coming from the former head of the d.c. national guard, a man now house sergeant-at-arms is pretty remarkable, and really makes you recognize just what an odd response it was, and that the capitol wasn't as prepared as it would have been had there been a different set of circumstances in place. >> yeah. key details that continue to be released by the january 6th committee. we'll see if any other additional ones come out in these last few days of 2022 or into 2023. nbc's ryan riley, thank you. and thank you for getting up "way too early" with us on this wednesday morning. "morning joe" starts right now. this is, i think, one of the biggest concern, congressman-elected, that you don't really seem to be taking this seriously. apologized said you made mistakes but outright lied. a lie is not embellishment on a resume. you said you worked for

citigroup and goldman sachs, no record. graduated from universities, no record of that. blatant lies and calls into question how your constituents and the american people can believe anything you may say when you are standing on the floor of the house of representatives supposedly fighting for them? that's the real issue here. >> well, look, and i agree with what you're saying, and as i stated and i continue, we can debate my resume and how i worked with firms such as goldman -- >> is it debatable or just false? is it debatable or just false? >> it's not false at all. it's debatable. >> congressman-elect santos given you a lot of time. i think the time owed is to the people of new york. it 3rd. it's hard to imagine how they could possibly trust your explanations when you're not even willing to admit the depth of your deception to them. thank you so much for being here and joining us. >> thank you, tulsi.

congressman-elect george santos confronted for lying about his resume by tulsi gabbard? more from that well-deserved but unexpected grilling. plus, holiday travel misery continues for thousands across the country as southwest airlines struggles to bounce back from delays and cancellations. transportation secretary pete buttigieg now speaking outing about how he expects the airline to make good while vowing to hold the company accountable. meanwhile, parts of new york are still trying to recover from a storm that caused these major disruptions. the driving ban in buffalo remains in effect amid ongoing efforts to clear the streets. the latest from there. plus, the supreme court blocks the biden administration from ending the covid era policy that allowed officials to turn away migrants at the border. we'll explain what this means for the ongoing immigration crisis. good morning and welcome to "morning joe."

it's wednesday december 28th. i'm jonathan lemire alongside the bbc's katty kay in for joe, willie and mika, and joining us, nbc news national affairs editor and host of a podcast, john heilemann. susan page is with us and christina greer. katty, start with the storm. the death toll continues to rise. americans continue to be stranded. >> yeah. by the way, all of those introductions were absolutely correct. there was no resume embellishment even for jon heilemann there. the troubles continue for southwest airlines and its passengers this morning. more than 2,500 additional flights expected to be canceled today again and the airlines says it could take days more to restore normal operations's more than 8,000 canceled flights since monday. southwest's ceo jordan says the

airline has been unable to get flight crews where they need to be compounding the effects of the bad weather. in an interview on "nbc nightly news" last night, transportation secretary pete buttigieg demanded they take care of their travelers and employees. >> they told me they would go above and beyond i'm holding them accountable for doing that. >> does that mean compensation? financial compensation? >> absolutely. first of all, at a minimum, there needs to be cash refunds for the canceled flights, and they need to be taking care of passengers where they got stuck with meals, hotel compensation. now, they've put up a website to get those kinds of requests in. again, we're hearing from a lot of passenger whose haven't been able to get to anybody on the phone. so i'm looking to the airline to make sure, not just that they're meeting the bare minimum of legal requirements but taking care of passengers stuck and in many cases stuck without an end

in sight. >> doesn't seem to be they're been doing so far and the department of trepgs iof transp issued a statement, southwest will be held accountable if it fails. southwest said fully staffed the and prepared for the holiday weekend when the severe weather swept across the continent saying forced daily changes of unprecedent changes to our flight schedule and the teams used to recover the airline remain at capacity. i'm not sure exactly what that means. the company acknowledged the current situation is "unacceptable" and "we recognize falling short and sincerely apologize." members of the senate commerce committee calling on southwest to acknowledge clearly issues were caused by internal system failure and not weather, since weather cancellations do not require compensation. as for the winter storm, the death toll that continues to

rise, erie county, new york, reported three additional deaths yesterday bringing the total to 31 people. in buffalo, the mayor is now saying crews are working to restore power to just under 2,000 city residents down from 20,000 at the height of the storm. the city is still under a driving ban, because crews are continuing to plow streets with their focus on creating paths for ambulances, police, rescue vehicles and's medical workers. helping to clear the roads, state police begun using a device called a rook to lift cars stuck and blocking driveways. because of those blocked streets some officers in the city have had to resort to conducting rescue efforts on snowmobiles. now the latest concern, a forecast of rain and warmer temperatures later in the week could elevate the risk of major flooding across the region, as the snow melts. you think that warm weather would be welcome, but watch out for that flooding. >> yeah. john heilemann, we know airlines

have had trouble bouncing back from the weather, and had travel snafus before pshgsbefore, majo seen this before. this is one particular airline that has fallen down on the job and it's a test of the transportation secretary here, too, to press them and hold them accountable. right now seeing scenes, days later. people stranded in airports across the country. footage from o'hare airport in chicago last night. thousands upon thousands of bags justice stranded there. >> i want to say the upside for pete buttigieg is much smaller than the down side at southwest airlines. all due respect to the transportation secretary but there are thousands and thousands of customers from southwest who are going to take it out on southwest. i personally, thee different people, never fly this airline again. southwest has a strange core of, you know, hard-core devotees and others who don't want to ever

get on that airline. the people who were hard-core devotees, loyal for a long time. you know, every airline, every transportation system, was hit by this storm. as you just said a second ago, there's no other airline that experienced the kind of disproportionate that southwest did and so devastating at such a key time for people trying for the first time in a couple year, haven't been home from christmas since the pandemic started. people stuck. the future of this company in terms of what's happening with share price, customer base, this could be a devastating blow to the airline. >> really in doubt. southwest not the only one attempting to do damage control in the last 24 hours, because we're now less than a week away from a new congressional term and house leadership, still silent over what, if anything, they will do about, you know who, congressman-elect george santos. the incoming lawmaker admitted earlier this week to deliberately lying about several key details of his background,

including education, work history and even personal life. that's all. just all of it. even without a word from leadership many on the right calling for a response themselves. republican jewish coalition slammed santos in a statement the group's ceo writes this -- he deceived us and misrepresented his heritage. in public comments and to us personally he previously claimed to be jewish. fellow republican new york congressman-elect veteran nick lalota a neef man who campaigned on restoring accountability and integrity to our government, i believe a full investigation by the house ethics committee and it if required law enforcement is required also, deeply disappointed in mr. santos and expected more than just a blanket apology. the damage his lies caused many people especially those impacted by the holocaust are profound.

however, he stopped short of calling for santos to resign. trump adviser jason miller went all the way. in a social media post simply wrote this -- get rid of this loser. santos appeared on fox news yesterday in an interview with fill-in host former democratic congresswoman tulsi gabbard repeatedly called him out for his lies. >> what does the word "integrity" mean to you? >> well, tulsi, thank you for having me. you know, to answer your question, integrity is very important, and like i said to the "new york post," embellishing a resume was a mistake. >> what does it mean? because the meaning of the word actually matters in practice. >> of course. it means to carry yourself in an honorable way, and i made a mistake and i think humans are flawed and we all make mistake, tulsi. >> the thing is, congressman-elect, integrity means, yes, carrying yourself with honor, but it means telling the truth.

being a person of integrity. >> of course. >> and i were one one of the 3rd district and be finding out all these lies you told, not just one little lie or embellishment, these are blatant lies. my question, do you have no shame? no shame in the people you are now asking to trust and be their voice for them, their families and their kids in washington? >> tulsi, i can say the same thing about the democrats and the party. look at joe biden. joe biden's been lying to the american people for 40 years. he's president of the united states. democrats who resoundly support him do they have no shame? >> are you jewish? we've got a letter that your campaign sent out earlier this year reads at follows -- as a proud american jew i've been to israel numerous times for business and leisurely trips. you said in that letter that you

were "a proud american jew". how do you explain that? >> my heritage a jewish, always identified as jewish, raised a practicing catholic. i think i've gone through this mop not being raise add practicing jew always joked with friends in circle jew-ish. >> he did not do well with tulsi gabbard. santos apologized in another interview admitted to embellishing, you know, all of his resume. nbc news reached out to santos for a statement. nothing there. if republicans forced him to resign it would prompt a special election in the swing district he flipped which would be risky for the gop's very thin house majority. santos also pledged to vote for republican leader kevin mccarthy, house speaker.

a vote mccarthy will need next week and seems to me that's the crux of this. we can make fun of george santos. he's not jewish, he's jew-ish and basically made up everything about his past, or just about everything in his pace past, but there hasn't been any publication from the republican leadership. remained silent. certainly looks like he's on track to take his seat and that's in large part, seems to me, because kevin mccarthy needs to count on his vote. >> absolutely, john. i mean, the fact that republicans will have a lot of hammering but no punishment at all for george santos. the fact they aren't calling for his resignation let's us know they want that slim majority in the house and make a divided government. no policies coming from the republican party. lots of hunter biden, lots of hillary clinton retreads, but they don't want to risk, as you said, possibly turning this into a special election and losing what was a democratic seat

before george santos was narrowly elected just this past november. >> susan page, heilemann here. as a fellow journal-ist in long standing, you have sharp eyes and sharp ears. the thing i'm noticing now about santos, only been on an apology tour a couple days and getting prickly about it. you hear him say, i've discussed this already, tulsi, and -- and the people can pick at me. in usually an aside, somebody who's trying to dig themselves out of a hole, they are about to either dig deeper or completely unravel when they early in the apology tour start to try to play the victim in the apology tour? always to me, early warning sign for candidate implosion ahead. >> you know, reminds me of southwest airlines. right? crisis management has a few basic rules. the first is, say you're sorry. make it right. promise it won't happen again. i'm not sure either of these

entities, this congressman-elect or the airline has fully digested what it is they need to do to get it right with their customers or their voters. maybe he's got some time to do that. it's hard to force a member of congress to resign if he or she doesn't want to. house republicans have been pretty tolerant of questionable behavior by their members, including those who participated in the january 6th assault on our democracy. so i would not hold my breath waiting for something to happen to force george santos out. i will say it is hard to remember another new member of congress who has had a rockier start than he has. >> digging the seat officially. this guy -- >> already at risk next time around. >> seriously. >> katty, george santos is responsible for his own lies but plenty of fault to go around and, yes, democratic opposition efforts should be blamed for missing this. some of the media blamed for

missing this, but right now it seems like a lot of this should spawn squarely on republicans in power who should be blamed for turning a blind eye. some reports that some of them even knew a little about this before it exploded into public view in the last week. they certainly know about it now, and they're remaining silent. >> yeah. a bunch of flaws in the system. exposed them. hasn't it? why wasn't this uncovered during the campaign? why is it so difficult, in fact, impossible to get rid of something running under false pretenses? a bunch of people vote for him in long island, liked the fact he went to baruch and had a bachelor's degree and the fact he was jewish and might be the reason they voted for him and now those reasons are null and void yet still no mechanism for getting rid of this person, because he ran on basically a lie. i think we are in an era where lying in politics has become okay. increasingly so over the last

few years, and this is the latest indication of that, and there doesn't seem to be very much that the voting public can do about it. i think that is something, that's the bigger issue what we should be looking at here. had will get in. as you say, kevin mccarthy wants his vote. that's purely cynical. he wants him there and will seat him, and let's see if there's some kind of ethics investigation into him. talking investigations, the house committee investigating january 6th released another new batch of interview transcripts including former white house aide cassidy hutchison's remaining testimony. according to those transcripts humpsen told the committee she saw former chief of staff mark meadows burning documents in his office fireplace about a dozen times between december of 2020 and january of 2021. politico previously reported that meadow had burned papers in his office after a meeting with a republican congressman scott perry, who was working to challenge the 2020 election

results. the committee also released a transcript of former labor secretary eugene scalia. according to his transcript, scalia told the committee he called former attorney general bill barr shortly after the january 6th capitol attack and barr advised him to resign from the trump administration. barr already stepped down from his post in december 2020. asked why he declined to take barr's advice scalia told the committee he thought trying to work within the administration to steady the ship would have greater value than resigning. something we've heard many times before. now, joining us on these political investigations reporter for the guardian hugo. what struck you most about, we've seen a lot of cassidy hutchison's transcripts before. what struck you most what you heard from transcripts released

yesterday? >> hutchison transcript interesting. three things stood out to me personally. first, the fact meadows was burning documents in his fireplace. now hutchison couldn't elaborate or confirm any of the details of the kinds of documents he was burning, and i'm not sure that's something even the doj can probably corroborate but interesting think about the timin hutchinson testified one of these snts when perry was actually in the chief of staff's office. talking about election issues, talking about the vice president's role on january 6th and certainly circle evidence, that seems to be very damns. two other things that stood out to me that hutchinson was in the room for part of trump's call to georgia secretary of state brad raffensperger and she seemed to notice how the white house counsels were quite concerned after that call, and as we have since found out, doj is investigating that call. the georgia district attorney is

investigating that call, and one of the concerns for the white house counsel was exactly what was being discussed. so i thought that was a really big deal. >> hugo, sticking with you a second. think about the transcripts that came out over the course of the last almost a week and still more to come. so far what do you think the revelation is that you're seeing in these transcripts that has been the most material? not just most entertaining or tittling, but the most material potentially to the doj's investigations going forward, and what are the transcripts that are outstanding you're most looking forward to getting your hands on, like in the weeks ahead? >> to me, you know, having looked at this investigation for 16 months, i've covered january 6th since start of the committee's investigation. what's really interesting has been what the committee couldn't get, and what witnesses were reluctant to talk about, and if you go through the transcripts, even latest that came out yesterday, various hints and

various moments when witnesses become really resistant to talking about certain events. for instance, ali alexander, who is senior, a key linchpin among several of the january 6th organizers because he had connections to roger stone had connections to proud boys, who in turn had connections to oath keepers and those groups storming the capitol, there is a text that alexander sends january 5 when he says, trump at end of the speech is going to order us to go to the capitol. he could not apparently remember how he came to learn of that investigation. if i'm the justice department trying to figure out exactly how these thread unravels, that's what i want to get. ali alexander in front of a grand jury and probe him how he came to have that knowledge and why so reluctant to tell the committee. >> political investigations reporter for "the guardian." always terrific reporting you bring to the table. susan page, one of the rules of politics, i find spotted

burning documents, probably not great. but i want to tell you, if you could take it to a broader point here. we've documented extensively just how bad the trump 2024 campaign has begun, seemingly a terrible headline every day and see his poll numbers slip, more and more republicans wondering if the party should go in another direction. what do you think of the ongoing drips and drabs of the january 6th? as much a baked-in issue for a lot of hard-core republicans, those willing to give trump a try on certain things and one revelation after another, doesn't this contribute to a trump fatigue that may cause some to want to look elsewhere? >> yeah. we've seen that already in some of the, some of the polling now. of course, let's not underestimate donald trump once again as we have in the past. he has real political skills. he's demonstrated that he has a core support that any politician would like to have, and yet we see an appetite among some of

those core supporters for someone who would pursue trump policies but not be trump, and i think that it helps explain the appeal of ron desantis in florida. you know, he's not particularly well known for all the details across the country. not somebody who's been vetted yet politically, but we see in our poll this month that by double digits republicans tell us they would like ron desantis over donald trump as their nominee next time around. so i think there is some trump fatigue, and, boy, if you think there's fatigue from issuance of a congressional report that donald trump has portrayed as a political witch-hunt wait until and if we see indictments come from the department of justice investigation. >> so christina, you're a professor, and we are so close to this, day in day out

revelations, but could you fast-forward a bit. ten years from now teaching a class about this moment, january 6th in particular, from that perspective, from that, from the lens of history, how do you tell your students about what we're seeing day in and day out, something so unprecedented, in the history of the presidency? >> oh, gosh, jonathan. yeah, it's been a heavy lift for the last few years. i think we have to back up. i always start with intention of the framers. why it is that article 1 is the legislative branch and article 2 executive branch and not until 3 judicial branch. supposed to be equal branches yet a reason why they started conversations about the legislative branch and we have to really look at how parties have behaved in this moment. there's still so many sitting republican members of congress who supported the insurrection of january 6th. supported these riots in our capitol and supported the behavior of the former president donald trump.

so as i walk through this in ten years, i'm going to have to lay out the intent of the framers, what we thought was, you know, some of the most eregiseregis - egregious attack and move forward to january 6th and i'm sure question why so many americans were fine with swastikas being flown in the capitol. confederate flags flown in the capitol. asking questions, why weren't these people arrested en masse? what would it have looked like if these people were african american or latinos or muslims? why is it that these -- these men were able, men and women, excuse me, were able to just go back to their homes once they, you know, killed police officers and threatened other law enforcement? i mean, i don't think that half of this country fully understands just how close we came to losing the democratic

principles that we rely on so severely. so the next decade, i -- i can't foresee the future but i know that this is going to be a unit where we're going to have to spend, i'm going to have to spend some time literally walking through how close we came to losing our democracy and the fact that a president was at the helm at the time that was aiding and abetting these insurrectionists. my students right now are scratching their heads and i know in the future they're going to be very confused how this was able to happen. >> trigger real questions among your students and may not like all the answers. christina greer, thank you so much for joining us this morning. still ahead here on "morning joe," the supreme court keeps in place the pandemic era immigration policy known as title 42. we'll dig into that of the

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3:30, wow, early, on the west coast. the house ways and means committee is planning to release six years' worth of president trump's tax returns this friday. the committee voted along party lines last week to make those tax returns public. since then staffers working to redact any sensitive personal information, such as social security numbers, from those documents. the 39-page report released last week by the joint committee on taxation showed trump paid only $750 in both 2016 and 2017, and paid nothing at all in 2020.

that is one way to deal with tax returns. and rejecting katie holmes request to sanction gubernatorial candidate kari lake, she file add lawsuit alleging voter fraud. despite a lack of evidence, which was rejected over the weekend. seeking sanctions in response to that lawsuit, which they called groundless. the judge disagreed saying that while lake famed to meet the burden of proof in her own lawsuit it doesn't equate to her claims being "groundless and presented in bad faith." and meanwhile, a judge sentenced a michigan man to prison for planning a kidnapping of governor gretchen whitmer. this happened back in august. prosecutors asked for a life sentence arguing an extremist movement.

at trials earlier in the year prosecutors shoered recordings and posts calling the governor a tyrant and railing against her covid restrictions. writing in part. adam fox was an unemployed vacuum repairman venting frustrations on social media but abiding by the state of michigan laws indicating his client would appeal the conviction. see how that goes. coming up, the latest from the war in ukraine as fighting intensifies in the eastern part of the country. russia fortifying its front lines, as ukrainian forces try to recapture key cities seized during the invasion, and all of that as the kremlin leverages its oil supply with a ban on exports to countries that support western sanctions. "morning joe" will be right back. e right back.

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the vatican is asking for prayers for retired pope

benedict xvi saying his health worsened in the last few hours. the statement was issued early this morning. the vatican says that pope francis went to visit his 95-year-old predecessor who lives in a monastery on the grounds of the vatican. in 2013 benedict became the first pope to retire in 600 years. we when follow his health and bring you any updates. meanwhile, russian president vladimir putin issued an executive order banning russian oiler exports to any countries that agreed to the western price cap that was put in place earlier this month. according to the kremlin's order the ban starts february 1st and remains in effect until july. the rules imposed by g7 nations and the european union capped russian oil at $60 a barrel. nations that sell russian oil above the price cap can lose access to essential services for oil shipments across international waters. that comes as heavy fighting has reintensified in eastern ukraine

with russia deploying war tanks and armered vehicles to the front lines. ukraine officials say russian forces have ramped up bombing the city of kherson. at least 33 reports reportedly fired within 23 hours on civilian targets, including a maternity hospital. this comes as russia pushes in on the city of bakhmut, while ukraine works to retake parts of the luhansk region that russia took over earlier. joining us, working from the treasury department, and we thank you for being here. start to hear your reaction where things stand. we had president zelenskyy in washington last week to mark the 300th day of this conflict, which though fighting picked up on the front lines largely turned into almost russian terror strikes on civilian targets. when do you think things stand here as winter really settles in

and makes some of the fighting really difficult? >> well, you know, you hit the nail on the head saying "terror strikes" because russians are bombarding across ukraine the infrastructure in particular. leaving ukraine cold and dark, and it's a part of an effort to demoralize ukrainians but hasn't demoralized them. now, it's a difficult tactic because for ukraine while very, they're engaged, the military remains strong, still pushing back and russia continues to retreat, russia is responding by more bombardments, and if you look at the long term, what i always like to do, look at it from the 60,000 foot level. all of this is not sustainable and both in terms how long russia's going to do this, how long the ukraine military will remain in high spirts, how much they can take of this abuse and torture, the ukrainians, and also how much support the united states and europeans can continue to give ukraine when it

comes to their military. >> just cold and dark, talking about ukraine? talking about lemire's soul. no. >> tough comparison. >> talking about ukraine and under russian assault. so i totally agree. i think the common sense view, it's unsustainable. this can't go on. both sides are dug in, and given where ukraine ns, non-negotiables and russia non-negotiables, this could go on years. might not be sustainable but could go on for years in an ugly stalemate. do you see another way out? >> it could go on for years easily. a lot of conflicts like this drag on for years. especially when the international community doesn't pressure enough to move the sides to the negotiating table. i handled syria at the white house, the first two years of the syrian crisis and i'm a big believer letting any kinds of wars of this kind drag on this way only risks escalation,

spreading further atrocities. some of these atrocities are horrific happening in ukraine and they can only get worse. a lot of tools in russia's toolbox they haven't used yet. tactical nuclear weapons, biochemical weapons. a report in the "washington post" abducted 11,000 children from ukraine to ship them to russia to brainwash them. it's an attempt at cleansing. right? this could get even worse. something that when i handled syria we said, no. can't get worse, and it did. so the thing i would say to that is that, yes, it could go on for years, but we have with our international partners, really have to lay pressure on when it comes to compromise and nobody likes to hear that word, but all wars end in a peace deal, if they don't they drag on in perpetuity like north and south korea. you don't want a situation like this, especially dealing with russia and democracy. >> ukraine laid out terms for potential a peace summit that seemed like non-starters.

russians aren't even invited to what happened at the u.n. in february. talk about the economics of this. mentioned the oil cap and russia's response. they've managed, though, because of deals with other neighboring countries, india, china, et cetera, to keep that war machine well funded? >> yes. when the oil sanctions were imposed on russia's oil, there was a lot of hope that that would be that would be not a silver bullet but really hit them hard, and it hit a little bit, as it did a lot of these, the most successful sanctions remarks seims, like those against iran. the oil sanctions are what brought iran to the negotiating table, but in this instance russia was quickly able to sell oil to china, india and turkey at a discountied price, and continued to do that, they continue to the do that. they're selling that oil between $65 and $70. when they came up with a $80 price tag, lower than they're

getting it for, high enough to incentivize to continue producing it so oil remain on the market to stabilize oil prices around the world. is it going to work? you know, so far it hasn't shown -- there's been -- it's a push and pull. some signs that it's of -- of -- of countries willing to look into this. that aren't part of the g7, but without something -- without something threatening them, like secondary sanctions, how the iran oil sanctions worked they're not incentivized to stick to this rule. india's only importing more and more as weeks go on. so -- >> you mentioned how russia still has a lot of tools in its toolbox militarily and things it hasn't used, biochemicals, nukes, et cetera but looks stretched. azerbaijanis blockaded a road that would disrupt russia from its ally, disconnect russia from his ally armenia and russians don't seem to be able to do

anything about it. looks like you have countries around the region, hold on a second. russia is distracted. only enough resources to meddle in ukraine, perhaps we can do something we wanted to do perhaps russia couldn't if they weren't in ukraine at the moment? >> glaude mentioned this. really important crisis to keep our eyes on. first, they're pursuing this because of the russian/ukraine conflict because russia is distracted by the ukraine war. not coming to defense of armenia, russian ally. probably inspired watching a dictaor attack its neighbor, and in general, russian peacekeepers are weakened and not tanked, not fulfilling their task keeping that core open and protecting the armenia-held areas there. this crisis highlights that russia's role as a power broker in that region is weakened and

also, by the way, highlights how russia's own allies are turning against russia. for example, armenian president is questioning now russia's role as peacekeepers in the region. why this matters so much, by the way, aside from the fact it's causing a humanitarian crisis and could re-ignite violence there is the fact we in the united states give millions in aid to azerbaijanazerbaijan's m. when you give security aid to a wealthy country like azerbaijan it frees up the budget to use their weapons and other military on other nefarious behavior like offensive actions towards armenians and armenia. >> seems like the kremlin, worried about projection of influence in the region. putin more and more out there. seeing him suddenly after weeks in hiding. he traveled to belarus as opposed to having the president come to him. perhaps another sign of how things changed a little in the

area. thank you so much for joining us this morning. we greatly appreciate it. still ahead, what americans say they want in a "perfect president." we'll dig in to some interesting numbers from "usa today." plus, there is growing concern this morning over the health of miami dolphins quarterback tua tagovailoa amid criticism over the quarterback's head injuries. the controversy in the nfl, next on "morning joe." switched to dovato. dovato is for some adults who are starting hiv-1 treatment or replacing their current hiv-1 regimen. detect this: no other complete hiv pill uses fewer medicines to help keep you undetectable than dovato. detect this: most hiv pills contain 3 or 4 medicines. dovato is as effective with just 2.

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after my car accident, ♪ call owondnder whahatmy c cas. eight million ♪ so i called the barnes firm. i'm rich barnes. youour cidedentase e woh than insurance offered? call the barnes firm now to find out. yoyou ght t beurprpris welcome back. 9 minutes before the hour. reagan national airport. i hope southwest doesn't fly out of there -- susan page, our friend, the washington bureau chief at "usa today" brings with her an interesting poll this morning from "usa today," and suffolk university. what americans want in a so-called perfect president.

we're going to go through some of this now, and susan, we've seen in recent elections, candidates for the first female president of the united states and also now our incumbent president just turned 80. already oldest president to ever serve and expectation he will seek another term and could be 86 at end of it. what is your poll showing us how americans feel about candidates' gender and age? >> so first of all, specify you don't -- it's not like ordering a car. you can't actually specify everything you want in a presidential candidate but you do see red flags, maybe, for joe biden, for instance. we asked 1,000 people what's the ideal age for a president? four people said 80 or older. that is not a very big base for going to elders for the presidential -- >> i wonder -- >> -- in the white house. people really like, when you think about age, people think

middle age is right. 51 to 65. younger people, people who are under 35 preferred people who were a little younger, 35 to 50. that's the sweet spot when it comes to age. when it comes to gender, 55% of americans volunteered that gender doesn't matter. that would be news to hillary clinton and other women who have run for president, but, anyway, that's what people said, but when you talk to republicans, 50% of republicans say i prefer a male president. only 2% of republicans prefer a female president. that is a, i think, presents a challenge for somebody like, say, nikki haley. >> susan, as you said a secretary ago, can't just dial up the candidate, build your frankenstein monster, but what you're pointing at there is a little bit of a, something about the nature of these kinds of polls. they're kind of abstract, asking people to imagine's what we know about presidential politics you see the candidate, your for this candidate or that candidate not just for attributes and one of

the things that highlights this, or maybe doesn't, curious what you think about both of these questions. the poll asked about business experience, which ideal president will a business person, yes or no. 56% say, yes. ideal president would be a business person. second, service experience. ideal president served in the military, yes or no. 46% say yes. far as i know, susan, correct me, when's the last time we had a business person president? and the last president with military service would be george herbert walker bush, more than 30 years ago. so are people just saying these things as attributes they like? or is this a market opportunity for someone to come forward who they actually voters would actually love to see someone with these attributes but just haven't had a chance to vote for them? >> i would say donald trump would present himself as a business person who got elected. i know you had forgotten about

him, but people look at a mix when trying to decide who to vote for. we found some partisan disparities. republicans are much more likely to like someone with business experience. democrats a little more leery of that. and we found that democrats liked senators and republicans liked governors, when talking about political experience. we think this must mean because republicans are kind of famously skeptical of all things washington. that's why they prefer governors over senators. governors do pretty well, though, and i guess we found in our politics, at least when it comes to getting the nomination, being a governor has been a pretty good trait for contenders, i was going to say, i did not forget about donald trump but put him in the category of tv reality star grifter so i didn't think it applied to him. >> glad the idea some sort of experience is back in favor again.

you've got, on compromise. majority felt compromise standing on principle doesn't surprise me that much, susan, but dig into a gender question you had, because 55% of americans say that it doesn't matter what gender the president is, but of those who do care what the gender the president would be, more than 2-1 still prefer a man? >> that's right. i think still a predisposition think of the oval office at male territory. never had a female president and for a lot of americans that's just fine with them, but you know where you find the, the least predisposition? to having a male president, the more sense of the gender doesn't matter, with young people. with voters under 35, plurality say -- no. majority say doesn't matter. volunteered that was highest of all age group, and many of the other categories.

young people are the least inclined to say that gender matters when it comes to the presidency. one other thing that younger people are predisposed, plurality of voter under 35 want someone not a member of either political party. may not be realistic but showed potential for a third party or more independent-minded candidates down the road as these voters get older. >> fascinating stuff. one more, what region would the presidential come from? vast majority, doesn't matter. heartland, and put your dreams on hold. thank you for joining us this morning. when we come back, the latest on the southwest airlines destruction as transportation secretary pete buttigieg warns the company against abandoning its passengers. plus, the must-read opinion

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the bbc's katty kay as well as nbc, and msnbc news affairs analyst john heilemann and joe and mika have the morning off. and chaos continuing at airports nationwide, thousands of flights canceled in the wake of a historic storm. overwhelming majority coming from just one airline. nbc news correspondent blayne alexander has more. >> reporter: at airport after art -- >> now i know why there's a line. my flight was canceled. >> reporter: this is the picture of an unprecedented travel nightmare. >> here at the airport all day. >> reporter: with thousands of flights canceled again more than 80% of them due to one airline. while major carriers ligs delta, jetblue and american together had fewer than 200 cancellations, southwest had to cancel more than 2,600 flights. >> look at this mess. everybody over whoer is pissed. >> i went to other -- airlines, and everybody's booked up.

everybody's booked. i can't get out. >> reporter: southwest ceo releasing this statement -- >> we're doing everything we can to return to a normal operation, and, please, also hear that i'm truly sorry. large numbers of scheduled flights simultaneously froze as record-bitter cold brought challenges for all airlines. >> reporter: but the department of transportation is concerned about what it calls an unacceptable rate of cancellations and looking into whether these were within the airline's control and southwest acknowledged the situation as unacceptable. in part because winter weather impacted two major hubs, but southwest points to the airline using out of date technology to schedule crews. >> we've had flight attendants waiting on hold for 17 hours to get in touch with schedules. it's deplorable. >> reporter: one ripple effect compounding the chaos, baggage piling up. >> travelers who manage to catch

a southwest flight have another challenge upon arrival of epic proportions, sifting through a sea of luggage here at midway to maybe find their bags. >> we've been in line for two hours. checking all the other flights. >> reporter: this couple started their journey trying to get home to las vegas and to their 2-year-old son after waiting four hours at new york's laguardia airport. >> some lady walked through with southwest said, hey, 19 tickets to get to atlanta on a bus. anybody want to go on a bus ride? >> 13-hour bus ride to get to atlanta. >> reporter: they hopped on hoping for better flight options in a different city only to find another line and another frustrating wait. >> in the same situation. we're not special. just trying to get home. >> nbc's blayne alexander with that report. i almost don't know where to begin, katty. people stranded across the

country. luggage abandoned. who knows when you'll see it again and then that poor couple taking a bus tos it atlanta and having the same experience all over again. just stuck there. no way to get home? >> and travel is miserable anyway. to have this hit them. i just don't think southwest has really answered the question we've they've been hit and other airlines wasn't. weather bad for everybody, holidays tough for everybody yet not hearing same from american, delta, united. spirit survived all of this, they seemed to have survived all this. the only interesting thing in the report was that technology is old at south west and there mist be something about the technology they are using to book people and rebook them from canceled flights, means they are getting more messed up than the other airlines. hope buttigieg gets to the bottom. miserable for anybody flying at the moment. and less than a week away,

republican leadership still silent what it will do about george santos. lying about education, work history and even his personal life. even without a word from leadership many on the right are calling for a response themselves. the republican jewish foundation, writing he deceived us and misrepresented his heritage. in public comments and to us personally, he previously claimed to be jewish. fellow republican new york congressman-elect veteran nick lalota responded to the controversy on twitter writing in part, "as a navy man who campaigned on restores accountability and integrity to the our government i believe a full investigation by the house ethics committee and if necessary law enforcement required," and another committee chair said in a statement

yesterday, "deeply disappointed in mr. santos and expected more than just a blanket apology. the damage his lies caused to many people especially those impacted by the holocaust are profound." however, he stopped short of calling for santos to resign. but trump adviser jason miller went all the way in a social media post writing simply, "get rid of this loser." hmm. echoing his former boss. and fox news yesterday in an interview with fill-in host tulsi gabbard, former congresswoman, who called him out for all of those lies. >> what does the word "integrity" mean to you? >> well, tulsi, thank you for having me. you know, to answer your question, integrity is very important, and like i said to the "new york post," embellishment -- >> what does it mean, though? because the meaning of the word actually matters in practice. >> of course. it means to carry yourself in an honorable way, and i made a

mistake, and i think humans are flawed and we all make mistakes, tulsi. >> the thing is, congressman-elect, integrity means, yes, carrying yourself with honor, but it means telling the truth, being a person of integrity and if i were one of those in new york's 3rd district right now, now that the election is over and i'm finding out all of these lies you've told. not just one lie or embellishment, these are blatant lies. my question is, do you have no shame? do you have no shame in the people who are now you're asking to trust you to go and be their voice for them, their families and their kids in washington? >> tulsi, i can say the same thing about the democrats and the party. look at joe biden. joe biden's been lying to the american people for 40 years. he is president of the united states. democrats are resoundly support him, do they have no shame? >> yeah. last i looked up what it was to be a serial liar on this scale, says you have to have a

narcissistic personality disorder. looks what george santos might have, but doesn't like like he'll apologize admitting to embellishes his resume. nbc news reached out to him for a statement, prompting a special election if forced to resign and a special election he flipped and risky for the republican's thin majority and george santos pledged to vote for kevin mccarthy and knows where his bread is buttered. sounds to me like he's getting away with it but something wrong with the system you can lie in front of congress, nobody found out in the process of the election campaign. should have done it in opposition research, and there is no recourse. the voters have put in there two years, looks like he can be there two years? >> in danger right away but will

take his seat, and republicans a lot of whatabism? embellish parts of the resume, no. that comparison doesn't fly. so much -- still so much we don't know about santos. also suggested when he lived in florida four employees killed at the orlando, the pulse nightclub shooting. no idea in that's true. he's supplied no evidence of that and note, katty, you read the rjc statement. maze clear, santos is not welcome to attend any of their events going forward. certainly a clean break they are trying to establish. john heilemann, weigh in. >> can we not expect even this embellishment. the guy, not refuted, he fabricated, said he knew embellished. >> why? >> accused of being fabulousism and making up things on the resume and wants to characterize it as embellishment.

that's if you call yourself an assistant director and turns out assistant to the director. okay, well, assistant director, ah, embellishment. this guy made up working for companies never worked for, associations he never had. his resume mostly a work of fiction on the basis what has been established and i think to katty's point, there is accountability. >> a little ways away, two years. re-election race starts early for this guy and as you said, jon, in danger right off the bat. primary to probably a stiff democratic opponent, but also someone who's this topological. tends to, as we've seen already, turning himself into a victim. well, already answered these questions and i -- already made this -- everybody does this. life is hard and you will make mistakes. dude, that is a guy exhibiting instability in his psyche and

although he may get into office, some of the personality traits coming out here suggest he may have other rocky experiences ahead for himself. >> certainly possible. also shouldn't lose sight of the fact, of course, these are voters in new york state who thought they were electing someone on the basis of one set of facts, and, in fact, very few of them ended up being true. even the matter of his own religious faith. bring in folks to join in this conversation. chief white house correspondent for the "new york times" peter baker is here as well as former aide to house speakers paul ryan and john boehner. welcome to you both. you know republicans and the house. give your analysis what you've seen so far from congressman-elect santos and also the silence from gop leadership. >> yeah. i wouldn't actually be so sure he's going to make it two years. you talked about a lot of the more outlandish things on his bio. one i'm i'm really focused on. financial disclosure.

you have to file that when you run for office. if he ran before, he ran two years ago filing no accounts or assets worth more than $5,000. this time around apparently worth $11 million or $12 million. where did that come from? filing a false financial -- that's a crime. law enforcement may look at this and apparently loaned his committee $700,000 from himself. where did he ge$$700,000? a lot of questions we haven't gotten to the bottom of. house ethics will look at this. we haven't expelled -- only two people i think since the civil war, but that's certainly on the table. usually people are kind of talked into resigning. realize that writing's on the wall, it's not going to work out well for them, but i think all of these things are on the table for him. this is a wild situation. >> peter, he merrick as good point. may have been lack of vetting

for santos before the election, but certainly it's coming now. but i also was struck by how he seems to be in many ways a perfect encapsulation of the republican party under donald trump and the trump era. you and i, of course, covered it for years and still are. seems like lies has had very few consequences for trump while in office. for other republicans trying to emulate him, and santos is now the latest example, including, continuing the parallel, republicans in leadership who know better, who could call out the bad behavior, just like they did with trump, they're holding their tongues. >> yeah. what we've seen in the last few years is that if you are brazen fluff to simply ignore or defy public pressure, if you don't give in to the nature of, you know, the traditional you know, washington view of things, which is when everybody comes after you, say, okay. well, maybe i should step down,

that you might be able to survive. people, in fact, won't calm you out. that people, in fact, won't actually pull the trigger to do something tos for you to resign, not take your seat. brazenness is the core of the realm in recent years. we'll see. a good point about finances now but also a point that there's not a lot of history of congress expelling its own members. i think there is, you know, for all the whatabou itism, making resume enhancement disqualifying. there is enough of that it on both sides, let's not go down the road. this is a more extreme version of it. you don't normally see it as pathologically expansive as this particular case and what makes this so different. >> pathological, a few times mentioned this morning. appropriately so.

staying in the political world. time for a must-reop-eds. mark thiessen ends each year with his list of the ten best and worst things the sitting president did over the course of the year. yesterday he posted his list of the ten best things he says biden did in 2022. his list of ten worst things comes out later today, but focus on the best. read through them. 10, acted to prevent a crippling national rail strike. 9, sending b-52s to australia to counter china. 8, launched a full-court press against china's domestic semiconductor industry. 7, biden signed the first bipartisan gun legislation in decades. 6, he secured extradition of the terrorist charge with bombing pan am flight 103 which killed 190 americans. 5, he kept iran's islamic revolutionary guard corps list

of terrorists, 4, joining nato. 3, biden killed al qaeda leader, 2, defense in taiwan and 1, saved ukraine. also notes biden turned in first -- the best first-term performance of any president since john f. kennedy except for george w. bush after the 9/11 attack. impressive achievement. so john heilemann, a list focused on matters at home and abroad. what did you make of that list of accomplishments? >> look, mark thiessen, most viewers know this. a very conservative guy. to see the fact that a conservative out there, someone with genuine conservatism, used to be considered far right before we had maga republicans could come up with ten things. these are not small things.

mark thiessen knocked off ten. my guess top ten has a few that didn't make the cut significant and some of big deals. ten coming in he didn't like. all good. wait and hear what he has to say. raised the question to me, raises an issue, which is joe biden wants it to have bipartisan success. wanted to basically say, i got things done. republicans could agree with. he's been -- on both domestic and foreign front, he's, he claims to have done 134 things republicans should be able to get behind in acting in good faith. is the mark thiessen list not kind of the proof in the pudding in ways? joe biden could point ta that, not elected republican but genuine conservative like mark thesen, foreign policy, look at this list. things every true principle conservative should be able to get behind. >> yeah. it was notable. you know he's a conservative.

a lot of legislative things actually aren't on the list that were bipartisan. infrastructure bill, c.h.i.p.s bill, a stretch actually getting a lot done. look, you know this. incentives there are not for bipartisanship anymore. incentives there to tear down the other party. we're defined by negative patersonship and consistent and can be proud wa joe biden did. ukraine alone could be the total list. all things done in terms of building international alliances, staving off russia. these are things conservatives talked about for a very long time, and i do think there are some people willing to give him credit for those things. it's not a totally lost two years, if you're republicans, open your eyes to it, that is. >> peter baker, not surprising thiessen left off some of the domestic democratic accomplishments. reconciliation package mentioned joe signed off, climate change

goals. focus on foreign policy. ukraine and a couple on china. undoubtedly significant accomplishment and significant challenges ahead in 2023, both ukraine and china? >> you're right. >> and the beijing. >> conservative, agree with liberals put a different list together. right? climate change, same-sex marriage, codification, other things probably on a democrats' list not on thiessen's list. fine. on foreign policy. you're right. the ukraine thing he doesn't get a lot of public credit for it, because it could have been so much worse. in a bipartisan moment, brandon said, republicans supported all expenditures of american taxpayer dollars to pay for arms for ukrainians and area two parties have largely come together. doesn't knee month criticism of

some of the way thing, handled but broadly speaking, a bipartisan consensus, take away the putin of the far right. gone relatively well for president biden. both supporting and saving to use mark thiessen's word, ukraine same time not expanding or escalating the war to the point we are directly involved ourselves. a high priority for president biden. he doesn't want this to become an american war in a direct sense. we don't know next year will bring that regard. we don't know whether that will continue. going into the new year, the challengeance how to enjoy successes on the ground without taking it to another level. putin using a nuclear weapon, without nato dragged in in some direct combat kind of way, and we have, no guarantee it will continue to go well in that regard, but that's obviously number one priority i think for the foreign policy team at the

white house. >> yeah. challenge for allies, partly cohesion and partly supplies. keep an eye on their own stocks, which are not limitless either. another one president biden will enjoy reading while on vacation. jonah goldberg, a new piece in the "l.a. times" titled "closing out 2022," saddest figure in post-presidential politics writes in part, contrast with nixon's post-presidency is poignant. nixon and exile wrote ten books, quite serious including memoirs. clawed back a reputation as a wise man who dispensed advice to presidents, but that's not the poignant part. nixon surrounded with a loving family. lifelong friends and loyal aides who gave him the sort of stuff politics couldn't. nixon in exile enjoyed support of friends and of his enemies. nixon's struggle complicated because he was complicated. trump's struggle is simple,

because he is simple. all he is, is appetite for fame, power, sex, admiration. short of any interior life and unencumbered by exterior attachments we don'tneed secret tapes to know trump because the real trump is always on display with eyes to see him and finally the sight is becoming wearying even for his fans -- ouch -- up there with that piece real going for trump in a way personal and accurate. painting a very lonely, sad figure down in mar-a-lago who's wealth has just shrunk. >> yeah. and look, jonah goldberg coming from a more position of opinion than reporting, from the piece in the "new york" magazine. olivia's piece paints a picture and jonah makes the, the point, historical point relative to nixon and peter baker, someone

who just along with your wife wrote a very important book about trump's four years in the white house that just came out last year. i advise everybody who wants a full 360 view of trump's time in office, buy peter's book. it is an interesting comparison with nixon. right? a period when nixon was pathetic, as jonah says in that column. eventually over time nixon kind of rehabilitated himself, made himself into a foreign poems mandarin, someone bill clinton could eulogize when he died, speak about achievements and opening to china and other things. the thing with trump, he's who as pathetic as nixon was at his most pathetic isolated sad, doesn't have his own -- probably looking for rebozo, but no real prospect on the horizon trump can write a big book of foreign policy on foreign policy as nixon did and find his way into establishment's good stead.

it's foreboding or foretell as darker future lies ahead for trump than the one that faces nixon postresignation. >> that's exactly right. nixon had his pathologies and shouldn't forget some of the venal, very racist, anti-submit imthings said and did. went back and read a lot of watergate books because of the 50th anniversary reminds how vast and extensive the misconduct really was. always a serious side to nixon. things he really cared about. was a patriot in the most genuine sense of the world. cared about policy things. not only opening of china, detente with the soviet union. at home presided over creation of the epa and signing of the clean water act, clean air act, a serious student of policy, and he cared about ideas and where the country went. his post-presidency

rehabilitating himself, putting himself back in the good graces of history, if nothing else and also a period engaging in ideas and engaged in things he out that the country should do. that is not trump. nothing about that with trump. he's not sitting there offering the country some grand thoughts about where we should go. simply relitigating lis 2020 election, relitigating january 6th, and attacking joe biden and the democrats, and mitch mcconnell and the establish republicans. it's all conflict for trump. no interest in healing. only interest in trump. i think that's the difference between nixon and trump and i think the clem make as sharp contrast there. >> richard nixon may have written lengthy volumes in foreign policy. the books under donald trump's name, a picture book, which i think makes sense. so we have now a few portraits of trump in the wilderness. trump alone. trump, sad figure, but knowing republicans the way you do, is

he going to stay there? or is he, of course, he could chart for a comeback? >> yeah. i listen, and have to think, i don't think donald trump is going to go out with a whimper. he's not one to take all of this laying down. certainly he start add campaign far earlier than a traditional candidate would. obviously, suspicious to stave off investigations or whatever. at some point donald trump is going to turn this back on and get back in our faces. that's the real question. obviously, no one jumped in to actually challenge him yet. ron desantis in the lead. that's very real. a lot of people are tiring of this act, but we've sooner it before. he's taken on a lot of republicans always won. in some way will come out swinging. the question, whether voters find that interesting again. there's a real chance they just do see it as sad. the most recent thing putting out nfts the most pathetic thing

seen. light our hair on but shrugged it's old, tiring and sad, but so many people still like him and when he turns on what they liked about him, that bravado, that "at least he fights" mind-set, it's way to early to say he's done. >> for the record, that trump astronaut remains my favorite. thank you both for joining us this morning. and still ahead on "morning joe," the trump era immigration policy known at title 42 will stay in effect for now. we'll go over what it means for the crisis at the southern border. plus, the latest on the concussion controversy involving miami dolphins quarterback tua tagovailoa. will re be able to return this season. and covid-19, the united states laying restrictions for

visitors from china. we'll take a look what the biden administration is considering. you're watching "morning joe," and we'll be right back. s

game. >> and the rim. [ cheers ] >> a comeback to tie it with one second left! >> the guy is incredible. that play rarely works. luka doncic intentionally missed his free throw before hitting that final shot against the new york knicks last night.

mavs outlast the knicks in overnight 126-121 win and doncic finished with a historic triple-double. first time an nba player posted at least 60 points, 21 rebounds, and 10 assists. >> listen, importantly on this, lemire, a great player. really good. okay? and an asterisk about that. playing against the knicks. >> you're right. doesn't count as an nba record. >> and "new york post" says, unwatchable knicks choke in the final second. the knicks, any scoring record, any offense, trick plays that work, they all, go, okay, yeah, but the knicks. no realty there. >> and knicks a little better. >> a little. very low bar. >> a tough loss, but luka as well as jokic from denver putting up spectacular seasons. switch now to the nfl, and the league's chief medical officer says miami dolphins

quarterback tua tagovailoa did not display any concussion symptoms during sunday's game against the green bay packers. that's dr. alan sills explains why the qb was allowed to continue playing after an apparent blow to the head telling nfl notwork yesterday this, no sirens present. he added the player did not report any symptoms despite being in contact with the medical staff during the game. watching it here, tackled, falls back. >> god. >> in realtime, maybe can't pick it up. particularly watching in slow motion you see him knocked down, watch the back of his head. >> head bounces off the turf. ow! >> that's no good. >> ow! >> one day later tua entered the league's concussion call second time this season sparking real concern about his hit and significant criticism over the team's handling of the matter including nfl hall of famer

shannon sharpe received backlash suggesting the dolphins lied about what looked like a head injury tua suffered against the buffalo bills back in week three occurring four days before the quarterback was carted off the field in a a concussion against the senate bengals. remember, hit. allowed to keep playing. next week took that scary hit against bengals. he showed, like, physically his hands almost locked. a sign of a concussion. scary stuff. what sharpe had to say yesterday. >> amp that hit, 7-13, 80 yards, 62 attempts, and keep failing this man, because now he displayed no symptoms from that point on. remember, in the buffalo game, skip, talking about his back. he has back injuries in off-season, what flared up a what he told them. i don't believe that. i believe spotter, dolphins and nfl are failing tua. if he's not careful, skip, he'll

end his career on a football field. no good for him, or the league. they can say back in buffalo, but that was a concussion. we know that. that's three concussions in span of four months. i'm not a medical expert but i just know that's not very good. >> meanwhile, packers' quarterback aaron rodgers playing in this 18th year in the nfl suggested tua should consider ending his season. >> it's probably time to, to maybe consider shutting it down, when you've had various episodes. i don't know if it's in the thought process. as a competitor that's the last thing you want, but at some point you have to think about your cognitive function later in life and after-effects you might be dealing with. >> it's unclear whether tua will rejoin them for the playoff season. a huge game in new england this weekend. john heilemann, a rarity when aaron rodgers is the voice of reason. secondly, this is a young player, having a pro bowl-type

season, even midway through the season considered maybe an mvp candidate. all secondary, one would hope to his health. >> you know, aaron rodgers puts it mildly. at some point, the key word is reason. thinking about cognitive function after football. tua will have a life, hopefully, after his football career. whether it ends tomorrowor in the future. where is someone in this picture who cares about his young man and his future on planet earth? his football career, at the most, greatest football career ever might play another decade, basically. right? average quarterback's career. you know? after that he's going to be -- hopefully, have a nice, long life. 50, 60 more years on the planet earth. 70 more years. where are his agents, his managers?

dolphins, nfl, seem to be totally faming him, as shannon said, and seems like no one is advocating on behalf of this man's health and continued cognitive functioning as a person on planet earth. everyone's focused, a competitor, is he -- in the football context, i'm focused on this human being who seems to now be, seems to be subjected to representative head injury over and over again in one season, and no one seems to be willing to stand up for him and be his voice. >> and science has shown that it's the repeated concussions, having multiple concussions leads to much greater damaging effects down the road. john, while talking, showing clips here. >> horrible. >> staggering off the field against the bills and showed the horrible hit against the bengals as well. it would be very difficult to justify playing him again this week or probably again this season. coming up here on "morning joe," the debut of the atlantic 10 joins by the magazine the

senior editor with books with a look at works that "made us think the most this year." "morning joe" will be right back with that.

just look around. this digital age we're living in, it's pretty unbelievable. problem is, not everyone's fully living in it. nobody should have to take a class or fill out a medical form on public wifi with a screen the size of your hand. home internet shouldn't be a luxury.

everyone should have it and now a lot more people can. so let's go. the digital age is waiting. just look around. this digital age we're living in, it's pretty unbelievable. problem is, not everyone's fully living in it. nobody should have to take a class or fill out a medical form on public wifi with a screen the size of your hand. home internet shouldn't be a luxury. everyone should have it and now a lot more people can. so let's go. the digital age is waiting.

7:45 in the morning. there you have it. times square already getting ready for new year's eve. if you like cold weather and crowds, we could see you there saturday night. they are getting ready. seems a little chilly for me. nearing the end of this year, the "atlantic" a list of ten books make you think the most in the past year. joining us senior editor for books at the "atlantic," thank you for joining us. give us a sense of the parameters, because what made you think is a very, very broad

umbrella? what exactly where you looking for? >> first thing we were trying to do, push back a little bit what happened with these end-of-year lists. right? a greatness pursued. greatest albums, greatest films, greatest books of the past year, and that notion seemed a little absurd to me especially with books. you know, it's such a subjective thing. how a book reaches you, and the way that you, the way you interact with the book and what one searches for in a book. so it struck us at "the atlantic" the thing that made sense to us, distinguish the books in a phrase were good to think with. books that sortvoked thought, opened up new worlds and allowed the reader to access a different way of thinking. yes, still pretty broad, but narrows it down in ways that sort of made sense to us.

>> yeah. i have to say, sounds like a good solid "atlantic" framework. run through a few. won't get to all ten but several deal with dislocation immigrations. talk about "stay true," hope i'm getting pronunciation right, hua hsu? >> yes. a book about friendship, casting back to early years in college and friendship developed with another asian american immigrant, and the story sort of how they -- how they got to know each other, overcame differences and eventually his friend actually killed, murdered. really a memoir in many ways, but exploring sort of the long-lasting influences of friendship of a human being. >> "the conventions"? >> a wonderful series of short stories about farm laborers in

central california and fit the mold of books that exposed us to different sorts of realities, that one might not, you know, have had, normally had access to, and fiction, of course, is an amazing way to do that. >> yeah. and i love, love the breadth of geographies. a lot set in the united states, but with immigrants experiences in the united states, like those two were, but i want to know more about the one about, personal history vinton o'toole. completely different in terms of genre? >> right. a beautifully written book. all of a certain literally quality we felt we could endorse and this book in particular a beautifully written book. another book actually two or three sort of mix memoir and history in interesting ways. he is telling about his own

personal story about growing um in ireland, his relationship to the story and entering in modernity. for example, looks at a country once fearly opposed to abortion. you know? then same-sex marriage, and has come to evolve on those issues, but does it within a framework of his own life and his own sort of relationship to the country and how it's changed over time. >> okay. thank you very much. the full list, by the way, of the "atlantic ten" online @theatlanta.com. if you need holiday reading all there. great all of them. i challenge you to at least get try a couple by end of this year. up next from nasa's giant leap towards putting a man back on the moon to spectacular new images from deep among the stars. we take a look back at the year of triumphs for space exploration. "morning joe" will be right back.

welcome back. it's 7:52 here on the east coast. this is a shot from the international space station, nasa tells us it's over the atlantic ocean right now. beautiful as 2022 draws to a close. it has been a year of incredible accomplishments with anybody in space exploration. nbc news correspondent, tom costello, documented all of those developments and shares some of the highlights. >> 3, 2, 1 -- boosters and

ignition -- >> in a year of triumphs, the new test flight of the new spaceship. a long orbit deeper into space. >> orion is right on the money. >> then the heat shield hitting 5,000 degrees, and that's half of the temperature of the sun. before a gentle parachute drop into the pacific ocean. >> it is the beginning of the new beginning, and that is to explore the heavens. >> that new beginning will include astronauts on a similar test flight around the moon in

2024, and then a lunar landing in 2025 or '26 with a crew that includes a woman and a person of color. the first return to the moon since those days of "apollo." >> the eagle has landed. >> nasa is also leaning heavily on private companies. spacex now regularly launches both crew and cargo to the iss. this is the view of earth from the international space station, and the simulator at nasa in houston. outside the coupe law, the blue richness of earth, and the blackness of space. and then an arm to reach out and grab cargo. and then the star ship that will

perhaps carry passengers to the moon and perhaps mars. and then nasa's mission, the spacecraft slamming into a small astroid called dimorphos. it's a success if nasa needs to deflect an astroid away from earth. but the most visual space achievement in 2022 were those spectacular images from the deep space james web telescope using infrared cameras, and we're looking at light billions-year-old, and the creation of the universe, the stars and the galaxy, and begging the question are we

alone? >> we could have an answer about whether there is life in the universe, and it would change our entire understanding of what we were and who we are in the universe. >> it's big and beckoning to a new generation of explorers. tom costello, nbc news, houston. >> spectacular images, and such an impressive year. while space travel may be going well, the same can't be said for air travel right now. southwest airlines continues to cancel thousands of flights leaving passengers stranded after the holidays. we will get a live report from one of the nation's busiest airports. plus, house lawmakers take action when it comes to tiktok on government devices. we will have the latest for the growing call for everybody to delete the extremely popular app. "morning joe" will be right back. back

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beautiful shot of the white house still decked out for the holidays. 8:00 a.m., agency we begin the third hour of "morning joe." i am jonathan alongside the bbcs, katie kay and john holland. joe, mika and willie have a well-deserved day off. left in limbo again, and that's how many in the migrant community may be feeling after the supreme court decided to keep in place title 42. it allows border officials to deny asylum seekers into the united states due to public health concerns. meanwhile the recent flood of migrants continue to overwhelm america's border cities. nbc's sam brock is in one of those towns, el paso, texas.

>> the overburdened section of el paso, disappointment. i'm sad. very sad. they told us they would give us an opportunity. his friend jumps in. i don't think it's fair because at the end of the day we're all human beings he says, and moments later if i ask if they would rather be here or in their hometown of venezuela -- widespread agreement, yes, they say at least here we eat bread with ham and cheese and in venezuela, you might be only able to afford the bread. el paso officials expect another lengthy stretch of uncertainty.

>> they continue to get in without being undetected, we will continue to have this population grow within our community and that's concerning. >> el paso is coordinating with local churches and non-profits to provide three meals a day with hundreds of people. >> these people are afraid. there's plenty of shelter. el paso has done a great job of helping el paso, and many of these do not have the paperwork. >> for the hundreds of people sleeping on the streets here from venezuela, the one man puts it all in perspective. everything in the name of love, the past is history, and tomorrow is a mystery and we're in the present with the present you make the best out of the future. nbc's sam brock with that report from el paso, texas.

joining us now, state attorney from palm beach county, florida, our friend, dave aaronburg. the supreme court stepped in and did something at least so far congress in the white house were not able to do, implement a decision of what to do there at the border. give us your analysis of what you saw from the justices yesterday and give us the timetable as what happens next for title 42. >> good morning, jonathan. this was not a decision on the merits of title 42, and this was procedural ruling on whether some states could intervene and compel the biden administration to keep enforcing title 42, and the supreme court kicked the can down the road and froze the title 42 policy until a decision is made later. and chief justice roberts set the oral arguments for february and we won't know anything until

then. there's reason to believe the biden administration will ultimately prevail because the supreme court previously favored the biden administration on some immigration matters. remember, they allowed the administration to end trump's remain in mexico policy, and from a legal standpoint, allowing states to force the policies of a previous administration on to a new administration doesn't sound like good law, and it certainly takes states' rights to a whole new dimension, and it will take the bridge too far for this conservative supreme court. >> it gets to the role of the supreme court more broadly, and gorsuch wrote, we are a court of law and not policymakers of last resort. unpack that for us in a conservative environment with the states lobbying it to do something to help the border

states. >> right, that's a good point. gorsuch joined with the liberals to vote on this issue. i am old enough to remember, rights in america has fallen in love with activism. you can call this decision good, you can call it bad, but don't call this decision conservative. there's not a lot of judicial restraint here, and the supreme court is telling the same branch of government that implemented this policy that it can't unimplement this policy until they say so. >> certainly the images reflect what a humanitarian crisis this is, and it's also a political

story, and the biden white house said they wanted it to go away, and advisers tell me yesterday they breathed a sigh of relief at this stay, because they know when it's lifted there will be a huge influx of migrants and a headache for this administration. >> for sure. and it's one of these places where having the court do certain things for an administration is helpful politically because you can push it off on the court, and that raises the question, you mentioned gorsuch's dissent, and he said we are not policymakers of last resort. we need to talk more about that because it's so widely assumed that there's a conservative block that conservatives all vote the same way, and here we

see a split -- the 6-3 majority got gorsuch in the minority on the dissent. what does that kind of split suggest in the ways the conservative majority may not be as monolithic as people assumed as we go forward? >> chief justice roberts has a representation of being a principlist, and this is not judicial restraint this is the judges doing something that congress refused to do. there's always hypocrisy, and the biggest advocates for title 42 now were the people who were the biggest opponents of government restrictions when it came to covid. a lot of them mocked the seriousness of the pandemic, but now when it comes to the covid

era cdc policy, they are for the title, and title 42 exists because congress won't do its job and it's based on a falsehood, and it was never about protecting against covid. this was about stopping migrants over the southern border. now that biden declared the pandemic over, the gig is up. state attorney for palm beach county, david aronburg, thank you for joining us. next, we will speak about the app tiktok, and there's a

growing debate on whether the chinese-owned app poses a national security risk. joining me now is nbc correspondent, stephanie gosk. is there a possibility that nobody, including you or i, could have tiktok on our phones -- disclaimer, i do not have tiktok on my phone. >> neither do i. it opens up a whole host of questions, and there are people asking is tiktok safe, and the company which is chinese-owned says it is, and there are many that have concerns from states to colleges and now the latest, the house of representatives. tiktok is best known for its viral videos from everything from popular dance routines to shopping halls, but in washington it's becoming one of the most deleted apps.

the house the latest branch to announce a ban, saying house members and staffers must delete and may no longer download tiktok on their government issued devices, and the administration officer called the app a security risk. this comes after congress approved the $1.7 trillion spending bill, including a requirement for executive branch agency employees to remove tiktok from their work phones and it goes beyond the capitol. some universities are now blocking access to the app on school wi-fi or devices. tiktok owned by a chinese company, bytedance, but has said in the past it does not store u.s. user data in china and does not share information with the chinese government. tiktok is negotiating a deal with the justice department to address security concerns.

ceo, janessa pappious, speaking in a meeting. among tiktok's 100 million users every month are congressmen using the app to connect with voters. while others have proposed bipartisan legislation to ban the app altogether, a move that had tiktokers up in arms. >> china, so we're going to try and ban tiktok again. >> this will affect our business and cool friendships we made along the way. >> tiktok tells us they made substantial progress in this negotiation, and they point out once it's over and agreed on the new security and oversight, they will be subject to more restrictions than their competition, but that doesn't

change the calls from a lot of people to delete the app off your phone. >> and it would be a big deal as other social media sites struggling, tiktok is still growing. >> yeah, it's really popular, and again, enforcing a ban like that in this country would be pretty tough. >> thank you for that report. we need to pose the question to you, catty kay. do you have it on your phone? >> i don't, but my 16-year-old will be in a total uproar if somebody tries to delete it from her phone. southwest airlines is reporting more cancelations for today and for tomorrow. blayne, they say they are going to try and fix this, but it's going to take until next week

before travel gets back to north on southwest? >> reporter: yeah, unfortunately, catty, the ceo spoke out and said this is a complex issue and will take some days to get back on track. what you are looking behind me is the ripple affect of all this. piles of baggage not here in atlanta, but baggage is arriving and passengers are not with nobody to claim them. biden administration tweeted saying airlines need to be held accountable, but it will take time for the thousands of passengers to be rebooked on southwest. with an unprecedented number of flights canceled this morning, it's traveler frustration reaching new heights. in chicago and around the country, mountains of luggage with no travelers to claim them. >> i want to cry. i am tired. >> frustrated. tired.

pissed off. >> southwest airlines ceo apologizing for the travel nightmare that left two-thirds of the airlines flights grounded. >> we are doing everything we can to return to a normal operation, and please also hear that i am truly sorry. >> for a third straight day southwest canceled a majority of its flights slashing a whopping 2,500 flights on wednesday and the same amount for thursday, leaving thousands of passengers stranded during the week. >> i got here at 4:30 a.m. for our 8:00 a.m. flight, which was delayed, delayed, delayed, and delayed, and then canceled. >> frustration echoed by transportation secretary, pete buttigieg. >> this has crossed the line from what was an uncontrollable weather situation to something that is the airline's

responsibility. >> southwest was hit hard by the weather with two major hubs in chicago and denver right in the storm's path. but the airline bears responsibility for using an old system that caused backups in employees scheduling. >> it's a process from the '90s that can't keep up with the network from today. >> all of it is leaving desperate passengers like rick and emily jimenez searching for another way home. they took a 13-hour bus ride to atlanta hoping for a better way to get home from a different city. other airlines are stepping up trying to help these many passengers get on some sort of flight. overnight we heard from american and delta airlines that announced they will cap their airfare in the cities to try and make it more appeaseable for people to book different

flights. >> stepping in to try and help those stranded passengers. there's nothing worse than being shut off from your kids and not being able to reach them because of air travel. blayne alexander, thank you for reporting from atlanta airport. what a mess that was. >> just a complete mess. the blame seems to fall squarely on southwest's technology issues. one flight attendant spent 17 hours on hold trying to figure out her next assignment. other reporters are out with a new piece with some of the most shocking 2022 results. kari lake from arizona, and

arizona republicans went down in state-wide races for governor, the senate, and secretary of state. it was part of a trend of maga election deniers losing in swing states. that includes dixon in michigan and mastriano in pennsylvania. and another story line, republican gains in new york. the gop flipped a remarkable four-house seat statewide. a crucial result that enabled their narrow 220 to 213 house majority, doing so in a deep blue state. we have democratic landslides in pennsylvania and michigan. john fetterman was a pickup and helped democrats add to their senate majority. in alaska, sarah palin lost to a democrat, twice. first in the august special election, and then the democrat won in november this time for a full term.

and far-right congresswoman's loss in colorado, and then a significant result on abortion rights particularly in kansas, where an august referendum rejecting a measure that would have left room for a ban in the procedure, a major indicator of where things were headed in november. so john, our colleagues here at nbc did a good job revealing some of the surprising results in the elections, and what stood out to you? >> nothing more than the kansas vote. i think -- midterms come and go, and the democratic performance in this one was surprising and outside the bounds of normal precedent and an accomplishment for joe biden and his party, and at the core of it was abortion rights. it was a brave new world. we have never seen an individual

right the court handed down and then snatched away, so all of us were in the dark about what the political consequence that would be, and anybody who was sensible said at the time there might be a ground swell and might not, we just don't know. we have never seen anything like this ever, there's no precedent for it. kansas came along in august, a ballot initiative that was put up in august, as it was pointed out to me, it's like august in kansas, it's just brutal. you know, it was designed to be a low turnout affair and designed to stack the deck for the anti-abortion side and yet there was a groundswell where essentially one of the reddest states in the country, and everybody assumed abortion rights were doomed, not only did abortion rights hold but mirrored the national consensus in favor of roe v. wade with a massive turnout in august. and at that moment people in our

business looked at that and said, man, that could have implications for the fall, which it did. also, if you are a person that believes that wants to look for positive signs in our political culture, that anything can happen, you know. the people are galvanizing to go out and do the work. people that cared about the issue went in the face of a devastating historical blow by the supreme court, they went out and said we don't care that it's kansas or that it's a red state, we will go and work and organize and they went out there on the ground and they won and won decisively and set the table for the fall. it will go down in history as one of the most significant state referendum votes that foretold a lot of what our politics looked like for the rest of the year and the politics for abortion for years to come. >> and set the stage for 5-5 victory for abortion right

advocates that had abortion on the ballot in 2022, and used as a tool in michigan not just on that referendum. and the arizona results, not just the kari lake results, and you had two people being elected, kari lake as governor, and mark fitcham as secretary of state. they were going to change the way elections were held and potentially change the way elections were certificated or not certificated. it's no stretch to say those two people could have swung arizona to donald trump in 2024 if they had chosen to do so. both of them lost in a state where there was a lot of support for the stop the steal idea, and it was ground zero because donald trump made it so and

neither prevailed and it was an indication of how people did not want to put people in positions over elections and would change the outcomes in ways that were not fair. >> plenty of re-elected election deniers, and they lost. democrats bet the closing arguments on abortion rights paid off. and george santos under extreme scrutiny after admitting he lied on his resume. and tesla stock may see its worth month on record, as there's concern about elon musk's management style on twitter. you're watching "morning joe."

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we're now less than a week away from a new congressional term and the gop leadership still silent about what they will do with you know who, santos. he admitted to lying about several details of his background, including education, work history and personal life. that's it. that's all of it. and the republican jewish coalition slammed santos. the group's ceo writes this, he deceived us and misrepresented his heritage and he previously claimed to be jewish. and a former congressman said as a navy man who campaigned on restoring accountability and

integrity to our government i believe a full investigation by the house ethics committee and, if necessary, law enforcement is required. the damage that his lies have caused to many people, especially those who have been impacted by the holocaust are profound, however, he stopped short of calling for santos to resign. trump adviser, jason miller, went all the way. in a social media post, he simply wrote this, get rid of this loser. santos appeared on fox this weekend and she repeatedly called him out on his lies. >> like i said to the "new york post" -- >> what does integrity mean,

though, because the meaning of the word actually matters in practice. >> of course, it means to carry yourself in an honorable way. i made a mistake. i think humans are flawed and we all make mistakes. >> the thing is, congressman-elect, integrity means, yes, carrying yourself with honor and it means telling the truth and being a person of integrity, and if i was one of those in new york's third district right now and now that the election is over and i am finding out all of these lies that you told, not just one little lie or one little embellishment, but these are blatant lies, and my question is do you have no shame, do you have no shame in asking the people for you to be their voice in washington for their families and kids in washington? >> i can say the same thing about the democrats and biden, and he's been lying for years

and he's the president of the united states, and democrats support him and do they have no shame? >> are you jewish. as a proud american jew, i have been to israel numerous times. you said there in that letter that you were, quote, a proud american jew. how do you explain that? >> my heritage is jewish, and i think was raised as a practicing catholic, and i always joked with friends and circles and even in the campaign, i would say i am jew-ish, because remember, i was raised catholic. >> credit to tulsi gabbard, the former democratic congresswoman filling in.

and he did admit to embellishing all of his resume, and nbc news reached out to santos for a statement, and if republicans were to ask for a new vote, and it seems that's the crux of this, we can make fun of george santos, and he's not jewish but jew-ish. there has not been any comment from the republican leadership. it looks like he's on track to take his seat, and in large part, it seems to me, because kevin mccarthy needs to count on his vote. >> absolutely. the fact that republicans will

have no punishment at all for george santos, and that let's us know they want that slim majority in the house, and there will not be many policy positions coming from the republican party, there will be lots of hunter biden and hillary clinton retreads, but they don't want to risk losing what was a democratic seat before george santos was narrowly elected this past november. >> as a fellow journal-ist in long standing, you have sharp ears. you hear him say i discussed this already, and people can pick at me. it's usually a sign of somebody who is trying to dig themselves out of a hole when early in the

apology tour try to start and play the victim, and that's an early warning sign for candidate implosion ahead. >> you know, it reminds me of southwest airlines. crisis management has a few basic rules, and the first is say you're sorry. make it right. promise it won't happen again. i am not sure either of these entities for the congressman elect or the airline has fully digested what it is they need to do to get ride with their customers or voters. maybe he has time to do that. it's hard to force a member of congress to resign, and republicans are tolerant of their members, and so i would not hold my breath waiting for something to happen to force george santos out. but i will say it's hard to remember another new member of congress that has had a rockier

start than he has. >> before he even takes the seat, officially. >> yeah, he's already considered at-risk next time around. >> george santos, of course, is responsible for his own lies, but there's plenty of fault to go around. yes, democratic opposition efforts should be blamed for missing this. some of the media should be blamed for missing this. right now it seems like a lot of this is falling squarely on republicans in power who should be blamed for turning a blind eye. there are reports some knew about this before it exploded into public view, and they are being silent. >> exposed a bunch of flaws in the system. why wasn't this uncovered during the campaign? was is it impossible to get rid of somebody that has run under false pretenses? he has a bunch of people that voted for him that may have

liked the fact he had a financial background or the fact that he was jewish and that could be the reasons they voted for him and those reasons are now null and void, and there's no mechanism for getting rid of the person because he ran on basically a lie. we are in an era where lying in politics is okay, increasingly so over the last few years, and this is the latest indication of that. there doesn't seem to be very much the voting public can do about it, and that's something, perhaps the bigger issue of what we should be looking at here. coming up, more new transcripts by the house committee investigating january 6th. we're digging into those documents ahead on "morning joe." are.com type in your prescription, and then present the coupon to your pharmacist. it's that simple. not to mention, it's free. singlecare is accepted by major pharmacies across the country and it works for everyone,

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the house select committee investigating january 6th released another new batch of

interview transcripts, and it includes former white house aide hutchison. she told the committee she saw mark meadows burning documents in his office fireplace a dozen times. politico previously reported that meadow burned papers in his office after meeting with republican congressman, scott perry, who was working to challenge the 2020 election results. and the committee also released the transcript of scalia, and he said barr advised him to resign from the trump administration. barr already stepped down from his position in 2020. scalia told the committee he thought that trying to work within the administration to steady the ship would have

greater value than resigning, something we have heard many times before. joining us on these political investigations, reporter for "the guardian." hugo, what struck you most -- we had seen her transcripts before, but what struck you most from the transcripts released yesterday? >> i thought the hutchison transcripts were particularly interesting, and we got the transcripts from september, and the fact that meadows was burning documents in his fireplace, and she could not elaborate on what kind of documents he was burning, but it's interesting when you think about the timing. it's one of the instances in which meadows was burning the documents is when perry was in the chief of staff's office.

they were talking about election issues and about the vice president on january 6th, and for people looking for circumstantial evidence, that is very damning. hutchison was in the room for part of trump's call to raffensperger, and she seemed to notice how the white house was concerned after that call, and the doj was investigating that court, and one of the concerns of the white house council was exactly what was being discussed. i thought that was a really big deal. >> you think about all of these transcripts that have come out over the last week, and there's still more to come. so far what do you think the revelation is that you have seen in the transcripts that have been the most material, not just the most entertaining but the

most important material, and what are the transcripts that are outstanding that you are most looking forward to getting your hands on in the weeks ahead? >> to me, you know, having looked at this investigation for 16 months, and what has been really interesting is what the committee couldn't get and what witnesses were reluctant to talk about. if you go through the transcript and even the latest that came out yesterday, there are various hints and moments when witnesses become really resistant to talking about certain events, for instance, alexander who is seen as the key lynchpin because he had connections to roger stone and connections to proud boys who had connections to the earth keepers and their connections on the capitol, and there's a text that alexander sends on january 5, that says trump at the end of the speech

will order us to go to the capitol. he could not remember how he knew about that in the investigation. if i am the justice department and i am trying to figure out how the thread unravelled, that's what i want to get, i want to get alexander in front of the grand jury and probe him on how he had that knowledge. >> the reporter for "the guardian." thank you as always. always terrific reporting you bring to the table. susan page, one of the rules of politics i found, if you are spotted burning documents, probably not great. but we have documented extensively just how bad the trump 2024 campaign has begun, seemingly a terrible headline every day and we see his poll numbers slip and more and more republicans wondering if the party should go in a different direction. and those who are willing to give trump a try on certain

things, it's just one revelation after another, and don't you think this contributes to a trump fatigue that may have others wanting to look elsewhere. >> let's not underestimate donald trump once again, as we have in the past. he has real political skills, and he demonstrated that. he has a core of support that any politician would like to have, and we see an appetite among some of the core supporters that would pursue trump policies but not be trump, and that helps explain the appeal of ron desantis in florida, and he's not well known for all the details across the country and somebody who has not been vetted yet politically, and we see this month by double digits, republicans tell us they would like ron desantis over donald trump as their nominee

next time around. i think there's trump fatigue. if you think there's fatigue from the issuance of a congressional report that donald trump has betrayed as a political witch hunt, wait until and if we see indictments come from the department of justice from the investigation. >> we are so close to this in the day in and day out revelations, and let's fast-forward a bit and in ten years you are teaching a class about january 6th in particular, and from the lens of history, how do you tell your students about what we are seeing day in and day out, something so unprecedented in the history of the presidency? jonathan, gosh, yes, it has been a heavy lift for the last few years. i start with the intention of the framers, why article 1 is the legislative branch and

article 2 is a differ branch, and there's a reason why the framers started with the legislative branch, and i think we have to look at how parties have behaved in this moment. there's still so many sitting republican members of congress who supported the insurrection of january 6th and supported the riots at the capitol and supported the behavior of the former president, donald trump. as i walk through this in ten years, and i will have to layout the intent of the framers, what we thought was, you know, the most egregious attack on our democracy with watergate, and then fast-forward to january 6th, and why so many americans were fine with swastikas being flown at the capitol, and

confederate flags being flown at the capitol, and they are going to question why wouldn't these people have been arrested in mass, and why were these people able to go back to their homes once they, you know, choked police officers or threatened other law enforcement. i don't think that half of this country fully understands just how close we came to losing the democratic principles that we rely on so severely. so the next decade, i -- i can't foresee the future but i know this is going to be a unit where we are going to have to spend -- i will have to spend some time really walking them through how close we came to losing our democracy and the fact that a president was at the helm at the time that was aiding and abetting the insurrectionists. i think my students right now

are scratching their heads and in the future they will be very confused as to how this was able to happen. coming up, we will go live for the latest on the devastating impact of this week's deadly winter storm. "morning joe" is coming right back. itable. but if you're over 50 or live with a chronic condition, waiting could be deadly. because conditions like heart disease or diabetes raise your risk of serious illness or death from untreated covid. and if you don't get treatment within days, you may not be able to get treatment. so, got covid symptoms? get tested and get treated right away. it can't wait.

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the house ways and means committee is planning to release six years of former president trump's tax returns friday. the committee voted last week to make the tax returns public. since then staffers have been working to redact any sensitive personal information from those documents. the 39-page report released last week showed trump paid only $750 in 2016 and 2017 and paid nothing in 2020. that is one way to do tax returns. an arizona judge rejected

katie hobbs' request to sanction kari lake. lake filed a lawsuit alleging voter fraud in the state's election despite a lack of evidence which was rejected over the weekend. hobbs sought sanctions in response to that lawsuit which they called groundless. the judge disagreed saying while lake failed to meet the burden of proof it doesn't equate to her claims being groundless and presented in bad faith. meanwhile, a federal judge sentenced a michigan man to 16 years in prison for his role in plotting to kidnap governor gretchen whitmore. adam fox was convicted of conspiracy to commit kidnapping. at trials prosecutors showed recordings of fox calling the governor a tyrant.

in court documents an attorney for fox wrote, adam fox was an unemployed vacuum repairman who was venting his frustrations on social media, but abiding the law. coming up, we'll be joined by texas congressman and we'll talk to him about title 42 and how it impacts his state. we're back in a moment. shingles. the rash can feel like pulsing, electric shocks and last for weeks. a pain so intense, you could miss out on family time. the virus that causes shingles

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for our west coast friends as we begin the fourth hour of "morning joe." it's 9:00 a.m. here in the east. 6:00 a.m. in the city of