponsible -- not just irresponsible on policy grounds but what he knows are the self-destructive political positions for the party in order to assuage far-right members whose votes he needs to become
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speaker. that leads to the foreign policy situation where you have kevin mccarthy, you know, back in october, you'll recall him coming out and enunciating for the first time what is now the isolationist position in the house on ukraine, which is, hey, we can't have a blank checkbook for ukraine, which was basically he did that at marjorie taylor greene's behest, he knew he needed her, she said i don't want to spend any more money on ukraine. mccarthy i believe on this show said, you know -- kevin mccarthy was on the show or whether we were talking about it is foggy, but i remember discussing it with you back in october, that's what this is all about. we have this historic moment, zelenskyy shows up, gives speech, and joe biden is sitting shoulder to shoulder with zelenskyy as he should be, looks down the other end of pennsylvania avenue, sees kevin mccarthy having his strings pulled on foreign policy by
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marjorie taylor greene. imagine what joe biden thinks about that. >> yeah. i mean, just degrading. we the way, leader mccarthy has not been on this show in quite a few years. we'll have to check our records. >> all good. >> very good. the thing is we have a 17-second delay so i'm just going to take it here, john. but thank you so much for being on. again, the stupidity -- i'm sorry, it's just stupidity of republican members in the house saying, oh, you know what, let's put this off till we're in power when they're going to have to pass a massive omnibus bill regardless. they're, like, saying oh, no, no, no, we don't want this on the democrats' watch, we want to do it on our watch. we want to take the blame for this. we want our base to look at us
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and see that we passed this massive omnibus bill. i've been through this a few times. it is an unbelievably stupid play, but my god, you look how republicans have been playing the game of politics over the past six years, why wouldn't they just keep being dumb in the political choices they make? they just keep losing. i don't know if i told you that, but they just keep losing. a few minutes ago i talked about bennie thompson, just masterful chairman of the january 6th select committee. a programming note that similar moan sanders townsend is going to have an exclusive interview with the chairman that you can see streaming on peacock, and our msnbc show saturdays and sundays at 4:00 p.m. eastern. you don't want to miss that one. ahead on "morning joe," we'll get inside on the ukrainian president's speak from someone who knows that country so well. the former u.s. ambassador to
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ukraine will be our guest. plus, from the bahamas through federal detention center in brooklyn, that's the jury this week for disgraced crypto ceo sam bankman-fried. those stories and a check on the weather. a massive winter storm will impact holiday travel for millions of americans. good morning, joe, mika, willie. happy 15th. it's eugene levy in case you're wondering. i'm here on the west coast with my wyche, deb, and we're watching the show live this morning as we do every morning out here on the west coast. and of course that's not true. but we record the show every single day. we watch it religiously and we've been doing that for years. i want to congratulate you and your entire staff on 15 great years. "morning joe" is still the most
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entertaining, the most informative show on the air. so congratulations. we love you, and here's to 15 more. if you still have symptoms of moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis or active psoriatic arthritis after a tnf blocker like humira or enbrel, rinvoq is different and may help. stand up to your symptoms with rinvoq. rinvoq is a once-daily pill that tackles pain, stiffness, swelling. for some, rinvoq significantly reduces ra and psa fatigue. it can stop further irreversible joint damage. and rinvoq can leave skin clear or almost clear in psa. that's rinvoq relief. rinvoq can lower your ability to fight infections, including tb. serious infections and blood clots, some fatal; cancers, including lymphoma and skin cancer; death, heart attack, stroke, and tears in the stomach or intestines occurred. people 50 and older with at least one heart disease
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all right. taking a look at st. louis. everything's looking kind of calm in the gateway to the west with the arch, but looks, well -- angie lassman, looks can be deceiving. my goodness. what a terrible storm. i know you're feeling the same as me. i feel so sorry for family members and friends that have to travel and already those that are stuck in the airport, what
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are they facing? >> you know who i feel really bad for, the people in places like wyoming that are 60 degrees below for the windchill. those people, they are built different. but they're going to get through it. we'll see some improvements in the coming days, but it will be a couple days until then. you can see this storm system we are tracking. it will eventually move into parts of the northeast and bring rain there. but the big story i want you to take note of right now are how many millions of people will be dealing with these bitzerly cold temperatures that joe just mentioned. it's 124 million people right now that are under windchill advisories, watches, and warnings. here's why. the arctic air that dropped temperatures in denver 20, 30, 40 degrees in a matter of hours, setting records there, and temperatures right now checking in at just 18 degrees below for the actual temperature and oh, by the way, we have very strong winds accompanying this and that means that our windchill values will be sub zero for many places. most states actually in the
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united states. i'll show you that in a moment, but as we look through the next couple of days, we'll continue to see those temperatures falling and we will be watching for places like kansas city to be below zero as well. in the south, we are not leaving you out either. atlanta, just 12 degrees by saturday, charleston coming in at 3 degrees for the high on saturday as well. here's some of the coldest wind chills we expect. douglas, minus 60, denver minus 37. places like jacksonville are going to be in the teens, and houston just 2 degrees for your windchill. we have 50 states that will see windchills below 32 degrees, and we have 46 states that are going to be below zero. and we have snow, rain, blizzard conditions that will be super impactful for joe, people that are traveling, on the roadways, and we could see major power outages across the northeast and across the midwest here as we go through the coming days. and of course it's the holidays, people want to get together with families. it's a time that is really inconvenient for mother nature to do this to us. >> oh, my gosh. i know.
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angie, thank you so much. angie lassman, greatly appreciate it. the thing is also it's just the airports, we saw the problems they had in the summer, and things -- you know, they warned, the holidays may be just as bad. to have this happen right now just the worst timing possible. so we certainly hope if you're traveling that you get to where you need to go and if you can stay home, please do that. let's go back to last night's historic address now by ukrainian president zelenskyy who drew several parallels between his country's fight for independence and america's own struggles for freedom. >> standing here today, i recall the wars of the president franklin delano roosevelt, and hear this for a moment. >> the american people in their
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righteous might will win through to absolute victory. >> the american people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory. >> zelenskyy invoking the words of franklin delano roosevelt during his address to congress last night. now let's bring in former u.s. ambassador to ukraine marie yovanovitch. she is the author of the memoir "lessons from the edge," in which she discusses her 33 years in foreign service. madam ambassador, i remember you testifying before congress, and i remember mika and me looking at each other going, we could have never imagined that we would have gotten here as a country. i must say, now we fast forward how many years, two years, three years, i could have never imagined what we're seeing now
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in ukraine. extraordinary times, and i'm wondering what was your great take-away from an extraordinary speech to a joint session of congress last night? >> it was an extraordinary speech and it was i believe an historic speech. zelenskyy came with a number of goals. the first was kind of to gave status report on how are things going in ukraine. and he said, you know, ukraine stands. the military stands. the embattled city of bakhmut stands. we are still here and alive and kicking i think was the quote. and he came here to thank the american people, congress, and of course the president for our indispensable support, but he also subtly, perhaps not to subtly, was asking for additional support, that this fight is not over, it is going to be brutal in coming months, perhaps even longer, and ukraine still needs american help. and he memorably said that this
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is not charity, this is an investment, an investment in american values and just as important and investment in american security and global security. and i think he made a very compelling case for that. i think the last thing that he was trying to accomplish and also did a really good job on was to try to create that personal connection between himself and the president, between himself and members of congress, and also the american people, you know, making the case, you know, the political, the strategic case but also describing what christmas is going to be like in kyiv and in other places in ukraine. it's going to be cold. it's going to be dark. there's not going to be any water. temperatures are going to be freezing or below. but ukraine still stands. >> madam ambassador, you heard, like i did and some of the others heard the best of the bright test when putin began his
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invasion talking about a three-day war, a four-day war, the pessimism not only across europe but also in washington, d.c., even from hawks was that ukraine would quickly fold. and now as you said, dramatically the president of ukraine comes here all this time later where they have the strategic advantage in many ways, talking about still standing, and the words, he said last night, that gave me chills, only victory. it was sort of like mcarthur, there is no substitute for victory. i have to ask you because you have such insight into ukraine, so many people didn't see this coming. tell me about the character of the ukrainian people, which has made this historic fight continue for as long as it has. >> i think ukrainians are like
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americans. they are strong. they are resilient. and they are not going to allow a bully like putin, a country like russia come in and dictate to ukrainians, and it's really more than dictatorship because putin has made clear that he's going to destroy ukraine as a country, he's going to exterminate the ukrainian people, so this is an existential fight. and the ukrainians are, you know, courageous, they are committed, and they are very confident. as you heard last night from president zelenskyy himself, they are going to win. and with our help, if we provide enough assistance quickly enough, they will win. >> he laid out terms for an agreement. what is the likelihood of both sides to come to the table for
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peace talks? >> to everything there is a season, and i think right now neither side is ready to sit down at the table. they could sit down at the table today if russia would stop it attacks on ukraine, right. russia because it says it wants peace is doing the exact opposite. the ukrainians understand if they go to a peace table right now there are going to be compromises that they will not be able to live with long term and that russia will just regroup and rearm and come back later for more. that's what happened in 2014, 2015 with the minsk agreements where there was a cease-fire and we got to what are now being called the february 23rd lines, and so i think the ukrainians don't want to make that mistake again. this is about their existential -- their very existence. >> ambassador yovanovitch, it's great to see you.
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it's jen psaki. president zelenskyy came with asks, as you said, more artillery, you made a great joke about wanting more defensive weapons, but privately he's been asking for offensive weapons and long-range missiles. where do you come down on that and why do you think that's something that they're demanding or asking for at this point in time? >> i would be in favor of this. i think that we should be providing ukraine with as much and the kinds of equipment that both sides agree are the necessary thing. i'm not a military expert so i don't want to get into the specifics. but i do believe that ukraine deserves our help. and i think that if we hold back on some of our assistance -- and i realize there's always politics involved and management of the alliance and other partners, but if we hold back, then it becomes a
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self-fulfilling prophesy that if the ukrainians don't have the equipment they need they cannot prevail, and we need ukraine to prevail in ukraine. that is in our national security interests to stop russia in ukraine. >> all right. marie yovanovitch, thank you as always. we're eternally grateful for your service to our country, and thank you so much for being with us today. and speaking of ambassadors, one more note, by a tally of 93-2, and you can probably guess who the two were that voted against her, the senate has confirmed veteran diplomat lynn tracy as the next united states ambassador to russia. tracy spent her career in foreign service, most recently serving as u.s. ambassador to armenia. she also previously served as a senior adviser for russian affairs within the state department. she's going to be going over to an embassy that's been absolutely decimated over the past year or so. great challenges ahead for her.
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coming up next, we're going to check in with cnbc's dom chu for the business headlines you need to know heading into today's trading day. >> the thing is, haven't you ever heard of term limits? 15 years is a long time, so long that both joe and i were republicans then. a lot has changed in that time, but we can all still count on "morning joe" to start each day off the right way. congratulations, and here's to the next 15.
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that's a beautiful skyline. so dom, there are a couple stories that you're looking at today that kind of go together. we have carr max, the earnings really slide. and also a semiconductor maker cutting staff. and the way those two things seem to go together, i remember during the pandemic, i remember the cost of cars exploded. and then because of chips, then used car prices absolutely exploded. now interest rates are going up. it's getting pretty impossible for a lot of people to buy cars, new car, used cars. first because of the chip shortage, but we're talking about cutting chip staff, but carmax, what do their problems mean for the rest of the used car market? sdwl we use carmax as a bell weather. because carmax is one of the
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biggest used car retail rs in america. and what happened, to your point, when they report quarterly result, they fell shy of expectations. with us the reason why is the important part. because they basically said that unit vehicle sales, the number of cars they sold at the retail and the wholesale or business level both fell sharply from the same time last year. they pointed to is vehicle affordability challenges. you have inflationary pressures. people have less money to spend. you have rising interest rates thanks to the fed trying to slow things down on the economy and make borrowing costs higher. they have lower levels of consumer confidence out there. by the way, carmax has an auto finance unit to help people buy cars. that unit also said they set aside more money just in case those customers who borrowed money to make those purchases have trouble making their payments at some point in the
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coming months. so what you're looking at is a possible tea leaf, so to speak, about what's happening with the economy and specifically with watts happening with carmax. to your point about the computer chip thing, what's curious about the story today, it's probably one of the biggest tech stories out there in the market right now. it's that what's happening is there's so many inventory inbalances, the forecast for the current quarter is disappointing and it said it's going to have to reduce its workforce by 10% next year. it's going to do it through voluntary departures and layoffs. it's going to suspend bonus payments. it's going to cut executive salaries. it's ratcheting back capital spending and investment plans for next year and the year after that. so a lot of commentary just with regard to the overall health, but to your point, it speaks to some of the echos that we heard from the heights of the pandemic in 2021 and earlier this year. >> do we still have a chip
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shortage? >> we do in certain areas. it depends on what kind of chip. micron makes chips specifically tied to memory. the things that store our photos, text messages, things like that. you're talking smart phones and laptop computers and tablets. other chips right now are still in short supply. things that maybe do go into cars that control some of the electronics and complex machinery that goes into things like vehicles or everything else out there. those chips are still in short supply now because we don't have supply chain issue problems, at least for right now. but all of this is happening at a point where there could be an inflection point for everything in the economy, which is why there's so much uncertainty. >> we're up against a hard break, but will carmax's problems actually be beneficial to consumers? will we finally see used car prices going down? >> we're already starting to see them come down. we saw data showing that used car prices are going lower.
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by the way, the new car prices will go lower as well. there's some are leaf. now it's just about interest rates. >> as always, thank you for being here in our final moments this morning, jen sake, this from clueless. >> ew, get off of me. >> and this from mean girls. >> that is so fetch. >> gretchen, stop trying to make fetch happen. it's not going to happen. >> i did not have the mean girls education on my bingo card this morning, but i'm here for it. i'm embracing it. i'm going to rewatch all the movies now. >> we're more of the "clueless" generation. "mean girls" was after our time. >> that said, "mean girls, just a classic. really quickly, final thoughts.
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>> i am just watching this house vote fight with kevin mccarthy. is he going to be able to pull through. it's really riveting just in terms of how it's influencing so many other policies like ukraine. >> and i would say after last night, the key now is the momentum. there's so much support. it was such an incredible night on the floor. but now ukraine is going into this freezing winter. two-thirds of kyiv doesn't have power. they need more weapons. they need more support. what happens now. that's the big question. >> that is a big question. thank you all so much. appreciate you being here. and thanks for watching. that does it for us. jose diaz-balart picks up the coverage, after a short wraek.
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you want to see something cool? xfinity rewards is how we go beyond saying thanks. so we're going to spread the joy this holiday season, the xfinity way. take your trusty sidekick to see puss in boots: the last wish what's a puss in boots? he is me. with buy-1-get-1 movie tickets, on us. in theaters now. join for free on the xfinity app. xfinity rewards. our thanks. your rewards.
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good morning. 10:00 a.m. eastern, 7:00 a.m. pacific i'm jose diaz-balart. right now, a powerful winter storm is barrelling across the country. leaving those in its path to grapple with dangerously cold temperatures. heavy snow, iy conditions, travel just before the holiday expected to be a nightmare. in denver, the temperature dropped more than 30 degrees in one hour. we'll speak to the mayor about how his city is handling these freezing conditions. the extreme winter weather comes as the humanitarian crisis at the southern border is worsening by the day. with texas officials warning residents should prepare for life-threatening windchills. we'll take you live to el paso.
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