you know, you name it, but we will see those things happen in congress, there will be a lot of screaming and yelling and fighting and i think the biden white house looks at that as an opportunity to again try to show the president as mainstream in the face of extremism. >> trying to show that the president is still trying to deep that bipartisanship up despite some of these difficulties that he should hit in 2023. john allen for us this morning thank you for getting up way too early. thank you at home for waking up way too early with us on this tuesday morning. "morning joe" starts right now did i embellish my resumé yes, i did and i'm sorry. and it shouldn't be done but i'm still the same guy i am not a fraud i am not a cartoon character i'm not some mythical creature that was invented. quote, i'm not a fraud a newly elected congressman admits to lying about his resumé what republican george santos is saying about the scrutiny over

his college and work history and what republican leaders are saying about the controversy also this morning with the war still raging on, ukraine's foreign minister is hoping for peace talks by the end of february we will get expert analysis on that idea. plus, parts of the united states are still under multiple feet of snow this morning as the death toll from a major winter storm continues to climb in western new york rescue crews are going car by car searching for any stranded survivors this as chaos unfolds at some of the nation's busiest airports thousands of flights have been canceled, as many americans try to head home after the holidays. we will have the very latest on the travel delays. good morning and welcome to "morning joe." it's tuesday, december 27th. i'm jonathan lemire in for joe, mika and willie. also with us at the table msnbc and nbc news national affairs analyst executive editor of the recount, host of the hell and

high water podcast, the man of many titles, john heilemann and sitting here professor at princeton university our friend eddie glaude jr. >> i'm in for joe, mika, willie, tinkers, everest, chance. >> i do the jobs of many people. >> you fill a lot of space on the show. >> i wear many hats. we don't want to wait another moment before diving into our first story. congressman elect george santos admitting that he lied about several key details in his experience and biography in an interview with the new york post santos confessed to what he called embellishing his resumé, but insists he will serve in the next congress santos confessed he had never worked directly for goldman sachs and citi group chalking that fib up to to a, quote, poor choice of words. he also admitted he never graduated from any college despite previously claiming to have received a degree from baruch back in 2010.

quote, i didn't graduate from any institution of higher learning i'm embarrassed and sorry for having embellished my resumé i own up to that we do stupid things in life. santos was also accused of lying about his family history, saying on his campaign website that his mother was jewish and his grandparents escaped the nazis during world war ii. i never claimed to be jewish, santos said, i am catholic because i learned my maternal family had a jewish background, i said i was jew-ish let's do that again. santos says that he's not jewish, he's jew-ish i'm glad we've cleared that up santos' resumé was first called into question earlier this month when a "new york times" article pointed out several inconsistencies in his official biography. at the time santos' lawyer called the "times" piece defamatory he flipped a blue district that

helped deliver the gop the house majority republican leaders that backed him including kevin mccarthy and elise stefanik have not yet commented on the controversy but the post also notes this, senior house republicans were apparently aware of the inaccuracies and embellishments in the representative elect's resumé and that topic became a running joke multiple insiders close to the house gop leadership told the paper over the weekend nbc news has attempted to reach santos for comment overnight but did not immediately hear back. elise jordan joins the table now as well. elise -- >> i'm jew-ish. >> take it. >> hey, why not? i think that's a great t-shirt you can't believe it i think of all the good people who hesitate to go into politics because they're scared about something they did in college and then you've got this guy who claims to work for prestigious banks and have an animal welfare charity and had these homes when

he's living with his sister and he just chalks it up to poor judgment well, poor judgment alas, i think there's a little bit of that involved here. >> john heilemann, have we reached a new low? >> a new low no, i think what we were talking just a second ago, talking about the biden white house's strategy of contrasting against donald trump and deciding that it would be a good idea to say when he hangs out with neo-nazis we should say we're against nazis and when he says that we should shred the constitution we are for the constitution. >> a simple playbook. >> we hit bottom a while ago look, it is the reality, i don't want to in any way make light of him because he is a comical example, politics littered with examples of lying liars who lied you do get caught, eventually you do get caught. people who are scared that if i had this problem in my past, maybe i shouldn't get into politics because someone will find out, they probably will and that's -- this is what it looks

like you get made into a laughing stock if you decide to make up things whole cloth about your background this gentleman will be the butt of jokes for the rest of his life and rightly so. i will say about myself, i am not a journal, but i am a journalist, you know, ist, ish. >> eddie, there will be jokes made about george santos today, probably over the next four hours, but there is a more serious aspect of this, the idea that the republican leadership knew, turned a blind eye, apparently had a good laugh behind closed doors about it and now have gone silent. >> absolutely. over the last six years in our politics lying has become a kind of consistent feature of the landscape. it's tolerated, it's been accepted, and it's -- and let's be clear, lying has always been a part of politics, right? i mean, we know that, but to the extent to which we've experienced it over the last six years it's been kind of overwhelming, right, in terms of

the way in which conversation happens. but i think it's really important here that we have a political party, operatives, who knew this, they were okay with it we have a state political party that is silent with regards to these -- they are not allegations, these revelations with regards to santos we have leadership, mccarthy and stefanik, silent with regards to what is being revealed and it shows to my mind a kind of level of corruption, a level of moral corruption, i should say, right, at the heart of a major political party that should raise a lot of alarms. >> but it wasn't like robert zimmerman the democrat who was defeated by george santos, mr. j jew-ish, he had money, there was a fair amount of outside spending at least over a million dollars in outside spending and yet not one opposition researcher or firm was enlisted to do a dossier on this guy or

even just to run a credit check or -- it's such malpractice. it also speaks to the corruption of money in politics where all of this money is being spent yet not for any purpose that actually serves the candidate. >> a failure of democratic opposition research, a failure of journalism not to catch it initially but most of all a failure of republicans the editorial board of the new york daily news is calling for santos to step aside after these revelations. it writes in part this, the man we know as george santos if that is indeed his name is a work of fiction. when santos takes the oath of office on january 3rd there's no reason to think it will be worth anything after all, the trust of his constituents meant nothing to him. not that he should take any such oath if santos has any shred of decency he will step aside now that his con has been exposed even as some of his voters are standing behind him. we are not holding our breath. if he doesn't there doesn't seem to be much anyone can do the lies got him elected but he

has been duly elected. all that's left is for his future colleagues to box him out and investigate him themselves and wait for the error to be corrected by the voters in two years' time. >> very briefly on this, i mean, first of all a further trump fiction of the party. >> i have to go back embellishing my resumé now, i mean, he will bell sling, eddie is a professor at princeton so he will know that embellishing -- >> so he says. >> trends to involve taking something that's, you know, a fact and making -- buffing it up a little bit, making it seem bigger than it is. he said he worked for goldman sachs. he now says, okay, that was a poor choice of words what i meant was i worked for a company called link bridge that did business with goldman sachs. now, that basically means that everybody who has ever worked at a starbucks can say that they worked for goldman sachs because, you know, every starbucks has had a goldman sachs banker walk through and buy a cup of coffee.

where you get into this kind of trouble i can't help it, it takes you to places that are, you know -- i mean, the guy obviously has no moral core whatsoever but it puts you in a position where you have to tell lies like this that are in some ways better than the original lie because they're much more outlandish he should just be like, yeah, i made it all up and you suckers bought it. i have two years to prove my worth. come and get me. >> will he survive >> he absolutely will survive. look at how at the beginning -- do you remember the cautionary tale of a woman named marjorie taylor greene, cross fit lady from down in georgia and how they said, oh, we're just going to basically neuter her, she will have no power, no committees, we will keep her -- you know, this is ridiculous the trash that's coming out of her mouth. today she is a big power broker. >> feels like the further trump fiction of the republican party. the former president claims that he advised ivanka trump and jared kushner not to join his fledgeling 2024 presidential

campaign the former president's assertions come after a new report from olivia newsy in new york magazine that details a series of controversies that's plagued trump's '24 campaign including that kushner has refused requests to help his father-in-law. trump posted on his social media site writing, contrary to fake news reporting i never asked jared or ivanka to be part of the 2024 campaign for president and, in fact, specifically asked them not to do it. too mean and nast kwlee with the fake corrupt news and having to deal with some absolutely horrendous sleaze bags in the world of politics and beyond there has never been anything like this ride before and they should not be further subjected to it. last month the new york post also published and article claiming ivanka and jared wanted nothing to do with the campaign. according to the post insider sources claimed trump begged them to join him on stage at his campaign launch but the pair

refused. john heilemann, this feels like a matter of protesting too much. >> won't be long before trump is saying about jared and ivanka what he would say about everybody else in these situations, jared, ivanka, never met them, hardly know them who are those people i never heard of those losers. yes, i mean, look, trump absolutely positively definitely tells everybody who turns him down from coming on the campaign that he doesn't want them to be on the campaign after they've told him that they won't be on the campaign i believe that sequence of events i also think olivia nuzzy knows donald trump inside and right, usually she has him dead to rights you can usually tell because the push back on whatever has got, when you know you not him he comes back hard and calls it fake news. look, these two are smart enough to now recognize just how toxic their father is and they recognize the damage he's done to them and i don't think they will be seen anywhere closer than a barge pole away from him. >> a template started right at

the beginning, roger stone quit his 2015 campaign, the next day trump claimed he fired him so this is not something new, but perhaps read into us, if you will, just it is the latest sign of just how troubled and disastrous this campaign has been in its early stages. >> i mean, yes, but you remember the first campaign in its early stages was -- >> was troubled and disastrous. >> troubling and disastrous. we don't want to draw too many conclusions from this. i link the santos story to this story. i'm thinking about madison and the way in which he presumed that a certain virtues character was necessary for democracy to survive. we know trump lies at the moment he opens his eyes every morning, a lie is being configured to enter into the world out of his mouth and so here we see him sanctioning it all the way downstream such that a guy in a local district in long island in that area will lie about everything, being jew-ish, going to baruch

and here he's going to even lie about his kids it just shows you in so many ways how desperate they are. >> at least stephanie grisham who knows the trumps as well as anybody, she was press secretary for a while, first lady melania trump's chief of staff, she tweeted last night saying, hi, this is when you know the story is true and clearly hit a nerve because of the rant that trump went on social media, that he went on truth social and tweeted -- or truthed many times about this that's a clue that this is real. >> well, i wonder what had to hurt more, olivia nuzzy comparing donald trump to norma desmond in sunset boulevard. >> trump doesn't know who norma desmond is. >> or jared and ivanka which i would argue it's not that they suddenly realized he's so toxic, they have sovereign wealth money from various dictatorships and monarchees and why not just take

those billions of dollars and run and they would rather be rich people than have power. when before they chose being rich people who had power. so that shows, i guess, the toxicity of trump's brand finally. >> jared kushner last spotted publicly at the world cup final last week with elon musk in qatar. let's move on, we are going to come back to this story a little later let's get to the news from ukraine. there are reports in morning from europe that ukraine is striking more boldly at targets deep in russian territory. the latest attack happened yesterday in southern russia where three servicemen were killed after air defenses shot down a ukrainian drone the long range attacks have reportedly hit air fields in the heart of russia, potentially complicating moscow's campaign of aiming cruise missile strikes at ukraine's energy grid some analysts say kyiv has assessed that moscow's military is fighting at the limits of its conventional capabilities spurring bolder attacks. meanwhile, ukraine now says it wants to hold a peace summit by

the end of february. about one year after russia first invaded the country. it's with the goal of ending the war, but without the participation of russia. according to the associated press, ukraine's foreign minister hopes the summit will take place at the united nations with secretary general antonio guterres as possible mediatmedir he emphasized the only way russia will be invited to the summit is if moscow is prosecuted for war crimes in an international court. he also says ukraine will do whatever it takes to win the war this upcoming year joining us now to talk about this is former u.s. ambassador to ukraine bill taylor and president of the council on foreign relations richard haass. mr. ambassador, let's start with you with that idea of a peace summit greeted with some real skepticism that it could be successful if russia is not involved

what do you read into the offer at its face value but also what it's telling us about the state of the war >> john, president zelenskyy made this point when he was here, when he was in washington last week. he mentioned something about a peace summit and they apparently had a conversation during their discussion with president biden. so this has been out there clearly the ukrainians want to demonstrate that they're willing to have conversations when certain things have happened, that is, when the russians have gotten out of their country. they do not want to cede to russia territory, land, part of their country, to reward the russians for invading. so this is the basis for their suggestion on a peace summit. >> so, richard, let's get you to weigh in on this as well the americans and western allies have been clear that there won't be any talk of peace, of bringing this war to conclusion, unless kyiv says they're on board. well, kyiv is sort of suggesting they are on board but with, you

know, a requirement for a peace talk that seems unlikely if russia is not going to participate and they are not going to be prosecuted for war crimes between now and february. what do you think of this and where does it tell you where kyiv's head is at the moment in terms of how they see this war almost a year in >> jonathan, this is not about peace. this is not about diplomacy. this is about putting russia in the dock this is, if you will, the appearance of not being against diplomacy but neither side is ready to negotiate this war has a long ways to go anytime you set preconditions for peace talks usually it says you're not ready to have them. neither side is ready to have them ukraine wants its territory back, they want economic reparations, they want accountability for war crimes. vladimir putin is not ready to satisfy them on any of those counts, much less all of them. so this war is going to go on and this is simply a way to appear to be in favor of peace

rather than to be serious about it >> ambassador taylor, elise jordan here. you know the situation in ukraine and all of the players as well as anyone on the world stage. if you had to recommend a course forward for the united states, what would you recommend as to our strategy do you think that the biden administration is in a strong place now doing as good as could be done under difficult situations or how would you tweak the policy >> elise, i would tweak the policy in the following way, i would allow the ukrainians the weapons that they need to push the russians out of their country, that is, there are some long-range weapons that the administration has not yet been willing to give the ukrainians there are other weapons that they need to be able to defend themselves against these air attacks. again, the russians are attacking civilian targets, not military, they are losing on the ground and on the military side, the only thing they can do is

attack undefended infrastructure, energy infrastructure, so that the ukrainians are cold and thirsty and freezing during the winter this is the only thing the russians can do. so i would allow the ukrainians to have the air defense that they need and the long-range weapons that they need to go deep into the russian-occupied -- the occupied part of ukraine and they can then -- the ukrainians can then push the russians out. they also need things that they don't yet have which are tanks and aircraft and that's the tweak i would make >> richard haass, heilemann here i have heard you now both on "way too early," on this show echo my reaction to this peace summit notion which is, you know, theres this giant poison pill in the middle of it and it's -- there's -- the fact that there's -- that there's not going to be a peace summit of any meaningful kind does suggest and that neither -- neither side

is going to negotiate in a meaningful way suggests that this is going to be a war that someone is going to win eventually what's the -- as we've seen now a year in, how long can this go on i mean, is this a thing that is going to be, you think, a years' long low grade conflict or is this a thing where if given the kind of surprising success that ukraine has had over the last year if they can get through this winter there is a chance they can actually win this war within the next calendar year before they get to another winter >> i don't think anyone is going to win it in 2023, john. think about it, this war in some ways has been going on for eight years already, that's when russia moved against crimea and parts of the east of ukraine i don't think either side has the military capability totally to defeat the other. i think the war continues probably at a lower level of intensity for some time and my guess is it only stops when either putin decides it's less costly for him to almost do --

remember senator aiken declaring victory in vietnam, at some point he decides it's better to declare victory than face a total loss maybe more likely until putin is no longer in power. i actually think this war goes on for years and becomes the backdrop to europe for a long time to come sorry to be so pessimistic in this post-christmas moment, but i think that's probably the cold reality. >> and the next possible tension point in the conflict among kyiv and its allies, what we're seeing here, ukraine growing bolder in their attacks within russia and asking the united states for more weapons where they can do that more frequently so far washington holding off. richard haass and former ambassador bill taylor, thank you both we will have more on the war in ukraine a little later in the show. meanwhile, back here at home, countless towns across the country are still in the process of dealing with this weekend's massive winter storm nbc news has now confirmed that at least 57 people have died

nationwide from weather-related emergencies this weekend and that includes 27 alone in western new york's erie county snow continued to fall in the region monday and officials are expecting an additional 8 to 12 inches into this afternoon an emergency driving ban remains in place in the buffalo area as authorities plead with residents to stay home so they can continue clearing the snow crews are currently focused on plowing streets for ambulances, police, rescue vehicles and medical workers. new york governor cath ee hochul said that scores and scores of vehicles abandoned in ditches and snow planks including snow plows and rescue vehicles that are trapped are complicating rescue efforts hochul also confirmed yesterday that the biden administration has declared an emergency disaster declaration for the area in a show of support, new jersey governor phil murphy has deployed new jersey task force one an urban search and rescue team to western new york because as murphy put it, that's what

neighbors do meanwhile, the holiday travel chaos continues from that storm as more than 17,000 flights have been canceled in nearly a week. thousands more have been delayed. southwest airlines is by far the most disrupted carrier in the last five days it has canceled about 8,000 flights according to the flight tracking app flight aware, southwest -- or because those are the cancellations -- southwest says it plans to operate just over one-third of its typical schedule for the next two days in an effort to recover, but warned that the reduced schedule could be extended even further let's go to meteorologist angie lassman for the forecast we just heard it, more snow in the buffalo area today when is relief coming in. >> relief is on the way, we will see improvements there but we have a couple other weather stories to talk about, too, that may cause some travel trouble out west this is that next storm we're going to watch moving from the pacific on shore this is of course times square which in the coming days will be packed and will be warm but also

wet. i will tell you about that here in a moment but first there is that satellite and radar, buffalo continuing to see those really intense lake-effect snow bands. all day yesterday it was basically almost 72 hours of continuous lake-effect snow in more than 36 hours of that was with continuous blizzard conditions they're still in the thick of it, they're going to continue to pick up on maybe 5 to 10 more inches of snow here by the time we get into the evening hours. we will start to see things calm down that's good news for them. there is that storm i referenced on the west coast, that is what we will be watching to continue to move on shore and bring flooding conditions to places like oregon and washington and california, but we've got warmer air that is settling in for much of the eastern half of the country, it's going to be a quieter couple of days for folks in places like lexington, atlanta will be into the low 30s right now, but look what happens here as we get through the next couple of days, 60 in nashville on thursday, buffalo that's one of course the place that is we need to thaw out, upper 30s

wednesday, mid 40s by thursday and into the 60s on friday we will watch for minor flooding with that snow melt so just something to be aware of when we have all that snow on the ground currently. here is a look at the holiday hub impacts, we got through one holiday weekend, we have another on the way, east coast looks good, especially today, the west coast places like san francisco, los angeles, could see a couple of delays with that heavy rain working on we have an atmospheric river that's fueling us with plenty of moisture to work on shore, again, from seattle all the way to los angeles and as far south as san diego california of course needs the rain, but we know that when it comes in high amounts that we could definitely see some of that flooding concern, the flash flooding concern and especially in those burn scar areas, jonathan. >> angie lassman, thank you very much we will have an update from western new york later in the show. coming up next on "morning joe," the supreme court today will decide the fate of the pandemic-remember ra border policy known as title 42 we will get a live report from el paso, texas, where thousands of migrants are camped out on

the streets. plus new calls for sanctions for arizona's kari lake following her bid to overturn the state's election results we will tell you about that. and also ahead, head injuries are front and center once again for the nfl we will have the latest on the miami dolphins quarterback and what it means for that team's playoff chances. you're watching "morning joe." we will be right back.

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welcome back china is set to drop covid quarantine requirements for travelers arriving in the country starting next month. that's seen as a major step toward china fully reopening its borders to the rest of the world after nearly three years china's national health commission said yesterday that

travelers will only be required to show a negative covid test obtained within 48 hours before arriving currently travelers are subject to five days of hotel quarantine and three days of self-isolation at home. china's officials say restrictions on airlines over the number of international flights and passenger capacity will also be lifted. the changes are part of a broader move by the government to end what's left of its zero covid policy was was abruptly abandoned earlier this month following nationwide protests over its social and economic challenges. another china story we're following, the white house is responding after china's military moved fighter jets and ships toward taiwan. a statement from a white house national security council spokesman reads this part in, the united states is concerned by the people's republic of china's provocative military activity near taiwan which is destabilizes, risks miscalculations and undermines regional peace and stability

over 70 chinese war planes were detected flying around taiwan and seven naval vessels in the surrounding waters as well a chinese military spokesman said in an online statement that sunday's joint combat redness patrol and live firing drill was a response to escalating collusion and provocation by the u.s. and taiwan, though he didn't elaborate let's bring in former supreme allied commander of nato, retired four star navy admiral james stavridis. admiral stavridis. always good to see you let's get your reaction there to this drill from china, their claims of u.s. provocation there's been a lot of talk that xi jinping is eyeing taiwan, believes it should be part of china. what does this step tell you is he taking another move down that path? >> i think there are three things at play here, one, you spoke of a moment ago, jonathan,

end of the covid policy. that's good news for the global economy, good news generally within china, but there's going to be bad news there's going to be a lot of deaths as a result of that the chinese population largely unvaccinated, poor vaccines to begin with so what does xi jinping want to do he wants to distract the internal population from those problems so that's point one. point two, xi consolidated power completely in october. he now is in a position to simply turn the whole ship, if you will allow me a nautical metaphor, all the way back around on covid. i think thirdly he is watching the u.s., washington, d.c., spending bills, which are putting out a lot of -- they used the word -- collusion, arms transferred, arms sales, advanced technology training so i think, jonathan, those

three factors have come together to up the ante for the chinese to do this aggressive, fairly provocative set of moves in the taiwan strait. i will close with this, i don't see it as a precursor to a sudden military move on taiwan that would be a huge mistake for beijing. i think xi knows that quite well. >> admiral, this is eddie glaude good morning given what you've just laid out as clearly as you often do, what should be the biden admini administration's response to what china has done and is continuing to do >> great to see you, professor first and foremost, what the biden administration should do is watch what's happening in ukraine and learn the lessons. i think the lessons we're seeing already are get there early, get the equipment moving, provide the training, encourage in this case the taiwanese to make the commitment to defend themselves.

another story kind of bubbling along this morning is that taiwan has just raised the length of time for mandatory conscription, a draft. used to be four months, now it's going to be a year minimum for these young men and women. as a result they're preparing, they should be in the international marketplace, they're a very rich country, maybe the 20th largest economy in the world, stand-alone. they can afford the weapon systems they need. we have to facilitate that process. so i think the lesson for the biden administration, look at ukraine, get the equipment, the training in place, eddie, that creates deterrents, that avoids war. that's the path the biden administration is on it's a smart path. >> admiral, stay with us, we're going to sneak in a quick break. when we return we want to play you some sound we think is important that's going to reflect the debates in the halls of congress after the new year about aid to ukraine we will be right back with that.

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washington, d.c. at 6:40 a.m. we mentioned before the break elise, that we had some sound, some voices we wanted to play that are reflective about the upcoming debate in congress about funding to ukraine >> well, we have footage fro di pittsburgh right before thabt h the debate about the war in ukraine, and you can see from their beliefs just what we're going to be talking about when congress debates increased funding to yook. so let's listen to and watch those voters as they debate the war. >> the ukraine war, ukraine is

in my opinion from everything i have gathered is basically a -- it's sort of like a money laundering front for all deep state activities. >> i agree with him. >> they launder money. why are we sending how many billions of dollars over there when florida needs -- can we get them anything? ukraine is always a priority. >> right >> the bidens are tied to ukraine. >> exactly. >> they served on the board of, what was it -- >> barista. >> the oil companies and all that there's so much attached to ukraine that -- and i also from what i understand at least -- you know, i go down the rabbit hole pretty far, i don't know about anybody else -- >> where do you like to go down the rabbit hole? >> i use different social media sites, i kind of do my own, i guess, recon and i pull things from different sources there is a handful that i like to use. >> what are the favorites? >> i use truth social now that

it's sort of getting some traction a lot i've used telegram i've been on gab twitter. a little bit of everything, you know i know there's smear stuff about like -- i know there's ads about gab and stuff with mastriano but none of that's ever true everything is just a smear campaign with these ads and all that all the time. >> so kim agrees with you. kim, what -- >> yeah. >> he's saying resonates with you. >> not only hunter, we have john kerry, theresa heinz's son involved. >> can't forget that. >> nancy pelosi's son. >> is this ukraine >> yeah. >> i think that actually heinz, right -- >> heinz. >> he the son theresa's son didn't get involved in the ukraine stuff. >> did he remove himself in time >> but what specifically the

deep state with ukraine? >> i'm concerned about the bio labs there, the purpose of those bio labs that's the one thing putin has highlighted that i agree with. >> putin has got all the dirt -- >> i think what you're missing is any of the criticism of ukraine goes at least double for russia there's not a clear, you know, white hatra digs nl good guy versus bad guy. >> no it is gray. >> it's more like bad guy versus worse guy. >> the enemy of my enemy is my friend. >> there's corruption there and therefore we have to side with the far worse person that's attacking them there's just no logic in that. >> so adam -- >> real quickly i want to say that we brought putin to this point. when we forced the issue with nato. >> we could open up our own domestic energy. i think at the end of the day for putin this is all about en energy the land bridge to europe the

crimea access and whatnot it's all about pop lines i think that he wants to put to europe potentially north africa but, i mean, russia is a petrol state they get i think over 60% of their gdp is from oil and natural gas and so actually what biden did and the world community with the sanctions they drove up the cost of putin's oil and created -- he's flush with cash right now to spend on new weaponry, new missiles and to resupply his war effort so i think biggest thing we could do at this point because we are out of the list of good options, but wopen up our own domestic energy supplies 100%. >> and i think we're now seeing just how much energy security is national security and, i mean, i feel like just kind of bringing it back to a little bit of a bigger picture with the democrats and like all these

problems -- well, not all but i feel like a lot of these problems are stemming from their green agenda and their ideological almost near religious adherence to wanting to remake our economy into some green economy which isn't going to happen. if you look into these technologies even just a little bit under the surface like wind and solar and whatnot, it's not feasible it's not feasible. and they still -- they don't even want to take a look at nuclear which is something that could be very clean if done correctly. it's, again, it's almost religious in nature to me their ideological adherence to it. >> so these are the issues that are animating republican voters on the far right who are echoing some of the propaganda that's coming out of russia vis-a-vis the chem labs that they claim the united states is funding, which the u.s. has only funded

biological labs with public health aims in mind, we are not funding research of chemical weapons in ukraine, but this is the standpoint that republican leadership they're reflecting when they are saying they don't want more funding for ukraine. so how does this influence the next congress? >> well, i don't know the answer to that question but i know jim stavridis will have something smart to say to this broader question which pivots off -- throws -- casts a larger net here those are republican voters, they are saying things that are a mixture of misinformation, just misperception, misunderstanding and fact. there's always when you go into focus groups you find people have this mix of things that they say that sometimes have great perspective and wisdom and sometimes they are a little confused, sometimes they've been if he had a line that's not just true of republicans, jim, it's also true of democrats the fact is that americans have been for a long time always a

little bit wary about spending american blood and treasure on foreign adventures and even on defending abstract values like democracy. so if you are sitting in front of that group or really any group of american voters as we head into the second year of this war with ukraine, what do you say to them about why their tax dollars should be spent to help ukraine fight off russia? why is that essential to their lives, not just to the cause of democracy in the abstract? >> step one, listen respectfully we may hear those bits of propaganda, we may hear this sort of conspiracy theory that's floating around out there, but you have to start by listening and then politely, you know, a sensible way walk through the facts, shine light as best you can. so that's really point one by the way, john, you know this well, you're going to see cracking in that ukrainian support not only on the right, you're going to see it on the

left, and we've already seen that from very much folks on the far left of the political spectrum who quite correctly ask the question billions and billions to ukraine, why not -- you heard it in that focus group -- why not florida, my native state, which got hammered by hurricanes, for example so listen respectfully, know it's going to come from both sides. the second point and i think this is the key thing, your question, what do you say to them and i think you begin by saying, look, russia is a malignant force under vladimir putin they know that you heard it in their comments i think you work on that aspect. you talk about the war crimes, the rape, the torture, the invasion who invaded who? this is magical thinking to say, oh, this is something we pushed putin in a corner and therefore he invades ukraine so make the tactical point that

by sending these weapons, by sending these dollars we limit, we weaken this malignant force in the world and then i think these are smart folks and you can go to them and say, let's look at history here. 100 years ago we had this choice, we were given the opportunity to stay after the first world war in the 1920s in europe, we were given the opportunity to be part of the league of nations. what did we do united states, we came home. we went -- we followed that isolationist instinct that's part of our politics, of our politics, part of our dna. how did that worked out? we cracked the global economy, great depression, a line to fascism in world war ii, that's the line long answer, apologies, you need to listen, put truth in front of

it and use history to try and make the case and you're going to need to do that on both sides of the aisle >> admiral, you just taught me a lesson and as i was listening to the focus group i was sitting here getting really upset, you told me to listen respectively, i get that, you ask the question, where are you getting your information the list is fascinating. admiral said listen, tell us the facts and truth and then deep dive into history, the last two seemed to run up against the sources of the information, what did you make, gab, truth social. >> well, we live in such a society that's completely sidled

off. somewhere in the middle there's you know more of a mainstream news operation going on but that's the problem, when you have, you know, both camps, both sides of the polarization listening to the most extreme versions of what ever their truth is and they never come across nothing of what the other side might be more fact based. i think it's completely right to debate, is it worth to send american dollars to ukraine? they should be having that debate and asking that question. when it comes to parroting russia's war aims that's when it's problematic because this isn't information -- you've seen how zelenskyy has leveraged the power of his podium to get support for ukraine and we have

to remember this is an infowars space to. >> i looked at gab for the first time, first thing that came up was the picture of the capitol this is a ukrainian bank if you're looting during a snowstorm you must be an "n" word >> that's the rabbit hole. so much the opinions and voices we just heard from that focus group hard for a loft listeners for this show to hear but important because so reflective there. also, retired four-star admiral, thank you as well. coming up here, we'll have highlights from monday night football as another team punches its ticket to the playoffs plus, anti-vaccine sentiment has increased since the pandemic and it's fueling the reer is

juns of other preventable diseases "morning joe" will be right back

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coming up, kevin mccarthy has one week to gather enough support for his bid to become the next house speaker, we'll have the latest on the standoff among house republicans also ahead, one of our next guests argues there's a simple and obvious way for republicans to avoid another nomination of donald trump, quote, keep the field small, get the hell out of the way. we'll dig into that when "morning joe" comes right back

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chargers hurry it up, handoff and now he gets it here. touchdown, los angeles >> that was the second of a pair of rushing touchdowns scored by

cha chargers austin ekeler, 18 carries for 67 yards, the fourth player in 15 years to score at least 15 touchdowns in back to back seasons and needs one more reception to post the sixth 100-catch season by a running back ever in the history of nfl. meanwhile colts quarterback nick foles in his first start for indianapolis, tossed three interceptions, i don't understand how he beat the patriots in the super bowl, setting that aside, the colts' lone field goal came after a scary moment this vicious helmet to helmet hit. everything you can't do with a tackle, that hit left both players with concussions chargers win, 20-3, and punch a ticket to the playoffs for the first time since 2018.

meanwhile in miami, dolphins quarterback tua tagovailoa is in the concussion protocol for the second time this season. miami's coach revealed yesterday that he had concussion symptoms. miami is in new england this weekend. eddie, the injury to tua there certainly could change the playoff picture in the nfc, his third concussion of the season, second time in protocols, there was this controversy earlier this year where he was clearly showing symptoms of a concussion but still let able to play, there are more important things

than playoff seedings. this is about a man's long term health >> on twitter tua has to think long and hard ever to play this game again >> he's had a great season one has to wonder if he should be suiting up. let's turn back to politics now, a report in t"the new york times," details a small group of voters broke with its own voting history to reject open extreme candidates for the health of the political system

those decisions acourting to the times suggest a possible ceiling on the appeal of extreme partisanship while election deniers suffered losses across the board in states like nevada and arizona they still won nearly half the vote john, let's get your take on this we've noted the high-profile deniers went down to defeat. that said, a lot of house republicans were election deniers and still got elected. where do things stand? >> the republican party, the elected republican party that controls the house of representatives dominated by free-range insurrectionists, active or passive, who try to

deny joe biden the election in 2020 the truth is, like a lot of people, we took a deep breath after november because of our fears of what might happen it was nice to see election deniers get beat and a lot of republicans who ran and suggested that they might not accept the results of the election conceding when they loss the cause of preserving democracy is an ongoing one, the fight is still at our front door you look at matt gaetz and marjorie taylor greene, they continue to have more power, more sway, have kevin mccarthy

by the sensitive parts, that pa they have him. still the dominant force in that party, that's where we are, i think this "times" piece is very good and very careful in pointing out disaster was averted but if we pretend all is well and go about our business is a big mistake. >> when we think about u.s. history, the collapse of radical reconstruction, against the south, but in some ways shall we say identified with the underlining assumptions that organized the south, they didn't want to overthrow the government but they were somehow in collusion in the context of this war. but in this context we have a

desire to move from personality but still embrace the policy, we don't want trump we still want the things he stood for, what do you make elise of what seems to be a longing for a reasonable republican party we're constantly looking for those elements, those people who seem to suggest that the republican party has righted itself, when over and over again we see, right, not only these elements like marjorie taylor greene, we see folks longing for the policies of trump. >> people who follow politics closely, a healthy two-party system is important for healthy democracy. vet candidates, don't put donald trump on the debate stage and allow him to swoop the nomination in the first place but i digress.

that's the impulse it's not what the voters want. they still want the insurgent, they want taking on the person who's going to take on the system who challenges authorities and someone who's going to fight and that's what propelled donald trump on so many levels and looking to this next field is there going to be someone who's seen as that kind of fighter and willing to take on, quote, woke culture, which has changed now, back then it was oh against political correctness now it's changed into this culture war of woke. who's going to be that candidate of 2024. >> a number of republicans are making moves toward entering the 2024 primary field against donald trump reflecting a growing sense in the gop that the former president is far from a lock for the party's nomination according to the wash post,

quote, potential republican rivals to donald trump are ramping up their 2024 maneuverings reflecting a growing sense in the party that former president donald trump is far from the nominee the paper continues, both publicly and behind the scenes major republican figures are laying the foundations for potential campaigns. many operatives said they see benefits sitting back while trump deals with growing problems let's bring in eugene robinson and matt lewis matt, in your latest piece titled these doomed candidates could help trump survive a primary, you write in party, choosing to run in a crowded primary against trump in 2024 is a very different moral choice than it was in 2016.

unless a candidate has a credible path, it's almost certainly going to help trump. candidates choosing to run for the gop nod in 2024 must be realistic of their chances of winning. nikki haley, by trying to be all things to all people, she has, i suspect, managed to alienate most trumpers and never trumpers she probably can't win but she can steal some votes from someone like desantis. maybe the more realistic plea would be for likely doomed republicans to get running for president out of their system in 2023 and tdrop out before 2024

>> so, matt, let's dig into this a little more, there's this theory that trump has unshakable base and that's going to stay with him forever how do you make the argument, do you think you're persuade a nikki haley, mike pence, not to run? >> it's a tough one, right, this is game theory, it's basically the tragedy of tragedy of the commons, that collective action problem is the technical term, right, so what's individually nikki haley has an incentive to run for president even if she doesn't win she becomes more famous, more popular, her brand increases and a lot of republicans have that same i

would say incentive but collectively it's bad for the country and i'd argue the republican party and so the question is, have we learned anything since 2016? i think in 2016 there was a very big field what that meant was that donald trump could win with a plurality, he didn't have a majority of support in those republican primaries, he had a plurality and he was able to win. he has 30 to 35% of the republican party who will vote for him no matter what he could literally shoot someone on fifth avenue and 30 to 35% of the republican party would vote for him but there are other republicans who will never vote for liz cheney or larry hogan but they might vote for someone like ron desantis, so the real question, and this is an obvious point, i think it's profound, i don't think we realize how quickly this is going to happen

in 2023 and the fact is, it's kind of predictive, if there's a large field donald trump will very likely be the republican nominee, if there's a small field, if it's, you know, one or two or three candidates donald trump probably won't be so the question is, do these republicans love their country or their party more than they love their own elfish ambition >> matt, first of all, partly because i'm so entranced it would appear you're wearing a teal velvet dinner jacket. >> you're projecting >> am i right teal velvet dinner jacket >> let's just say the steaks

were made and it's the season, so what happens in west virginia stays in west virginia >> if you came out with a lit cigarette and an empty martini shaker that would be the coolest thing i have ever seen your assessment, have we learned anything the problem of collective action in parties is that you know you could get 20 republicans who all say we have learned a lot, we must stop donald trump and we also have learned that it would be better if there were pure candidates than more, who's going to say i'm not the right one to be the one, i'm the only one who can beat donald trump they seriously believe whoever that individual is whether it's nikki haley or ron desantis, there's not somebody making these decisions, if you were in charge you would do it a certain

way. you're kind of doomed in some sense the internal democratic functioning of these parties to often get yourself into trouble where republicans could end up >> donald trump by looking so weak has invited the very environment of scenario where he actually might have a chance to win, look, i think you're right, there are tremendous incentives for people to run for office and in some cases let's be honest the experts don't know the smoke-filled room thought rick perry was going to be president, on the list of people that we assumed would be president and other folks who come out of nowhere like donald trump and so the experts aren't great at this top-down, hand-picked sort of thing either so i think what we ought to do is say, okay, if you want to run

for president, go ahead. dip your toes in it's 2023 almost, run for president but here's the thing -- know when to pull the rip cord. because the stakes are so high if you want donald trump again, all the things that donald trump has done from charlottesville to the big lie, to, you know, dinner with antisemites, if you want that again go ahead there are no party bosses, no one can tell you to get out. but for the good of the country if you feel you have to run for president do it but know when to pull out >> lemire, when he says he's a fan of the smoke-filled room,

you believe him. >> you put this in an image, writing in your piece in a specific movie scene when you think about the 2024 potential presidential primary here's that scene. >> they're coming. >> hang on, i'm going to floor it watch out, move, move, move. >> careful, austin >> no! >> watch out >> watch out >> watch out >> a slow-moving disaster that we can all see coming but doesn't trump have some advantages to help ward off these challenge. >> reporter: it's nice to think it's all dependent on politicians choosing the higher ground and choosing country over

their personal ambitions trump owns rnc the rules favor donald trump as currently written so i just -- the structure as it is benefits donald trump so eugene, with that kind of advantage already in place, how do you see this playing out? >> well, look, first of all, i love the teal velvet dinner jacket, i want to get one immediately. but, look, we all know that the kind of, you know, intelligent, logic-based argument that matt is making always works, right, this just in -- it never works it never works because politicians don't look at the good -- they're ambition

they seep a weaken donald trump and every one of them says it's going to be me, it's not going to be this other guy who's raised more money, it's not going to be desantis it's going to be me, that's the dynamic that basically always happen and i'm afraid it's going to happen again this time and as was pointed out the party apparatus and the winner take all primary rules really do favor a candidate like trump who's got 30 to 35% locked in of the party, now what's going to happen between now and then, trump could get weaker and weaker, he could become less and less viable as a national candidate and then the dynamic could change maybe that 30 to 35% begins to become even more

look, you see that steam roller, you know, a mile away in this case, and i just don't see the party getting out of the way of it maybe i'll be surprised. i hope i'm surprised and it does but i'm not seeing it right now. >> asking politician to set aside their ego for the benefit of the party seems like a tall order. matt lewis, we appreciate your piece. you have a mug that says matt lewis. the question now is -- >> self-promotion. >> is matt lewis finally heading to bed or heading back out still ahead here on morning joe, the united states is seeing a growing number of measles

cases in ohio more than 80 children have been infected recently with many of them being hospitalized we'll talk to a health expert of the consequences of anti-vaccine sentiments plus parts of western new york are digging out after a deadly winter storm. we'll talk to the mayor of hard-hit buffalo you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. if your company actually practices the values that it posts about, then, yeah... you're on team earth.

welcome back the washington post is reporting that central ohio is currently facing a measles outbreak, at least 81 kids have contracted the disease to so far and more

than two dozen have been hospitalized only 3 of the 81 children have received 1 of the 2 recommended vaccine doses. 76 of the children have not received a single dose of the measles vaccine. joining us now is the health commissioner for the city of columbus dr. roberts, thanks so much for joining us sort of stunning, measles a disease many of us thought was in rearview mirror what do you contribute to this up uptick >> thanks, good morning and thanks for having me you're absolutely right, the united states declared measles eliminated in 2000 and here we are in 2022 in several measles outbreaks that have occurred over the last decade and we're

having a significant measles outbreak right here in columbus, mostly among kids who were eligible for the vaccine but parents chose not to get them vacc vaccinated it's going tocontinue to spur outbreaks like we're having here if that were to continue across the nation. >> dr. roberts, given what you've seen here, what do you make of implications from public health policy broadly, people concerned about their notions of liberty and freedom and really that trumps any concern for the public good, what does this mean in your view about how we think about public health and approach public health? >> it's definitely threatening public health and the role we play when many people started to make

vaccines political, vaccines should not be political. they've really helped us reduce if not eliminate vaccine infections like measles, like polio, so it's really challenging pub lig health and what's our authority and what can we do for the population health. this isn't about the individual health all the time. this is about population health. we have cases of measles here who have been doing all the right thing, maybe they weren't eligible to get the vaccine yet. now, that's threatening those families, those children who again are doing all the right things, following the public health guidelines following medical advice but just being at the wrong place at the wrong time. >> dr. roberts, when there's such hesitancy around vaccines that we think of essential to get in childhood, are you seeing

hesitation when it comes to the covid vaccine for children, are you seeing hesitation when it comes to the flu vaccine as there are upticks in cases of flu and covid this time of ear >> what we find is, parents are vaccinating their children for vaccines that are required to get in school, measles, mumps, polio. flu is not required for admission to school here in ohio those are typical viruss that many people are accustomed to and they think they can manage they know people who can get flu but with these other vaccine-preventable diseases like measles we've done such a great job with our vaccine distribution they don't see it and don't think it's necessary

to get those vaccines. some people belthat don't beliee in vaccines period >> health commissioner for the city of columbus, ohio, dr. roberts, thank you so much for joining us eugene robinson, not just measles but other diseases come could back because people have stop taking vaccines the atlantic had a story over the weekend saying that tens of thousands of republican voters likely died from covid because they didn't take the vaccine because they were not to by republican leaders, how deeply distressing is this, where do

you fear it could go next? >> it's deeply, deeply distressing and it's, look, this is a larger problem, several of the segments that we've done this morning including the focus group that elise did, you hear people just expressing these insane ideas basically because of this fragmentation of sort of information infrastructure or e ecosystem and the willingness to believe in all kinds of conspiracy theories and the depth, near death idea of community, this is a real problem, misinformation is a big part of it, republican rhetoric

and ideology is a part of it but this is -- it's undermining the sense of community that we have in this country that i think is necessary if we're going to have a country it's astounding that we're talking about people not getting their children vaccinated for measles. what could be more self-destructive more self-harming? yet, here we are and how we rebuild the sense of community, the sense of the being in an enterprise together, is, you know, it's going to take more than the four hours of "morning joe" to figure out, but it's something that we really need to think about and really need to move forward on, because

we can't measles become endemic again in this country when there's no need for it to be we have people still dying in hundreds from covid. vaccinations can't be political yet they are >> i used to live in northern california and i remember when you first started hearing about vaccine skepticism it was a left-wing thing mostly, you started to seeing outbreaks popping up then, almost 20 years, this is not a new phenomenon, donald trump has exacerbated a lot of things, made covid a political issue, turned the question of vaccines and masks and everything into

issues you know, the question one gets asked when you travel around the country by normal ordinary americans, how can we -- this toxic polarization of parties, the extreme on the right in fact nuttier than the people extreme on the left, how can we get past that and the answer is not political, a president isn't going to solve it, barack obama tried to heal us, george bush tried to heal us, they all talked about bringing the country together it does go to things in our information ecosystem that are really hard to solve because it's about technology and the economy and the ways that the media has grown to feed the insular bubbles where people just talk to each other.

that's for a common wheel is poison, but it's really deeply baked into the cake now for american society and global society. you got to get down deep on this thing and a culture-wide effort. i don't think anyone has a simple solution or has the guts to be taken on but it needs to be taken on. >> yeah, you're very right, the ease of being in your own individual iso allows people to make the selfish decisions eugene robinson, thank you so much for joining us this morning. coming up, we'll get to the morning's front pages including how much americans spent this holiday season. plus the latest on the travel troubles playing out at airports across the country. thousands of flights have been

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chicago, illinois, 6:39 a.m. in the central time zone, looks like a lovely if chilly morning there. time now for a look at the morning papers as we come back the chicago tribune reports on the unprecedented number of out of state patients seeking abortions in state of illinois, nearly one third of abortion patients at planned parenthood offices in illinois are from out of state that number was 6% prior to the supreme court's decision to overturn roe v. wade in florida, reports that the national traffic highway safety administration has launched a federal probe into hertz will look at the company whether or not the rented out cars with

defects the connect post reports on the increasing price of electricity, announced customers will pay roughly 50% more for power next year, 50% more, the state had the second highest rate in the country for residential electric bills this year just behind hawaii. in delaware the news journal covers the latest on holiday sales, they rose just about 7.5% this year, slower rate compared to last year when shoppers began spending money save. coming up, santa claus wasn't the only one spreading holiday cheer. our next guest crossed 50 states in 20 days delivering gifts to americans in needs

that's straight ahead on "morning joe."

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there it is, the gorgeous rockefeller christmas tree just outside the studio here and on that topic, what do two men with a cargo van have in common with santa and his sleigh the answer, they both bring holiday cheer across the country. the mon profit future superhero and friends just finished the fourth year of traveling to all 50 states delivering gifts to americans in need. joining us now is the group's founder, good morning, first of all, let's say thank you for such a wonderful story this morning. tell us about your organization and what you saw as you traveled across the country >> future superhero was started

after i lost my mother to an eight-year battle to cancer. i started this nonprofit, i fell out of that depression period, but during this tour we saw all sort of happy children, elderly, veterans, anybody you could think of, we were just there to uplift humanity for the holidays >> this is such a wonderful story and makes us all feel better that our fellow citizens are taking their time to brighten the lives of children who might be having a rough holiday, your partner rodney jones i believe that i read a story about him when he was in the memphis area a few years ago mowing lawns during the summer, you do this by winter are you involved in the lawn mowing operation for the elderly? >> rodney has a separate

nonprofit. we combine both of our nonprofits during the christmas time to uplift the people i previously mention zbld thank you again for all that you're doing. in this particular moment, there's so much happening in the world, so much sadness, so much loss, so much grief and given that your nonprofit emerges, talk about what you saw across the country as jonathan asked you, because this is particularly moment you're doing this, but this particular moment with so much grief and loss defines this country in this moment, what did you see and feel as you expressed this love across the nation? >> you know, we went up to the ghettos of chicago to bless certain people that were in need, i saw an elderly grandmother taking care of her 2-year-old child, her daughter

passed away she has to be there for her can child and she was thank youful that we were there to uplift her. and one family we surprised with a playstation5 >> thank you so much for being here, but more importantly, thank you for what you do. truly wonderful stuff and if anyone watching at home wants to get involved you can visit future superhero.com/volunteer another story of good news story this morning, a pilot is alive after his plane crashed in a freeze lake in maryland. nbc news correspondent stephanie gosk has that story. >> reporter: a desperate scene in maryland, a small plane crash landed into an icy lake. >> we ran out to the patio and

we saw the plane go down a ditch into the creek. >> reporter: the pilot survived, the plane was sinking and the water was frigid. >> the creek is completely frozen over. the water temperature is low 40s. 60 minutes or so before hypothermia sets in. >> reporter: family grabbed its kay kayaks >> there was a man overboard, what do we need to why what do we need to do to get this individual out of the water? >> reporter: you pulled him out of the water >> yeah. asked him to the release the hold of the plane tail and yanked him on the kayak.

>> a blessing on christmas. >> reporter: the plane is lost but the lucky pilot has two new quick thinking sea faring friends and a story to tell. >> and those last two stories are a counter to the toxic individualism. a potentially major decision affecting u.s. immigration policy is expected from the supreme court today. we'll go live to el paso for the latest. we'll hear from a volunteer who sprang to action to help with the nearly 150 migrants bussed into the nation's capital on a frigid christmas eve. "morning joe" will be right back your sleep number setting. to help relieve pressure points and keep you both comfortable all night. the queen sleep number 360 c2 smart bed is only $899 - save $200. ends monday

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a.m. president biden and first lady head out on vacation today the supreme court is set to decide whether to lift or keep in place the border policy known as title 42. enacted in the height of the pandemic it allows officials to deny asylum seekers access to the united states. it was set to expire last wednesday before a stay issued on the expiration. the biden administration has asked chief justice roberts to rule against the challenge to keep title 42 in place arguing the rational is not valid. the situation is described by a crisis with border towns overwhelmed. el paso, texas, alone as many as 5,000 migrants a day anticipated to enter if title 42 is lifted

joining us live from el paso is nbc news correspondent sam brock. what is the latest there today >> reporter: jonathan, good morning. there is no doubt whatsoever that there's a humanitarian crisis on the streets behind me. but the expectation today is the supreme court will either take up the case and debate the merits of title 42 and pave the way to not be what it's been under a covid prevention policy. look over my shoulder. see the people 36 degrees in el paso. huddled together in blankets there's a bus to the right to provide temporary warmth but i'm hearing coughing from families with young children. a pregnant woman going to a

shelter. this is the reality on the ground as they wait for months for an answer. on what could be decision day for title 42 there are signs of distress all over the streets in el paso. it's clear not just from the blankets or signs but battle scars. cesar shows me the slashes on the risk from mexican cartels trying to extort him for money we have been waiting since october because we believed in the president of the united states that an opportunity to come to america legally december 21st would happen but the expiration received a stay from the supreme court. thequestion now is for how long the outcome is consequential as migrants show me the haunting

journeys scabs from frozen nights and burns from train cars. most are from venezuela or a handful of other countries because of how title 42 is applied allowing some from some countries and not others it feels arbitrary. >> it is currently green lighting nicaragua and cuba, potentially for coming venezuela and also the northern triangle. they're in the same boat as the venezuelans. >> reporter: he says a quarter to a third of the people coming the border are blommed with title 42 so the question now, jonathan, what does happen if title 42 is lifted the doctor said there are so many people on the mexican side

of the border there will be a surge of migrants into the united states. what happens after that point? right now is an open question. jonathan >> sam, you showed us heart breaking images of people on the street in el paso are facilities overwhelmed? what are the state and federal assistance may be enroute? >> reporter: they are overwhelmed. there's a conventional center converted to another shelter with 1,000 person capacity it is filled as you go and walk around the city this is a snapshot. not every street looks like this but folks don't have the ability to get into a shelter. in terms of federal and state assistance we are seeing aid handed out it is not enough for the demand

for what we see which is thousands upon thousands of people staying here waiting for a resolution. >> thank you so much for the reporting this morning eddie, title 42 put in place by the trump administration the biden white house wants it to end but not quiet they pushed for the stay and will get an answer potentially as soon as today for its future. it will be very difficult at the border white house aides say what when you look at the images from el paso what does it make you think? >> there's the moral and ethical side and the political side. the white house needs to message this issue better, particularly with regards to the latino voters if they don't get this right it's a political impact.

morally and ethically, we have to get this issue right. remember the cold spell in el paso they experience extraordinarily difficult weather and then a sense the immigration policy feels so cruel because it is so patch work we need to figure this out. >> there's a common sense way to message if the administration wants to have an immigration policy we need more workers why the economy needs more workers front page of "new york times," the economy's feeling strain of not enough workers where's the policy why can't they get in a policy to let more migrant workers into the country in a safe way? >> i think there's -- tremendously politically unpopular. a large chunk of low wage american workers that don't want

to see a more open border policy it is an issue that's often in the course of the history of the democratic party driven a wedge between white organized labor and african american workers and then the people for more liberal immigration policy and the problem now -- one thing that's heartening, the biden administration seemed to be befuddled by this. you covered the white house in a careful way. they seem befuddled what to do with the policy of it, the politics of it to say in the way that the modern democratic party works seemed to be politically risky in terms of hispanic voters and people on the left in favor of having liberal immigration policy why the administration dancing around the question to

acknowledge a crisis on the border they got lucky in some sense the house didn't come crashing down on them and now they have an opportunity i will say on the basis of my reporting and yours they recognize that like they got -- they won't get two swings at this they need to get it for policy reasons, humanitarian reasons, economic reasons and the health of the party get it right before 2024 they have an opportunity to get it done. but they're focused on this and understand the stakes. >> it's a window to try to address it still quite sometime before the president fasts voters again there's a lot of factors for a biden white house on a

roll and realize this is a potential trip wire. could be a real issue and we in a few moments speaking to a woman who helped with the migrants moved from texas outside the vice president's residence on christmas eve speaking of that cold temperature, countless towns in the country dealing with this weekend's massive winter storm at least 57 people have died nationwide from weather related emergencies this including 27 in western new york's erie county alone. snow fell in the region monday and expecting 8 to 12 inches into this afternoon. emergency driving ban in place in the buffalo area as authorities plead with residents to stay home to clear the snow crews are focused on plowing streets for ambulances, rescue

vehicles the governor said that scores and scores of vehicles abandoned in ditches and snow banks including rescue vehicles are complicating efforts she also confirmed that the biden administration issued an emergency assistance declaration for the area and phil murphy deployed the new jersey task force 1 to western new york to help because as murphy put it that's what neighbors do meanwhile the holiday travel chaos continues. more than 17,000 flights have been canceled in nearly a week and thousands more delayed nbc news blayne alexander has the latest >> reporter: this morning for millions of air travelers the holiday rush is quickly becoming the holiday regret. >> everybody in this line. they're sick of this they're sick. >> stayed at the airport

sleeping on the chairs. >> reporter: from chicago midway to lax - >> they won't have flights for three days so i'm stuck >> reporter: across the country more than 8,000 flights delayed on day after christmas more than 4,000 canceled the bulk from southwest airlines which accounts for more than 70% of all flights canceled nationwide monday. from long lines and massive luggage backups to this announcement - >> once again 90% of our flights have been canceled rai. >> reporter: southwest apologizing to customers writing in part we were fully staffed and prepared overnight the ceo called the cancellations the largest scale

event we have ever seen. all of this is putting stress on pilots and staff. >> our pilots can't get hotels sleeping in airports. >> had flight attendants on hold for 17 hours. >> reporter: the government is concerned by the rate of cancelations and will examine if the airline is complying with the customer service plan and other rules. >> nbc's blayne alexander with that report. turning back to politics house gop leader kevin mccarthy now has one week to gather the necessary support before the house votes on the next speaker. he needs 218 votes to get the job but with a very slim majority in the lower chamber a group of 5 never kevin republicans could derail the bid. a much larger only kevin camp

with buttons to say ok only kevin elise, the margin is thin. we know that he has really nowhere to go. but is there a credible alternative to kevin mccarthy? >> i think there definitely is steve scalise who's very well liked within the caucus and doing a good job of not looking hungry and staying out of it is this going to go to multiple votes? i don't see how it doesn't go to multiple votes given how narrow the margin is with 222 republicans he needs to get to 218. five said they're never keviners that's 217 right there i see this as a messy battle

that is pretty much the number one political story to watch in the next week. >> let's speak about this struggle here. project forward a little bit and say he is able to win this election doesn't this also preview how difficult it is going to be for him to run the republicans in the house as speaker >> a gentle preview. a whiff, a faint intimation of how bad it will be another whiff is looking back at the contortions, the horror on john boehner in the same situation when barack obama was president. facing a democratic senate boehner was an incarnation of this the freedom caucus then mild compared to now. boehner had that problem

trying to be an adult. more of an adult than kevin mccarthy and more of a spine and he had a terrible time difficult for joe biden. obama to deal with boehner on the brink of government shutdown and tougher now for kevin mccarthy to navigate this and biden to get stuff done and it is going to be chaos i would say with that threat of the speakership getting stripped from him always going to be one mean tweet from greene being pulled away from him. >> making the relationship with mitch mcconnell very, very difficult. >> they know they will have significant leverage going forward into the new congress. let's get an update from arizona

where governor-elect katie hobbs and the state's most populous county filed sanctions against kari lake. a judge ruled against the bid overturn the election results. lawyers for hobbs and mare copa county asking for $25,000 from lake for attorney fees the paper work filed by the attorneys paints a clearer picture. reading before a single vote was counted in the 2022 general election kari lake publicly stated that she would accept the results only if she were the winning candidate. the filing reads and then continues but she has not simply failed to publicly acknowledge the election results she filed a groundless, 70-page election contest lawsuit against the governor-elect, the secretary of state and maricopa

county and dragging them and the court into this frivolous pursuit. nbc news reached out to lake for comment. your reaction? >> folks need to be held accountable to undermine the trust, the faith in the election system if the candidate as well as the lawyers for filing the suit because with each moment they cast doubt on the election results they are undermining the foundation of american democracy. >> lake of course has still yet to acknowledge the results of the race yesterday we reported on the buses carrying 150 migrants in washington, d.c. on christmas eve and dropping them off near the home of kamala harris. greg abbott was behind that move a volunteer group arrived to help them.

claudia tristan, a volunteer with the migrant solidarity mutual aid network helped to feed 140 migrants who were left by the roadside. they said the three buses came from texas within half an hour of the arrival of the first bus on the way to a church to be warmed up with coffee and food none of them knew where they were being dropped off they have no idea they're part of a bigger political game joining us is the core volunteer organizer claudia tristan. good morning thank you for being here take us back to those moments please and what some of these migrants were saying to you and the conditions they face. >> of the frigid that night and

once they got to the respite center they were so incredibly thankful many wears t-shirts. some had blankets but incredibly thin some people didn't have shoes on just double layers of thick socks donated to them. so it was really quite alarming to see that political lead esches have dumped them on the side of the road in 18-degree weather knowing they are not dressed for this weather >> god bless you i'm sure you had things to do on christmas eve with your family and christmas day but you did such a good deed and reflected the best of america helping them could you tell us about the

children in the buses and the toddlers who they weren't waiting on santa claus to visit them they were being transported by greg abbott to freezing washington, d.c. outside the vice president's residence. >> i think that's the most painful thing to watch the children that are being thrown into this game that our political leaders think is going to resolve anything. the children are the most innocent among this and to see the small kids show up to the respite center and little confused what's happen jeff gordon it's late at night and they're just so, so thankful to receive a warm meal. it was christmas eve and also playing some christmas music in spanish. just to lighten up the mood in

any way we can because it is a heavy moment to be in for them we wanted to be there as helpful as possible. we had a children area with games and a little rug so they could play and that goes to show that we're more than ready to welcome them and takes a coalition of volunteers. we are a group that's working since april. it was christmas eve and shocking and horrible but the governor of texas continues to drop them off at the vice president's residence instead of at our res pite centers. >> thank you for what you are doing and an example of cruelty. governor abbott shipped over 15,000 migrants to -- across the

country from new york to d.c. do you think -- let me ask it differently. how should he be held to account for the cruelty of the practice? >> i'll leave that to the political leaders who can make a decision on that i want him to remember that there are real human lives in the middle of this who are becoming victims of his stunts which like this weekend there's children, not even 2 years old that are stuck in the middle of this. >> all right core volunteer organizer for the migrant solidarity fund thank you for joining us. still ahead on "morning joe" -- >> did i embellish my resume yes. i'm sorry. it shouldn't be done but i'm still the same guy i'm not a fraud or a cartoon

character or a mythical creature invented. >> he says he is not a fraud but his life story appears to be a fabrication. what republican leaders are saying about the controversy around george santos and will tell you about his religious faith. "the new york post" appears to have hit a nerve with former president trump. what he is saying about a week long federal government. ukraine's foreign minister is voicing hope for peace talks next year. we'll get expert analysis. you are watching "morning joe. >> good morning, joe, mika and willie congratulations on 15 years of "morning joe." what an exciting milestone for you and for the women and men who help to put the show on the air every single morning

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congressman-election santos admitting that he lied about several key details in the experience and biography in an interview with "the new york post" he confessed to what he called embellishing the resume and insists he will serve in the next congress he confessed he had never worked

directly for goldman sachs and citigroup chalking that fib up to a quote poor choice of words and admitted he never graduated from any college despite previously claiming to have received a degree from baruch in 2010 i'm embarrassed and sorry for having embellished the resume. i own up to that we do stupid things in life. tans to accused of lying about the family history saying on the campaign website his mother was jewish and grand parents escaped the nazis in world war ii. he said i'm catholic because i learned the maternal family had a jewish background i said i was jew-ish i'm glad we cleared that up. santos' resume called into

question this month when "the new york times" article pointed out several inconsistencies in the official biography his lawyer called it defamatory. he flipped a blue district republican leaders that backed him including kevin mccarthy have not yet commented on the controversy but "the post" notes senior house republicans were aware of the inaccuracies and embellishments in the resume and that topic became a running joke multiple insiders close to the leadership told the paper over the weekend. nbc news attempted to reach santos for comment but did not here back. >> i'm jew-ish why not? great t-shirt. you can't believe it

i think of the good people that hesitate to go into politics scared about something they did in college and then this guy that claims to work for prestigious banks and the homes when living with his sister. poor judgment. i think there's a little bit of that involved here. >> have we reached a new low it's contrasting to donald trump and would be a good idea to say when he hangs out to nazis we should say we're against nazis this dude even look. it is the reality. i don't want to make light of him. he is a comical example. politics littered with lying

liars who lie. you get caught if i have this problem i shouldn't get into politics. they probably will you get made into a laughingstock if you decide to make up things about the background he will be the butt of jokes for his life and rightly so i will say about myself i am not a journal but i am a journal-ist you know >> there will be jokes made about george santos but the idea that the republican leadership knew, turned a blind eye and now have gone sigh len. >> absolutely. lying has become a consistent feature of the landscape

tolerated, accepted. lying is always a part of politics right? to the extent of the last six years it is overwhelming the way in which conversation happens but i think it's important that we have a political party operatives who knew this and okay with it a state political party silent with regard to the revelations we have leadership silent. it shows to my mind a kind of level of corruption and moral corruption at the heart of a major political party. >> it wasn't like robert zimmerman defeated by george

santos, he had money there was a fair amount of outside spending at least over a million dollars in outside spending and not one opposition researcher or firm enlisted to do a dossier or run a credit check malpractice and all this money is being spent yet not for any purpose that actually serves the candidate? >> a failure of opposition research and journalism and republicans. the editorial board is calling for santos to step aside writes in part this. the man known as santos is a work of fiction. taking the oath of office there's no reason to think it's worth anything the trust meant nothing to him not to take an oath if he has a

shred of decency he will step aside even as the voters are standing behind him. we're not holding our breath there doesn't seem to be much anyone can do. he's been duly elected all that's left is for investigating him and wait for the error to be corrected by voters trumpification - >> embellishing the resume now -- i mean -- embellishing. eddie is a professor at princeton. >> so he says. >> taking something that's a fact and buffing it up the man claimed -- worked for goldman sachs. he now says it was a poor choice of words i worked for a company called

link bridge that did business with goldman sachs that means that anybody that worked at a starbucks can say they worked with goldman sachs they had a banker walk through and buy a coffee i can't help it. it takes you places that are -- i mean the guy has no moral core whatsoever and telling lies that are some ways better than the original lie yeah i made it all up you suckers didn't catch me. >> can he survive to take the seat >> absolutely. look at how at the beginning the cautionary tale of marjorie taylor greene? crossfit lady from down in georgia. we are just going to neuter her

no power no committees. >> feels like the further tr trumpification he said he told his children not to join the campaign after a new report that details a series of controversies that plagued the '24 campaign including that kushner refused requests to help his father-in-law. trump posted on the social media site writing contrary to fake news reporting i never asked them to be part of the 2024 campaign for president and asked them not to do it. too mean and nasty with the fake and corrupt news and having to deal with horrendous sleazebags in the world of politics and beyond they should not be further subjected to it.

last month "the new york post" claimed they wanted nothing to do with the campaign insider sources claim trump begged them to join him on stage but the pair refused john heilemann, this feels like a matter of protesting too much. >> not long he'll say never met them who are they never heard of the losers. trump absolutely definitely tells everybody that turns him down he doesn't want them on the campaign after they say they don't want to. the pushback on whatever trump got and know you got him he comes back hard the way it does

here these two are smart enough to now recognize just how toxic he is and recognize the damage he's done to them and i don't think they'll be seen anywhere near him. >> the template started at the beginning. roger stone quit and then donald trump claimed he fired him read into it the latest sign of how troubled this campaign has been in the early stages >> yes the first campaign in the early stages - >> troubling and disastrous. >> we don't want to draw too many conclusions to this i link the santos story to this. madison presumed the virtuous character is necessary for democracy to survive trump lies at the moment he opens his eyes every morning a lie is being configured out of

his mouth so here we see him sanctioning it downstream. a guy in a local district in long island will lie about everything being jew-ish. going to baruch. lying about his kids shows you how desperate -- >> stephanie grisholm. this is when you know the story is true because of the rant that trump went on truth social tweeted many times about this. that's a clue that this is real. top democrats are putting forward a list of proposals to expand voting access the governor of minnesota joins us to weigh in on that new effort we'll be back in a moment.

a report this morning from europe that ukraine is striking more boldly at targets in russian territory. the latest yesterday in southern russia where three service men were killed after air defenses shot down a ukrainian drone and reportedly hit airfields in the heart of russia potentially complicating the mission some analysts say kyiv assessed that moscow's military is fighting at the limits of capabilities spurring bolder attacks. ukraine says it wants to hold a peace summit by the end of february about a year after russia invaded the country. with the goal of ending the war but without the participation of

russia ukraine's foreign minister hopes it will take place at the united nations with the secretary-general as possible mediator emphasizing the only way russia is invited to the summit is if moscow is first prosecute bd for war crimes in an international court saying ukraine will do whatever it takes to win the war this upcoming year. joining us now is former u.s. ambassador to ukraine bill taylor and president of the council on foreign relations richard haas greeted with skepticism that the peace summit could be successful if russia is not involved but what do you read into the offer to tell us about the state of the war? >> president zelenskyy made this point here in washington last

week he mentioned something about the peace summit and apparently had a discussion with president biden. this is out there. clearly the ukraines want to demonstrate they are willing to have conversations when certain things have happened when the russians have gotten out of their country they don't want to reward the russians for invading. >> richard, the americans and western allies have been clear there won't be talk of peace unless kyiv says they're on board. they are sort of but with a requirement that seems unlikely if russia is not going to participate and be prosecuted. what do you think of this?

where does it tell you where kyiv's head is on this war almost a year in >> this is not about peace this is not about diplomacy. this is about putting russia in the dock this is if you will an appearance of not being against democracy. this war has a long ways to go any time you set serious pre-conditions to peace talks usually it says you are not ready to have them ukraine want it is territory back, economic reparations they want accountability for war crimes vladimir putin is not ready to satisfy them so this war will go on this is simply a way to appear to be in favor of peace rather serious about it. >> ambassador, elise here. you know the situation in ukraine and the players.

if you had to recommend a course forward for the quite what would you recommend as to the strategy do you think that the biden administration isin a strong place now doing as good as could be done under situations how would you tweak the policy >> i would tweak the policy in the following way. i would allow the ukrainians the w weapons they need to push the russians out of the current. there's long range weapon that is the administration is not willing to give the ukrainians other weapons to defend themselves against the air attacks. only thing they can do is attack undefended income so they are cold and thirsty and freezing in the winter

this is the only way the russians to go allow them to have the air defense and the weapons they need to go deep into the russian occupied part of ukraine and then push them out they need things they don't have which are tanks and aircraft >> richard haas, heilemann heard. you echo my reaction to this peace summit notion with a poison pill in the middle of it and it is -- there's the fact that there's not going to be a peace summit of any meaningful kind suggests -- neither side will negotiate suggests that someone will win eventually. a year in, how long can this go

on i mean, is this a thing to be a years long low grade conflict orr where if given the success of ukraine if they can get through the winter they can win the war within the next calendar year >> i don't think anyone will win it in 2023 this war in some ways going on for eight years already. that's when russia moved against crimea i don't think they have the military capability to defeat the other. i think the war continues probably at a lower level intensify for sometime and my guess is it only stops when putin decides it is less costly to do -- remember senator akin declaring victory in vietnam it is bet every to declare victory than face a total loss

maybe. until putin is not in power. i think the war goes on for years and becomes the back group to europe for a long time. sorry to be so pessimistic but i think that's the cold reality. we'll talk to the mayor of buffalo, new york, after several feet of snow is dropped across the city "morning joe" is back in a moment i'd like to thank our sponsor liberty mutual. they customize your car insurance, so you only pay for what you need. contestants ready? go! only pay for what you need. jingle: liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty.

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china is set to drop covid quarantine requirements for travelers arriving in the country starting next month. that's seen as a major step toward china fully reopening its borders to the rest of the world after nearly three years china's national health commission said yesterday travelers will only be required

to show a negative covid test obtained 48 hours before arriving currently, travellers are subject to five days in hotel quarantine and three days of self-isolation at home chinese officials also say restrictions on airlines over the number of international flights and passenger capacity will also be lifted. the changes are part of a broader move by the government to end what's left of its zero-covid policy, which was abruptly abandoned earlier this month following nationwide protests over its social and economic challenges. another china story we're following, the white house is responding after china's military moved fighter jets and ships toward taiwan. a statement from a white house national security council spokesman reads in part, "the united states is concerned by the people's republic of china's provocative military activity near taiwan which undermines regional peace and stability."

over 07 chinese warplanes were detected flying around taiwan and seven naval vessels in the waters as well a chinese military spokesman said in an online statement that sunday's joint combat readiness patrol and live firing drill was a response to escalating collusion and provocation by the u.s. and taiwan though he didn't elaborate. let's bring in former supreme allied commander of nato, retired four-star naval admiral james stavridis, chief international analyst for nbc news admiral stavridis, always good to see you let's get your reaction to this drill from china, their claims of u.s. provocation. >> yeah. >> there's been a lot of talk that xi jinping is eyeing taiwan, believes it should be part of china. what did this step tell you? is he taking another move toward -- down that path >> i think there are three things at play here. one, you spoke of it a moment ago, jonathan, end of the covid

policy that's good news for the global economy, good news generally within china, but there's going to be bad news there's going to be a lot of deaths as a result of that the chinese population largely unvaccinated, poor vaccines to begin with, so what does xi jinping want to do, he wants to distract the internal population from those problems. so that's point one. point two, xi consolidated power completely in october. he now is in a position to simply turn the whole ship, if you'll allow me a nautical metaphor, all the way back around on covid. and i think thirdly he is watching the u.s./washington, d.c., spending bills, which are putting out a lot of -- they used the word -- collusion, read: arms transfer, arms sales, advance technology training.

i think those three factors have come together to up the ante for the chinese to do this kind of aggressive fairly provacative set of moves in the taiwan strait i'll close with this -- i don't see it as a precursor to a sudden military move on taiwan that would be a huge mistake for beijing. i think xi knows that quite well >> admiral, good morning given what you laid out as clearly as you often do, what should be the biden administration's response to what china has done and is continuing to do >> great to see you, professor first and foremost, what the biden administration should do is watch what's happening in ukraine and learn the lessons. and i think the lessons we're seeing already are get there early, get the equipment moving, provide the training, encourage in this case the taiwanese to make the commitment to defend themselves another story kind of bubbling

along this morning is that taiwan has just raised the length of time for mandatory conscription, a draft, used to be four months, now it's going to be a year minimum for these young men and women. and as a result, they're preparing, they should be in the international marketplace, they're a very rich country, maybe the 20th largest economy in the world, stand-alone, they can afford the weapons systems they need. we have to facilitate that process. so i think the lesson for the biden administration, look at ukraine, get the equipment, the training in place. eddie, that creates deterrence that avoids war. that's the path the biden administration is on it's a smart path. coming up, we'll get a live report from kyiv as ukraine's foreign minister voices hope for peace talks early next year.

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los angeles, california. welcome to the fourth hour of "morning joe" on this tuesday, december 27th. it is 9:00 a.m. on the east coast, 6:00 a.m. out west. i'm jonathan lemire alongside elise jordan and eddie glaude jr joe, mika, and willie all have the morning off. we've got a lot to get to this hour, including how decr