if and when he'll make that big announcement on both him seeking re-election. he's been signaling that he plans to do that. we'll see, you know, they haven't really signed off on that yet it, seems. all signs point to yes. >> and everyone seems to expect that the answer is "yes." no official decision just yet. white house aides keep pointing to president obama, when he announced re-election, he did so in april. sources suggest it will be before then when biden makes his decision as well. josh wingrove, thanks so much for joining us this morning. thanks to all of you for getting up way too early with us on this friday morning, but all week long and all year long. we appreciate your viewership for the entirety of 2022 and will be excited to be with you monday morning for 2023. but now it's time for "morning joe." stick around. beautiful live picture of times square where that big old ball will drop tomorrow night at

midnight. good morning. welcome to "morning joe." it is friday, december 30th. new year's eve on this final morning, joe, of the year. and this morning, there is more heat on new york congressman-elect george santos, who also now is under federal investigation after it was revealed that he lied about his resume while campaigning for congress. we'll have new reporting on what these charges could be. plus, newly released transcripts from the january 6th committee, showing the struggle within the trump white house to keep bad information, conspiracy theories, away from the president and the failure to do that in many cases. we'll take a closer look at former white house chief of staff, mark meadows, in his failed role as presidential gatekeeper. plus, after thousands of canceled flights and a reputation now in tarts, southwest airline says it finally expects to resume normal operations today. we'll tell you what the company is saying it plans to do to somehow make things right. with us this morning, the host of "way too early," jonathan

lemire, msnbc contributor, mike barnicle. columnist and associate editor for "the washington post," david ignatius, and member of the "new york times" editorial board, mara gay. joe and mika will be back on monday. good morning to you all. i want to dive right in with a newly released batch of deposition transcripts from the january 6th house committee from some key witnesses, including members of former president donald trump's inner circle. that includes former white house communications director, alyssa farah griffin, she described her tenure at the trump white house as a wild eight months, in her words. griffin revealed one serious and ongoing problem was a lack of organization. she described a trump white house in which jobs were filled with underqualified staff because more senior government officials would not take positions within the administration. griffin said, any report about the trump white house being

chaotic and operating without structure was, quote, more or less accurate. that included there being no competent gatekeeper to stop harmful or unhelpful information from getting to then president trump, which led to this moment at the beginning of the covid pandemic. >> supposing we hit the body with a tremendous -- whether it's ultraviolet or just very powerful light and i think you said, that hasn't been checked, but you're going to test it. and i said, supposing you brought the light inside the body, which you can do, either through the skin or in some other way. and i think you said you're going to test that too. sounds interesting. and then i see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in a minute, one minute. and is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning, because you see it gets in the lungs and does a tremendous number on the lungs. it would be interesting to check

that. >> that was april 23rd, 2020. griffin said she tried to stop former president trump from making those infamous remarks, but she was blocked by trump's chief of staff, mark meadows, who allowed for easy access and unchecked passage of bad material to the president. griffin told the committee, quote, i tried to stop it outside of the oval office, because i knew the president was willing to go on national television, have not been able to properly digest what the report was indicating, and say something stupid or dangerous to the public. she went on, i went to mark meadows and i said, sir, this is going to blow up in our faces. he's not ready. like, what are we encouraging? are we saying, like, you know, go buy a humidifier? do we want to put a run on humidifiers or turn your heat up to 95 degrees? like, it just didn't make any sense. griffin continued, and meadows overruled me and we got the "injecting bleach" thing, end quote. griffin added, former president trump was only, quote, marginally focused on the covid

virus for about two months before moving on. she also said trump's senior adviser and son-in-law jared kushner shot down of any idea of looping the incoming biden administration into informational covid meetings following the 2020 election, saying, quote, it was the first covid morning meeting that jared led after that had been announced. and dr. birx raised, well, should we be looping the biden transition into these conversations, and jared just said, quote, absolutely not, and then we just moved on. so jonathan lemire, where to begin on all of this. i guess the first thing to say is none of this is surprising. this is the picture of the trump white house as had been painted for many, many years now. but to hear this kind of specific detail and to hear donald trump again going out there in april of 2020, talking about a powerful light being able to knock out covid. we heard later from dr. birx that he had heard a kernel of something about the light -- the sunlight on playgrounds making them safe, that the equipment was safe for kids to play. he internalized that and said,

we should shoot light into peoples bodies. but to hear it from the inside something else here. >> but at least there wasn't a run on humidifiers, i suppose. >> that's true. >> we knew there was a brief moment when john kelly was white house chief of staff and he put protocol in place to restrict office to the oval office, that got trump angry, so john kelly wasn't chief of staff for very long. by the time we got to mark meadows, it was the words of a trump adviser, grand central station. anyone could come in and out bringing anything they want, stuff about covid. we know from alyssa farah griffin's testimony yesterday that matt gaetz brought a conspiracy theory to the president's desk about the host of this very show. and most troubling, had easy access for the likes of michael flynn and rudy giuliani and others to bring conspiracy theories about january 6th to the president. that's where, you know, in those days after the election, when

there was a real vacuum in the white house, because senior staff was starting to lead, there had been a covid outbreak. there was less of a process in the oval office before, and people brought in these conspiracy theories. and we saw trump, what happened next. so mara gay, obviously, this is a complete breakdown, not just of what should happen in the white house, but it also goes to show this environment fostered by this president. where conspiracy theories could not just take hold, but how vulnerable his supporters were to believing them. >> that's extraordinary, as well. you have to take a moment to pull back here, and say, as absurd and kind of funny as some of these goings-on were inside the oval office, it wasn't funny, because the american public and the rest of the world was dealing with the beginnings of a pandemic that would kill lots of people, lots of americans, over a million americans dead now. and all the time, now we know,

this is what donald trump was doing in the white house, instead of bringing the best people that he promised to bring. he brought people that were completely on seek wous to him, and the entire time, he's sitting there enjoying it like a mob boss instead of running the country like a presidency should. and he knew a lot more about the virus than he told the american people. the american people were left completely unprotected. and there was this larger narrative that he was acting more like a dictator than a president then, according to griffin's testimony. this moment when griffin describes the president being enraged, actually, that somebody had leaked the fact that he had gone into a bunker to hide from peaceful protests outside the white house. that's not the behavior of an american president. that's the behavior of, you know, moammar gadhafi. i mean, what is this?

so -- it's embarrassing. it's embarrassing for the american public. and it's disturbing. and a lot of these people have yet to be held accountable. >> you know, mike barnicle, i'll let you take this wherever you want to take it. there's so much in there from this testimony that we just got to see yesterday from alyssa farah griffin, but also the piece about jared kushner there at the end, that jared and ivanka kushner have tried to insulate themselves from the mess of this white house and walk away and live their lives in florida. but to hear jared kushner right up until the very end saying, no, do not work with the incoming biden administration, do not share this covid information with them. and we know that from the other side of it, from the biden transition team, that they had trouble getting any information from anyone in the trump administration about a pandemic they inherited from the trump administration, jared kushner right at the middle of things again. >> willie, as history is rewritten each and every day and we follow this each and every

day, it becomes clearer and more clear each and every day that the combination of incompetence, duplicity, and delusion in the trump white house was staggering. i mean, you had a president who was incompetent and duplicitous, a white house chief of staff, mark meadows, who was more than incompetent and more than duplicitous. and david ignatius said, as i was reading those transcripts yesterday, all i could think of was someone like jim baker, former white house chief of staff or other white house chiefs of staff were responsible, responsible for the people that they worked for, the president of the united states, and the country that they represented, our country, america. and i'm wondering in your experience across all the years you followed different white houses zpimpbt white house chiefs of staff, if you could talk a bit about the importance of a chief of staff maintaining

an information gate, that what gets for the president is clearly a prior and what doesn't get to him clearly is not. >> mooirk, you got it right. the white house among other things is an incredible management problem. and the role of the chief of staff is to budget the president's time. to focus the president on precisely the things that the country needs attention on minute by minute. i can remember one of the great masters of that job, leon panetta, telling a story to his advice to -- richard daley was coming in as the new white house chief of staff and asking, so what's your plan? meaning, what's your plan for screening information coming into the president, president clinton. and the answer was, i don't have a plan. and the response from panetta, typically profane, you're blank. there's no way you can run a

white house without a clear plan. mark meadows didn't have one. never was able to achieve one. yet for me, the interesting paradox of this new material is that trump kept going in this chaotic white house, mark meadows burning documents, doesn't know who's coming to see him, the conspiracy theories moving all around. trump continues to move, overwhelmingly towards the end, his desire to remain in office despite the electoral cap. it was an odd white house, whether it was a complete lack of control, yet insistence on control by the man at the top. >> it really is extraordinary. these descriptions, it's like we're talking about a day care. they're trying to keep sharp objects away from donald trump. keep the conspiracy theories, keep bad information away from this man. the president of the united states, so he doesn't amplify them, and make them the centerpiece of his tweets that day. let's bring into the conversation, political investigations reporter for "the guardian," hugo lowell, who's

been covering this story very closely. hugo, you've looked at all of these transcripts and looking at possible connections now to the department of justice investigation here. what else did you see? >> yeah, i mean, what really stood out to me in the latest batch of transcripts yesterday is not so much what the witnesses were saying, but what the witnesses weren't saying. and it really stood out with people like don jr., kimberly guilfoyle guilfoyle, an adviser and don jr.'s testimony. several moments in kimberly guilfoyle's testimony that illuminated the whole was when she gets questioned about the january 6th organizers. this is not trump and meadows in the west wing running around uncontrolled. this is the dark stuff about how these rally organizers were connected people around the trump campaign and around the proud boys and oathkeepers who wail stormed the capitol. so from an investigative perspective, it's really

interesting. and if you see how kimberly guilfoyle cannot recall very conveniently how she was supposedly on the phone with this far-right activist days before january 6th, how she didn't recall she had been copied into a list of speakers for the rally itself, which is a real big point of contention. this wasn't some throwaway list that wound up in her inbox. it was a big deal for trump. that is where the justice department will focus next, because those are the kind of errors the committee doesn't have the investigative powers to go after, but the justice department does. they can see cell phones, subpoena people to appear before a grand jury. so i think the justice department's focus going into the next year is going to be so, not so much on what people were saying, but what people were reluctant to testify. >> this final report for the january 6th committee, this big volume, this document for history does provide a road map for the department of justice, which of course has been conducting its own

investigation, its own interviews everything else. but now that we've turned the page on the january 6th select committee, what does the department of justice take from that and where does that investigation stand? >> i think the select committee gave a real head start to the justice department with respect to the political elements of kind of january 6th and trump's effort to overturn the election. a lot of the statutes that the justice department got a referral about, stuff like inciting insurrection, obstruction of an official proceeding, those are statutes where you have to prove the intent and the intent weighs large for prosecutors. and i think the january 6th committee did a really good job in getting that initial evidence to bring it up to a probable cause kind of standpoint. that's really the committee's job here. they were able to show, i think, quite clearly, that trump knew that he had lost the election. trump knew and had been told that trying to get the vice president on january 6th to stop

the certification was illegal. the threshold for the first charge, obstruction of an official proceeding is actually consciousness of wrong doing. that's actually a lower bar than maybe some of the other criminal statutes. so i think that the justice department can build upon what the committee found and the evidence that the committee obtained and turned that into some sort of prosecution memo. i think that's where the justice department heads next. >> the january 6th committee dissolves tomorrow. it's come to the end of the road. a remarkable set of hearings really sort of moved the needle on a subject that so many americans thought they knew so well. you've been covering it from day one. you've been talking to the members and their staff, do they think that they set out what they accomplished to do? did they meet their goals in exploring what happened on that day, january 6th, 2021?

>> i think it's a really good question. when this conference was established, trying to figure out where they were going to go, are they going to have the committee investigate this, and pelosi ultimately decided to go with the select committee, a lot of democrats and pelosi thought that the direction of the committee was going to be very different. i think there was a real political aim here to try to get trump before congress and have him swear, i'm going to testify in a public hearing. that was the original intention. i think pelosi imagined this as dragging trump to the hill and conducting oversight him him in a very public setting. and i think the committee went above and beyond that. they were able to put together a real fact-finding investigation and i think the real gift of the investigation was basically showing how trump was involved at every stamg of this multi-faceted report to try to return himself to office. i don't think anyone before the committee had put all of these

things together in a coherent way to kind of tell the story, through the post-election period and so in doing so, the committee illuminated to americans just how pernicious the white house's role from october through to january 2021 really was and i think in doing so, they had this added effect of influencing the midterms in a way that i don't think anyone else saw coming. democracy really was on the ballot in these midterms and the january 6th committee contributed to that in a real way. >> so much of that damning testimony came directly from donald trump's allies, his own allies who were in the room. political investigative reporter for "the guardian," hugo lowell. see you soon. yesterday was another day of trouble for southwest airlines, but the company insists it will return to normal operations with minimal disruption today. so far this morning, southwest reporting fewer than 50 cancellations for the day.

the company said the roughly 15,000 cancellations over the past week allowed the airline to rebalance its system and get crews where they needed to be. company officials say they are making every effort to get checked baggage back to customers and will cover the cost of shipment. i hope so. the airline also promised anyone whose flight was canceled will get a full refund and a reimbursement of travel expenses, including tickets on other carriers, rental cars, gas, hotels, and meals. however, told that process, as you can imagine, will take weeks. if the airline does not deliver on those promises, transportation secretary pete buttigieg says southwest will face massive fines. >> we are going to be putting southwest airlines under a microscope in terms of their delivering these kinds of reimbursements and refunds to passengers. the airline said to me that they were going to go above and beyond what's required of them. i'm looking to make sure that they actually do that. and if they don't, we are in a

position to levy tens of thousands of dollars per violation, per passenger in fines. i don't want to resort to fines and penalties, but we'll do whatever it takes. i don't know why the ceo of southwest hasn't been on tv ten times as much as i have to explain to passengers what they can expect from their airline. >> pete buttigieg talking there. mike barnicle, i flew delta yesterday, a long flight, i was at the airports. and outside of southwest, despite the weather last week and despite it being the holidays, things were moving very smoothly for the most part. when you ask, why did this happen with southwest? it was antiquated system, bad computer software and a system that has them flying point to point rather than having hubs. if you were someone who was trying to get somewhere for christmas, let's say, and standing in an airport and ultimately couldn't get there, you lost your luggage, now you

have to go in this website and hope you can get reimbursed for the hotel you have to stay in, just a nightmare. >> willie, as you will recall, with a younger family, when you have little kids, traveling to any airport and flying anywhere is incredibly difficult. i have a couple of grandchildren here in this house with us today. they're flying jetblue, but i'm thinking about southwest airlines and the money they are going to have to pay out. i don't know where they're going to get it. they've been paying so much in dividends to their shareholders that they scrimped on coming up with a computer system that would allow them to operate in a crisis like they went through. and the crisis management situation in southwest airlines is one that business schools are going to be studying for quite some time. >> and they've received massive amounts, along with other airlines, of taxpayer money. they're going to have to bail themselves out of this one. let's turn to the weather forecast for the final weekend. hopefully travel is a little bit better this weekend than it was

last, no matter what airline you're traveling on. meteorologist angie lassman has the look for us. >> i have some good news if you live in the mid-section of the country. that's where we'll have quiet conditions moving into the weekend. you can see times square, all the quiet right now. that's not going to last like that. we have some wet weather working in. that means pack your poncho. our temperatures will be into the low 50s. here's why. you'll see this storm system moving through parts of, basically, the gulf coast up into the ohio valley. that's going to continue working its way to the east, eventually spreading into places in the northeast and mid-atlantic. over on the west coast, this is where we're really going to watch for some of those travel issues you mentioned, willie. we have rain working in, heavy rain at that. the flooding concern will be there and plenty of snow is expected for those higher elevations. many winter weather alerts up now. you can see more than 16 million people in that flood watch in the bright green there in parts of california. why? they're expecting anywhere from 3 to 5 inches.

we know those burn scar areas tend to flood a little quicker than other spots. keep that in mind if you plan to be out and about or traveling on the west coast. up into san francisco are some of the trouble spot. meanwhile in the east, it is quite warm. 66 degrees in raleigh later today. new york hitting 53 degrees. temperatures are going to be on the warm side as we get into saturday and sunday, but the heavy rain will be with us as we transition into saturday and eventually into midnight, we'll start to see it winding down, but many locations, especially in the new england area, could still see some of that rain persist into the evening hours. we'll have a brighter new year's day, though, willie. >> all right. that sounds good. and a balmy night in times square. angie lassman, thanks so much, angie. appreciate it. still ahead this morning on "morning joe," president biden takes a break from his vacation in st. croix to spend a massive spending bill to fund the government. but will that victory be the last in the administration's streak once the republicans take control of the house in a number of days.

plus, eric adams will join us to reflect on his first year in office and top agenda items for the next year. also ahead, a look back at the life of one of the most commanding sport figures of the last century. soccer item, pele passed away yesterday at the age of 82. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back.

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nbc news now can confirm congressman-elect george santos of new york is under federal investigation. the probe from federal prosecutors is at least the second now faced by santos. the nassau district attorney said earlier his week that his office would look into santos after it was revealed the future lawmaker lied about his background experience and history, citing two law enforcement forces. nbc reports, the federal investigation is said to be in its very early stages and has not zeroed in on any one allegation of wrongdoing just yet. the two sources confirmed

prosecutors are exactlying santos' finances, including potential irregularities involving financial disclosures and loans he made to his campaign while he was running for congress. santos loaned his 2022 campaign $700,000 and claimed he made between $11.5 million from a company he founded last year. that's according to financial disclosure. that company was dissolved in september, was reinstituted in santos just one day after "the new york times" report that revealed his lies. a spokesperson for the u.s. attorney for the eastern district of new york declined to comment to nbc news. a spokesman for congressman-elect santos, as well as three members of republican house leadership have not responded to our request for comment. the congressman-elect did apologize in one recent interview where he admitted to embellishing his resume. as the lies of congressman-elect santos pile up, so do the questions, including when exactly did his mother die?

the future congressman has given several conflicting timelines on her death. july of 2021, replying to another account, he wrote on twitter, quote, 9/11 claimed my mother's life. just months later, he wrote, december 23rd, this year marks five years i lost my best friend and mentor. mom, you will live forever in my heart. as you've done the math here, that means his mother died in december of 2016, not december . and he claimed while both of his parents were at the september 11th terror attacks, neither of them died. here's what he said. >> i get emotional. my parents were both down there the day of the attacks and fortunately neither of them passed. >> we cannot confirm the exact date that interview took place. many people at the world trade center at the attacks later

developed cancer. not clear if this is what he was referring to. congressman santos has not responded to the request for nbc news for comment. so we can add this when did his mother die question to the long list of questions where he claimed on twitter he was biracial. he is not. where he claimed that he was jewish. he amended that saying he has jew-ish, a little tongue and cheek. didn't work where he worked. didn't go to college where he said he went to college. it's all listed in "the new york times" interview here. i guess the question is a lot of people have, what happens now? there's this federal investigation in its early stages. there might be an ethics probe, but republican leadership is silent on this because kevin mccarthy needs george santos' vote to become speaker of the house. and republicans don't want to risk giving this seat back to a democrat. >> i guess we have to even wonder if his name is george santos at this point, because everything else has been a fabrication. but you're right, in terms of the calculations from republicans, it has been

spriking how silent kevin mccarthy and other members of house leadership has been, that's because kevin mccarthy doesn't yet have the votes he needs to be speaker. santos had pledged to support mccarthy. also, if santos were to resign his seat and there were to be a special election, one would figure democrats would be favored in it. so mara, it is so disturbing. there seems to be no depth, no bottom here. including his own mother's death. there are questions he's raised about the story he told about some of his employees being murdered in the pulse nightclub shooting down in florida a few years ago. no one's been able to verify that. he does seem to be, though, almost the perfect embodiment of a republican party in the age of trump. one that is willing to lie about anything, thinking that they can get away with it. and at least right now, george santos is on track to become a member of congress. >> it's disturbing, john. but, of course, pulling back, this is the latest iteration of

drama in the new york political map. >> that, too. >> this has been an extraordinary turn of events. i don't want get into all of that drama, needless to say, actually, control of congress really ended up being on some congressional map making that went wrong in new york. so this seat is actually quite important. it was flipped by the republicans. and now, you know, we'll veto see what happens in the courts too. ultimately, if there's any crime that has been committed or potentially committed, he's under investigation so that process is apparently moving forward. i actually covered years ago michael grimm, the former congressman, whoended up having to return his seat because he was anxietied. voters may end up having to vote in a special election. but in the meantime, you have a public servant who is going to be sworn into office, who has been lying not only to all of us, but to his constituents. and that's just not acceptable

no matter who political party you're from. who is he? can he be trusted? this is really not encouraging. this is not the kind of behavior that we want to see from anybody, republican or democrat. >> this was an important election. giving republicans part of that narrow marpg they have in the house now. so david ignatius, there's the question of what happens now to congressman-elect santos, but the question that a lot of people have been asking for about a week now, which is, how did it get to this point? how did we not know this before voters went into the polling booths? how did opposition research from his opponent not find this? how did the media not find this? how did this man get this far? >> so, willie, this is a will have been lesson in gullibility. it turns out there was a long island newspaper that wrote back in september, nobody paid any

attention. the basic details of some of these fabrications didn't make an impact on voters, but good on them. "the new york times" then in december had a detailed examination. there are all of these serious issues here about what does it mean for kevin mccarthy and what are the legal ramifications. but to be honest, this reminds me of one of the great hollywood stories about people who were incredible fabricators. i don't know if viewers have seen "inventing ana" on netflix, about this woman who claimed to be anna delvy, a millionaire, just convinced everybody that she had a life that she'd never lived. it was a great movie with leonardo dicaprio where he pretends to be an airline pilot and flies all over the place and nobody figures out that he's making most of it. this is a story we see in american life over and over again. herman melville wrote a story about "the confidence man," maggie haberman's biography of donald trump. it's a part of political life.

santos has done it again. shame on all of us, especially voters, for not looking more carefully at the facts. but, i'm just so struck by the hollywood details. george santos, if you're not going to be in congress, think about calling your agent in hollywood to see if this can be a mini series. >> david, you mentioned that newspaper, "the north shore leader" is the long island newspaper that did break this story in september. we ought to give them credit for doing it, but chiefly, shame on george santos above everybody else for lying about his resume. mike barnicle, there was a time not so long ago that this man would have been laughed out, run out of his position when all of this came to light, maybe back in september, when the newspaper in long island first broke, or perhaps now. as we've been saying, republican leadership is totally silent about this, because they cannot afford to lose his vote, no matter who he is or who he says he is. >> yeah, well, in politics, we

now live in the age of, "have you no shame?" and they have no shame, large parts of the republican party. interestingly enough, willie, yesterday, while grocery shopping, i encountered a doctor, a psychologist who works at mcclain hospital, one of the finest psychiatric hospitals in the country. and she described the santos situation as a portrait in self-loathing, which i found very interesting. that he hated himself in the component parts of his real life, so much so that he made up everything about a life that he wanted to have, a life that he have never could have had, because he was so disgusted with himself. i am buying into it. this was her theory. as jonathan just pointed out, the same thought struck me. are we sure george santos is his real name? we don't know, really.

and we'll find out, really, when investigations ensue and find out what happens with his seat in congress. >> and i think that's right. we'll learn more about who george santos is, a life built on lies. but we should flag here, the campaign finance stuff, those disclosures, that will be the potential trip wire. that's not going to deprive most likely of santos' vote, but that is the thing that could eventually lead to real trouble for santos facing some consequences for his actions and lies. even before he potentially has to face voters again. >> yeah, that's a good point. as you say, he will be seated, it looks like, the republican party is not going to do anything about this. that investigation may play out. he may face some justice down the road, but he will be a united states congressman, it looks like from here. and some great reporting from barnicle from the market basket, as always. >> absolutely. >> there is a wealth -- every day, mike comes back with a

nugget from market basket, the nation's greatest supermarket chain. >> absolutely. >> barnicle feeling the cantaloupe and checking the produce while he gets his reporting. coming up next, we will turn overseas. much of ukraine is dark this morning after a new round of russian rocket attacks targeting the country's power facilities. we'll have the very latest on the fighting and get some new reporting from david ignatius. plus, a look inside ukraine's newsroom and the difficult job for the journalists there risking their lives every day to tell the story. "morning joe" is coming right back. tell the story "morning joe" is coming right back 12 irresistible subs. the most epic sandwich roster ever created. ♪♪ it's subway's biggest refresh yet!

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i screwed up. mhm. i got us t-mobile home internet. now cell phone users have priority over us. and your marriage survived that? you can almost feel the drag when people walk by with their phones. oh i can't hear you... you're froze-- ladies, please! you put it on airplane mode when you pass our house. i was trying to work. we're workin' it too. yeah! work it girl! woo! i want to hear you say it out loud. well, i could switch us to xfinity. those smiles. that's why i do what i do. that and the paycheck. 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. large swaths of ukraine are in darkness after russia launched one of its biggest attacks of the war on ukraine's electric facilities. nbc news foreign correspondent matt bradley has details. >> reporter: rockets have returned to ukraine with a event yans in one of the largest assaults on civilian targets

since the war began more than ten months ago, 69 missiles aimed mostly at russia's preferred civilian targets, electric infrastructure. like this facility in the eastern city of kharkiv that burned for hours. the barrage left the country in darkness. 40% of kyiv was without power, according to its mayor. the attack looked like retribution. coming only days after our ukrainian air base struck a base deep inside russia. ukraine's service men said it shot down all of the 16 missiles that russia fired at the capital, kyiv. but this damage shows, even an intercepted missile can rain down ruin on civilians. the strike injured three people in kyiv, including a 14-year-old girl. just look at this crater. there was an elderly man and his son in this house when it was hit and incredibly, they made it out alive.

lenoid landslide in this has home for 40 years. are you angry about this? are you sad? what else can i feel now? i would say, it's not even hate, it's contempt for these people a contempt that are if more ukrainians is becoming harder to contain. >> nbc's matt bradley reporting from ukraine this morning. david ignatius, we crossed the ten-month mark of this war. before we know it, it will be a year that ukraine has been under attack from russia. they continue to go after civilian targets. they continue to go after infrastructure, like the power grid, as the cold winter grips that country. president zelenskyy, of course, was here in the united states last week, pleading with the united states congress to hang in there with him. what does this look like now, as we turn the corner into a new year? how long do you expect this war to continue? >> so, willie, we're in a particularly brutal phase of this war. on the ground, it's a stalemate. it's a war of attrition, bitter

artillery battles that remind people who visit the front of world war i and the slaughter there. if you stand back and look at this last year, i think there are some basic conclusions. for russia's vladimir putin, this has been a disaster. it turns out he has failed in his basic attempt to remake the face of europe rather than splinter europe, get more russian advantage. he's brought europe together in a way that i haven't seen in decades. it's been a year of success for ukraine. this country that's just amazed the world, thrilled the world, inspired the world with its bravery in standing up to russia. they get pounded without heat, without light. these daily attacks on the infrastructure. yet people come back, when i visited ukraine this year, i found absolutely unbraeblg

resolve by people determined to move forward. it's been a year when president biden has done a pretty good job in keeping the allies together, in maintaining a flow of weapons to ukraine and keeping bipartisan support for the war, the visit of zelenskyy to the white house, and then congress last week was an example for that. finally, this is a war that because of its brutality, the whole world would like to see end. and yet, there isn't an end game that's clear to me or to most observers. russia and ukraine are still so far apart on their demands for peace talks. russia says, you have to accept that we have annexed these four territories, ukraine says, we won't think about peace talks until all russian troops withdraw. there simply isn't ground yet for peace negotiations. we'll head into next year in a war of just shrugging it out and wars end finally when combatants are exhausted. and maybe that's what the spring and summer of next year will show. i do know that the united states

is trying to figure out ways to help ukraine target russian forces more precisely in ukraine, not in russia, but in ukraine. teach them how to advance more rapidly on the battle field, in the hope that that will change the balance. but this is a war in which the whole world should be astonished by what ukraine achieved and see that russia's power is far distant from what putin pretended it was when he launched the war, february 24th. >> mike, the world is inspired and astonished by what the ukrainian people have been able to do and my their courage through all of this, but it doesn't mean that they don't continue to suffer every single day as we see in that report from matt bradley a minute ago. >> it's an incredible story, spine, the character, the fierceness, the willingness to fight for their own country. the ukrainians are a role model for all of those things, especially living in a country that large parts of it, as david just mentioned, have literally

been destroyed by russia. and the rebuilding of ukraine will be a colossal and very expensive effort that's going to have to take place wherever they sign a peace treaty, wherever peace comes to ukraine. but david, you were just in ukraine a couple of weeks ago. and what you just mentioned, i would like to ask you a little bit further. the ukrainians are going to get increasingly sophisticated weapons systems, including the patriot missile system. so targeting and training, could you speak to both of those issues from the point of view of the ukrainians? the sophisticated targeting necessary with these weapons and the training to how to use these weapon systems that they're being given. where does such training take place? >> mike, i wrote at the end of the year a serious about what i call the algorithm war. and a part of this war that has not been really visible is the

extent to which the u.s. and all nato partners are helping ukraine with the most advanced tools of warfare, in effect, electronic battlefields. where commercial satellite imagery of every space of this battlefield is uploaded constantly, updated with intelligence, the location of russian tanks and other equipment is detected by artificial intelligence algorithms that are produced by a pentagon program that updates them literally every month. so, there's a lot of modern technology combined with the most basic, ancient skills of war fighting, bravery, courage, standing in trenches, fighting off an enemy. that's part of what makes this war so extraordinary. the ultramodern and the ancient pch the ukrainians have managed to combine those two in a way that i think will change the future of warfare.

we've never seen a war quite like this, with as many technology tools. and the message to china, i would think, as china thinks about attacking taiwan is, be careful. the americans and their allies have more in this technology space to do intelligence and targeting than most of the world understands. >> let's bring into the conversation someone just back from ukraine, award-winning correspondent, charlie senate. he's the founder and editor of the ground truth project, recently traveling to kyiv to visit ukraine's leading newsroom. charlie, it's good to see you. this is an angle of the story that we don't talk about a lot, but such an important one, getting the truth of the war out to the world. tell us about up and the newsroom you visited there. >> good morning, willie. u.p. is an extraordinary newsroom. where you see people going about their jobs trying to tell the truth of this war. it means ukrainian truth.

they go by the name u.p. and i've just never seen a newsroom just so focused. we talk all the time about the way this country is showing resolve and its endurance. the newsroom is an incredible lens to watch that through. every day, a team of about 50 are going out into the field, risking their lives. you have people back in the office who are constantly fighting off cyber attacks. they're also constantly fighting off incredible cold. you know, they are part of this entire country trying to survive this winter with what really amounts to a war crime of trying to punish collectively a people by plunging them into darkness and really frigid temperatures. and just being there with them and sort of in solidarity, really, in their jobs, watching them go at it was really -- it was really inspiring, it was humbling, and it just reminds us of the incredible importance of those who are on the ground, reporting on their own country, and telling the story to their own citizens of what's really happening in there.

and i came away just in awe of the work they do every day. >> mike barnicle, i'll let you take it to charlie, but i want to read part of what he wrote in his amazing piece, talking about the newsroom being in one of the meetings when it was interrupted by urgent alarms. charlie writes, quote, the phone alerts are silenced and the members of the news teams stare with great intensity at their phones, reading their text warnings and firing messages to colleagues, family members, and military sources while following the latest government bulletins. they are checking on loved ones and colleagues at the same moment they're trying to cover the daily story. this is what the modern equivalent of air raid sirens feels like. and each member of the team knows precisely what to do at this moment. they pack up their laptops and head for an interior room without any windows and supported by thick cop crete wallace, where they will continue the meeting. they pray the power stays on so they can keep newsroom functioning, since their aging generator is not always enough to pull them through the night shift. just another day at the office,

quips the editor, of the english language edition of u.p., mike barnicle. >> so, charlie, you've covered fighting in afghanistan, you've covered fighting in gaza, and now you've been in ukraine. mechanically, how do they get the news out, by the hour, by the day? and what form do they get the news out? >> it's a digital news organization. so they are constantly online. and this is a country that's very much online. people have good smartphones, they are constantly checking their phones. people are checking their phones with a different level of intensity than we do in this country, of course. because they're looking for every minute to get an update on what's going on. but one of the most difficult challenges, mike, is power. this is a newsroom that plunges into no power. so when i got there, they were using an old generator, diesel-powered generator. they had to go out late at

night, try to foernlg for diesel, bring it back. they had the fumes choking back from a fire escape into the newsroom, which is a five-story walkup. it was just untenable for them to make it through the winter. one of the joyful moments we had was to bring them a new generator, a generator that can hold power for three to five days and it's solar powered, so they can put the solar panels out on the fire escape and they're in business now for their overnight shift. that meant so much to them to be able to do that. and so that is -- that's why i was there, really. to try to help the newsroom, to see what they needed. we brought kevlar vests helmets, first aid kits, but what they really need are power, more resources to help them to continue to just bring the information to their own country. they're at like, right now, they have about 35 million unique visitors to the site, but they're into the billions of page hits since the war started.

and they've become this juggernaut of information, reliable, accurate. and as you say, it comes through this incredible hard work around the clock, fact checking, out in the field, seeing their reporters out there risking their lives is something i don't want us to forget. tremendous reporting from your reporter from the field today. but there's an army of people who are there reporting on their own country. and it was kind of a different level of intensity to watch that in action. >> they're incredibly brave, and they have been brave for a long time, reporting about the oligarchs of russia and what they've been up to over the years. you can read charlie's account online at thegroundtruthproject.org. it's great the see you. thanks for bringing us the story. happy new year. >> thanks, willie, happy new year. coming up next, we're digging deeper into new revelations from the january 6th select committee before it is set to dissolve tomorrow, including testimony about former

president donald trump's desire to issue pardons for everyone who participated in the capitol attack. "morning joe" is coming right back. ck "morning joe" is coming right back finding perfect isn't rocket science. kitchen? sorted. hot tub, why not? and of course, puppy-friendly. we don't like to say perfect, but it's pretty perfect. booking.com, booking.yeah.

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boy, is that a beautiful picture. it's 7:00 on a friday morning new york city. looking downtown there. my gosh, it's almost photoshopped. t.j., did you do that? let's take it to midtown in times square, where the ball will drop tomorrow night. ringing in 2023. good friday morning. it's december 30th. welcome back to "morning joe." joining the discussion, pulitzer prize winning columnist and associate editor of "the washington post" and msnbc political analyst, eugene robinson. and the host of msnbc's "politics nation," the president of the national action network, the reverend al sharpton. good morning to you all. we are learning several new revealing details this morning

about what happened in the trump white house before, during, and after the january 6th capital attack. the january 6th house select committee released a new trove of deposition transcripts from key witnesses late yesterday, including former head of personnel at the white house, john mccentee. he told the house panel that former president donald trump wanted to issue blanket pardons for everyone who participated in the attack. saying, quote, the president floated the idea and pat cipollone said "no," referring to former white house counsel, pat cipollone. mcentee continued, i remember the president saying, well, what if i pardoned the people that weren't violent, just walked into the building, and i think the counsel gave him some pushback on that. new transcripts reveal that former president trump also considered firing any member of his staff who did not believe that the election was stolen from him. cipollone mentioned a memo that stated, quote, anyone that

thinks that there wasn't massive fraud in the 2020 election should be fired, end quote. former white house aide cassidy hutchinson added this about that memo, saying she addressed cipollone about it, she said, pat looked at it and said something to the effect of "god no," but cipollone said he did not remember that interaction. what's more, alyssa farrah griffin described her tenure as, quote, a wild eight months. griffin revealed one serious skbron going problem was a lack of organization to the surprise of no one. she described a white house where jobs were filled with more underqualified staff because more qualified individuals would not take positions in the administration. any reports about the white house being chaotic were more or less accurate. that included there being no competent gatekeeper to stop harmful or unhelpful information from getting to then president

trump, which led to this moment in april of 2020 at the start of the covid pandemic. >> supposing we hit the body with a tremendous, whether it's ultraviolet or very powerful light, and i think you said that hasn't been checked, but you're going to test it, and then i said, supposing you brought the light inside the body, which you can do, either through the skin or in some other way. and i think you said you'll test that, too. sounds interesting. and then i see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in a minute, one minute. is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning. it gets in the lupgs and does a tremendous number on the lungs. it would be interesting to check that. >> that's the president of the united states in the middle of a pandemic. griffin said she tried to stop

trump from making those now infamous remarks, but was blocked by trump's chief of staff, mark meadows, who allowed for easy access and unchecked passage of bad materials, conspiracy theories, and anything else to make its way directly to the president. so gene robinson, again, it's not particularly surprising to hear it was a chaotic white house. we've known that for several years, but to get these firsthand accounts from what was happening in realtime during a covid pandemic, that crisis, and of course, around the 2020 election. and we'll get to more on this in the legal side of it. but the idea that donald trump dangled the concept of giving a blanket pardon to anyone who came into the united states capitol on january 6th, who attacked the united states capitol on january 6th could have repercussions for him down the road. >> yes, i guess it could have repercussions for him. and the prosecutors are always looking for his consciousness of guilt and his state of mind, his intent that day. and i think this perhaps speaks

to that. he knew that there was legal jeopardy for those people and wanted to relieve that legal jeopardy. none of this is really surprising, willie, in a sense, but it is shock and we should be shocked that the white house, the presidency of the united states of america functioned in this shambolic haphazard crazy way for four years. and it just got worse and worse and worse, until it culminated on january 6th it's just amazing that is we allowed this to happen.

the national security of our world was under the charge of these people who are in no way competent or sane to guard that security. >> and we know when trump first became president, there was somewhat of an effort to have some adults surrounding him, particularly on the national security side. some grown-ups and professionals. they all faded away during his four years in office. very few exceptions. and by the end there, in that period after the election, before january 6th, staffers left, there had been a covid outbreak, there was no gatekeeper whatsoever. and that's how the sidney powells and rudy giulianis of the world got through. but people have raised this idea to me, a worrisome one. only the incompetents that

surrounded him at the end, they would be there right from the start the next time around. >> those of us that have dealt with donald trump and fought with him, dealt with him over the decades realize that donald trump in effect ran the white house in the way that he ran his business. there was no one that had a check or plans or even an advisory position in trump organization, which has come out in some of these investigations. he tried to run the who is like a one-man shop. and he did. and i think that that is very concerning. it's very disturbing, and no adult would want to work in that kind of atmosphere. if it became president again, it would be worse. if we all stop and count our blessings tomorrow night, thank god that we survived, we want to

thank god that we survived donald trump, because we don't know how close we were to disaster every single day that man was sitting in the oval office. >> not just close to disaster, we did lose a million people to covid that we didn't have to lose. but in the election, the question was, in 2016, donald trump asked black americans what do you have to lose. everything, as it turns out. >> white americans too, by the way. >> not just black americans. we lost a lot. the country is exhausted. i don't think anybody, including republicans wants to go back to having donald trump in the white house. he's proven to be an loser for them in the elections that we just had, the midterms. so we'll see what happens. but i also just have to say, it's not just the chaos. it's very easy to get focused on the chaos, the clownery that did

take place in donald trump's white house, but it's far more nefarious than that. what you ultimately had was donald trump focused not on the american people, but only on him and what he could earn and take from the presidency of the american people. and those around him were focused on that goal as well. nobody was doing the people's work, nobody was protecting americans from covid, were looking out for our well-being, our economy. was really looking out for us at all. what was really happening, they were looking out for themselves. he was surrounded by grifters, he himself is a grifter, and that's far more nefarious than people who are incompetent. maybe we shouldn't be grateful. what the committee really tried to do here as they show, yeah, it's an open door. these conspiracy theorists could find trump's desk, but he made the decision to act on them and

that the road map they are now trying to give to the department of justice. >> it would have been nice to have a gatekeeper in mark meadows who kept some of those people outside the oval office. he didn't. but as you say, donald trump was going to find this garbage however he got his hanz on it. let's bring in joist vance, an msnbc legal analyst. good to see you. as you watch these transcripts come out and hear this testimony directly from the room, from people who were there with donald trump, from trump advisers during the pandemic and around the 2020 election and january 6th what legal questions come to mind? >> the committee's job, as you all have been discussing was political. they were engaged in oversight. they created a factual record, a narrative of what happened, with just a magnificent report and set of transcripts. and the question now, and i'll put my prosecutor's hat on and say, the question now is, what

does d.o.j. do with it? as we read the transcript, something that's very familiar emerges for prosecutors. because the transcripts, the narrative here reads far less like an oversight of a presidential administration. it has far less to do, for instance with hillary clinton, testifying for 11 hours about benghazi. there is so much of an effort to keep the truth from coming to light. so much energy seems to be spended on that. there are so people with terminal outbreaks of bad memory, people who can't remember details that just really seem startling. there are people that have legitimate loss of memory, but people who can recall events that occur around startling or strong events like the president trying to overthrow an election after he's lost it. so now the challenge for doj is this. can they break through all of that obstruction.

will they be able to get to the truth and find prosecutable offenses based largely on this massive body of information that the committee has put together. >> well, they do have a lot to work with here at doj. >> this is going to be with us for many, many months and years to come, what happened just in the course of one presidency, one short, thankfully, presidency. four years. we're going to be carrying the baggage of this as a country and a culture for many, many years forward. joyce, it seems that the republicans led the house oversight committee and house judiciary committee, which is going to be led by the truly illogical jim jordan of ohio, it seems they are intent on investigating the fbi, they're going to charge that the fbi was acting in a conspiracy to help

the democratic party. when you were u.s. attorney, could you speak to your relationship with the fbi, your thoughts about the fbi, their integrity, their professionalism, as opposed to what some republicans are maintaining today? >> so, it's a good question, mike, and my relationship with the fbi actually goes back, it proceeds my 25-year tenure with the doj where i worked closely with everyone from special agents on the ground to special agents in charge of fbi offices, as well as leaders in washington and found them to be people of immaculate professionalism who valued the search for the truth and to hold people accountable. when i hear criticism of the fbi, i'm forced to think about the investigation into the death of my father-in-law, a federal judge who was killed by a mail bomber, and how the fbi conducted themselves in such an astonishingly competent fashion,

dealing with a crime that was virtually unsolvable at the beginning, following all of the steps meticulously, and most importantly, following the evidence wherever it led, without any sense of fear or favor. we say those words a lot in law enforcement, without fear or favor. and they really mean something. and to the fbi, they mean a lot about who they are as an organization and how they conduct themselves. and the final thing i want to say is this. when you have a president using his bully pulpit to criticize a law enforcement agency, when you have congress going after a law enforcement agency, it diminishes trust in that agency and it makes it more difficult for them to do their job, which is to protect all of us. so that's the mission that congress, that the republican-led house has now assigned itself to some extent, that they will rye to tarnish the image of these fine

professionals in an effort to serve their own political aims without thinking about how that will impact the country. >> they've promised to spend their early days in power in the house looking into the fbi and other organizations. msnbc legal analyst, u.s. former u.s. attorney, joyce vance, thank you very much, and happy new year you. >> happy new year. brazilian soccer icon pele, the only soccer player be three world cup titles has died at the age of 82 after a year-long bought with cancer. nbc news senior national correspondent tom llamas has a look back at pele's life and legacy. >> reporter: his goals, more than a thousand, legendary. his records, three world cups, unmatched. and his name, known around the world, pele. born into poverty in the fa zellas in brazil, he started out kicking around socks and grapefruits before dominating the schoolyard, where he picked

up the nickname, pele. in 1958, at just 17, he burst on to the world stage, becoming the youngest player to score a goal in a fifa world cup match and two more in the finals. brazil went on to win the cup, its first ever. pele would again lift the trophy in 1962 and 1970. the major european football clubs tried to recruit him, but he stayed loyal 19 years with his brazilian team, santos. few americans at the time knew any professional soccer players, but everyone knew pele. thrilled when he signed with the new york cosmos in 1975, before retiring. >> i feel very, very sorry, because i love soccer. and it's like a part of my life i lost. >> reporter: off the field, pele became one of the most well-known celebrities on the planet.

a pitch man -- a frequent white house guest. >> you probably are aware of who are with me here today. by the way, my name is ronald reagan. >> reporter: world leaders and some of the biggest names in sports saying good-bye. olympic sprinter usain bolt poke posting, a sporting legend, rest in peace, king pele. cristiano ronaldo posting in part, he will never be forgotten and his memory will live on forever. and former president obama writing, as one of the most recognizable athletes in the world, he understood the power of sport to bring people together. and whether you call it soccer or football, you know pele was the king of the game. >> nbc's tom llamas reporting there. eugene robinson, as a kid who grew up in the united states before soccer really became the prominent sport that it is now, playing football, basketball,

and baseball, the name you knew was pele. probably, i guess there's some debate now with messi and others, but the best to ever do it. >> well, when i was correspondent in north america spent a lot of time in brazil. pele was brazil. that spanned a period of maybe 40 years or longer. who was the greatest of all time? you know, brazil is the only country that has won the world cup five times. pele was on three of those teams. the only individual player to have played on three winning world cup teams. he was the greatest of all time and that's to take nothing away from messi and ronaldo and now

mbappe, but pele had every skill in the game. and every kid in brazil wanted to do the things that he could do. they wanted to do his bicycle kicks and his headers and his amazing dribbling through entire teams, as if they weren't there. and he was a great ambassador for brazil, too. around the world, he met kings and queens. he met presidents and prime ministers. he was brazil. he was -- for a long time, the most famous athlete in the world. and that distinction was well deserved. and there'll probably never be another like him. >> gene writes, it's not likely he's the greatest soccer player of all time, but on that short list of famous athletes, it's wayne gretzky, it's pele.

he did so much to grow the popularity of the sport, particularly here in the americas, in the united states. but he just meant a lot to so many people. >> he did. and he was able to really make the sport global. because as said, soccer was not a real global sport in terms of people in this country and others following it. pele is the one that crossed it over. and the thing they thought about when i heard of his passing is that nelson mandela, i was at a meeting one day, when he said, the way he tried to unite south africa and later they did a movie about it, was with soccer. he would go to the soccer game and stand with the soccer team and many of theafricanas that were opposed to him couldn't believe it. that's what pele did. he wasn't an activist like ali,

but he was an activist. he really was iconic because of what he did. he used his talents to do what he didn't have to say with his mouth. >> the term certainly applies here. pele is an icon and the great pele died yesterday at the age of 82. still ahead this morning, the debate over bail reform takes center stage in illinois today as the state prepares to do away with cash bail in the new year. we'll break down what this could mean for public safety. plus, new details about congressman-elect george santos in the wake of those revelations he's been lying about who he really is. we'll talk to gene robinson about his new piece arguing, quote, the most honest thing house republicans could do would be to welcome santos with open arms. gene explains next on "morning joe." on "morning joe.

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it is 6:26 in the morning in the great city of chicago, illinois. and officials there in cook county say they will proceed with the elimination of cash bail on january 1st after a ruling by a circuit court judge held portions of the controversial safe-t act were unconstitutional. the state's attorney general says he now plans to take it to the state supreme court. >> these are people who have not been convicted of offenses, these are people who have been arrested. we are making decision in many cases, sometimes for minor offenses, that people should be detained because they can't afford to bond themselves out. oftentimes, we've had people spend more time in jail than they would had been sentenced had they been convicted of the crime day one. and that makes no sense whatsoever. >> to help us sort through this, we're joined now by nbc news

correspondent shaquille brewster live from chicago. explain to us if you can what's at issue, and what some of the pushback is on it. >> good morning, willie. well, this is all about the elimination of cash bail. illinois attorney general telling me that he will immediately appeal this ruling, that essentially allows most counties in the state to at least delay implementation, even as the most populous counties plow ahead. when this law was passed, just months after the murder of george floyd, it was seen as both a major criminal justice victory, but also a serious liability. now, in just a few short days, it will become a reality. as crime-focused ads flooded television air waves this fall -- >> the lawlessness of chicago will soon be the law statewide. >> a sweeping new law in illinois took center stage in conservative messaging. >> didn't illinois just pass some new law? the purge -- >> the safe-t law. >> reporter: illinois attempting to become the first state in the country to abolish cash bail.

if the law survives legal challenges, those accused of crimes will no longer need to pay a dollar amount to be reid. instead, judges may determine detention, eliminating the wealth advantage. >> in the 35 years i've been a prosecutor, this is probably the biggest change in the criminal justice system that i have ever seen. dupage county state's attorney robert berlin was used in ads attacking the law. >> we are going to have violent criminals out on the street. >> he and other state's attorneys secured changes signed into law this month. >> i was a vocal critic back then, but with this amendment, that's changed everything. judges have the tools to detain violent criminals, to detain defendants who are likely to commit other offenses and put the community at risk. >> reporter: chicago's chief public defender, sherome mitchell has been opposed to the

existing system for years. >> we're moving to a system that's more serious, more informed, and more fair and just. >> reporter: a federal government report shows that more than 60% of defendants are detained pre-trial because they can't afford to post bail. the report finding stark racial and gender disparities with young black men over 50% more likely to be detained pre-trial than white defendants. >> if you look at the jail population, it's much more reflective of who has access to money as opposed to who's been determined to be a risk of flight or risk of public safety. >> during the height of the pandemic in 2020, trade dozier spent three months in a chicago jail when he couldn't post bond. >> the anxiety and fear that every day i spend in jail the rest of my life is falling apart, is in free fall, because of this situation that i was seeing as just a misunderstanding that needed to be sorted out. >> reporter: after his partner's tiktok post about their

experience went viral -- >> he was forced to ration his insulin, which led him to go missing three times because of dementia from his diabetes. and this last time he went missing, he was obviously confused and accidentally opened a lady's passenger car door, and police on the street assumed he was stealing the car. >> reporter: the bail project stepped in to help pay the $10,000 required to secure his release. >> the new law would have given somebody the opportunity to actually look at the real true circumstances of my situation, my arrest. >> reporter: do you think without the financial assistance from the bail project, you would still be in jail right now? >> yes, i do. >> now, willie, republicans in the state of illinois have been opposed to this legislation, yesterday, celebrating the ruling, saying that this is essentially a solution in search of a problem. it's also important to note that the safety act is not just about cash bail. there are a slew of other police accountability and reform measures, things like

decertification processes, a ban on choke holds and neck restraints. even you have provisions that set new training standards for police departments across the state. there's also victim right reform in this legislation. this is a massive change in the state of illinois, and that's why you're getting some of that pushback. but as things currently stand right now, it will be implemented on january 1st. >> all right. nbc's shaq brewster. shaq, thanks so much. we'll have mayor adams on in a few minutes here, new york city mayor eric adams on. he's obviously grappled with this question of cash bail. something that's come down from albany, that's a lot of cops say has hamstrung them, that they arrest somebody on the subway, they send them before a judge, and that person is back committing a crime on the subway the next day. it's been implemented, this pullback of cash bail with varying success in several states across the country. what do you make of what's happening in illinois? >> well, i think that again, you've got to deal with the fact

that the abuse of just holding people because they cannot make a bail is not a way that you deal with fairness and equity in the criminal justice system. i think we all must be concerned about people going back into their particular cities and committing crimes. but by saying that therefore, because we're concerned about that, we're going to have an unfair and uneven criminal justice system, that means if you cannot afford to get out, we'll hold you and ruin people's lives, which in fact has, is not the answer. which saw the success of what is going to happen a lot of january 1st, that is very important to them. i think that some people may see

it as an overreaction seeing no cash and are concerned about crime rising. the data has not shown that that has always been the case. >> we'll talk to mayor adams coming up at the top of the hour. >> we've been talking a lot this morning and this week about george santos, gene's piece is entitled "in george santos, the gop gets the representative-elect it deserves." in it, gene writes this. quote, the most honest thing house republicans could do in my view is welcome santos with open arms. the party embarked on the path of micro-believe politics long before santos came on to the scene. all he did was expand the frontier. gene continues, santos' carapace of lies are so elaborate, we should consider legal issues. now his idea of building a

political career and the republican party on sharp edge rhetoric and audacious lies was hardly original. santos just took that routine further than his soon-to-be colleagues have done. we've had lots of metaphorical empty suits in congress over the years, now comes the emptiest yet. you may get what you're ask for here, because the leadership of the republican party has been completely silent about this guy, because they need his vote. he cannot afford mccarthy to spare a single vote. >> that's right, i don't think you'll hear a peep until that is settled and he hopes he becomes the speaker and we'll see if he does anything, even in the ethics committee investigation, which would seem to be a no-brainer. very difficult not to see him in

congress just constitutionally, but he can be expelled, by a vote of two third of the members and he can certainly be investigated for all of these lies. but, he kind of fits right in. i mean, a lot of republican party politics these days is not about policy, they didn't even have a platform for the 2020 presidential election. the platform was just well, whatever donald trump wants. and no set of policies or anything. a lot of it is about performtive outrage, it's about being provocative. it's about sending out outrageous tweets like marjorie taylor greene does and raising a lot of money off the back of that because she owns the libs. you raise a lot of money and accumulate a lot of power it's

about the pretense of people like ted cruz, a graduate of princeton and harvard law school, clerked for the chief justice of the supreme court, and he goes out and rails about how elites, these liberal elites are somehow picking on regular folks like him and it's a sham. it's an act. and george santos just kind of took it to its ultimate extreme by making up a whole persona or set of personas that simply don't exist. so he's the emptiest suit yet to take a seat in congress, but it looks like that's what he's going to do. >> and as you say, using that playbook says the media is out to get him. no, in this case, the truth is out to get him. eugene robinson, thanks so much. great to see you and happy new year to you and your family. we'll see you soon. >> same to you, willie.

coming up, the stories that define 2022. we're taking a look back at the biggest stories of the year, next on "morning joe." e biggest stories of the year, next on "morning joe."

ever. 7:41 in the morning. it's a live look at the friday before in times square where that ball will drop tomorrow night on what we're told will be a balmy new year's eve in times square. now with two days left in the year, we're taking a look back at the biggest stories that shaped an eventful 2022.

here's nbc news correspondent, joe fryer. >> the headlines that defined 2022 were seismic and historic. europe's largest armed conflict since world war ii. a supreme court decision that overturned more than four decades of precedent, the death of a monarch who had reigned for 70 years. yet, in its earliest days, 2022 seemed more like a copy cat, mimicking the worst quality of the two previous years. >> now to those staggering new covid numbers. daily cases surpassing 1 million. >> reporter: as the new year began, our fight with covid stubbornly raged on. >> a lot of them are really sick. >> reporter: with the rapidly spreading omicron variant killing 60,000 americans in january. though with time, the pandemic did loosen its grip. >> the transportation security administration will no longer enforce the federal mandate

requiring masks on all u.s. airports and on foreign aircraft. >> reporter: as mask mandates vanished. >> thank you. we can breathe again! we were so happy. >> reporter: but new threats emerged. >> there is growing concern about another virus called monkeypox. >> reporter: monkeypox, flu, the respiratory virus rsv. >> it's a serious illness with him being this young. >> reporter: overseas, it was a different battle that rattled the world. in february, russia stormed into ukraine with high expectations, only to be met by a resilient foe and its inspiring leader, president zelenskyy refused to flee. the strikes pushed ukrainians to bomb shelters and to the country's swollen border. >> you hear the whistles and families that have come with all of their belongings and people

are hugging and saying good-bye and not sure if they will ever come back. >> reporter: millions of ukrainians suddenly became refugees. but as the year progressed, ukraine's military took back land that had been lost just months earlier. steady progress in a long war, now doctoring the dark days of winter. in america, winter stormed in early. >> we've seen over 50 inches of snow in under 24 hours. a record-breaking snowstorm dumped nearly 7 feet of snow on the buffalo region, while in florida, hurricane ian pummeled the coast with winds that reached 155 miles an hour. >> you can't withstand this kind of stuff. >> reporter: just shy of a category 5. >> these cars were all nicely parked and they're now all floating freely. >> reporter: it would be florida's deadliest hurricane since 1935.

gun violence continued to devastate communities across the nation with hundreds of mass shootings. >> we all ran to the back. he was shooting at the milk. >> reporter: ten were killed at a supermarket in buffalo, seven at a fourth of july parade in highland park, illinois. five were murdered in a lgbtq nightclub in colorado springs. and at an elementary school in uvalde, texas -- >> can you tell the police to come to my room? >> i've already told them to come to the room. we're trying to get someone to you. >> reporter: 19 young children and two teachers lost their lives when a teenage gunman ravaged their campus. >> you know, how did he get in there? >> reporter: adding to their grief, questions over law enforcement's delayed response. [ chanting: hands off ] >> emotions were high across the

country when in june the supreme court overturned roe v. wade. >> i feel like i got punched in the stomach this morning. >> reporter: for some, there was anger and fear. >> we're not going to be treated as second class citizens. >> reporter: for others, it was a celebratory moment decades in the making. >> this is an amazing victory. >> the right to life has been vindicated. the voiceless will finally have a voice. >> reporter: abortion was one of many issues dominating politics in 2022. so was inflation, which reached 40-year highs. >> in every aspect, it's higher. you know, but your wages don't go up any higher. >> reporter: in the spring and summer months, the national average for gas soared. >> $5 a gallon is crazy. >> reporter: while president biden's approval rating dropped. despite that, democrats were able to fend off a red wave during the midterms. >> nbc news is now projecting that democrats will maintain control of the senate. >> reporter: holding the senate while narrowly losing the house.

in the election's wake, speaker nancy pelosi announced that she was stepping down from leadership, just weeks after her husband was attacked in their home. >> for me, the hours come for a new generation to lead the democratic caucus that i so deeply respect. >> reporter: the dust from the midterms was still lingering in the air when the 2024 campaign began. >> in order to make america great and glorious again, i am tonight announcing my candidacy for president of the united states. >> reporter: former president donald trump declared his candidacy, running again amid a laundry list of investigations. that includes a raid of his mar-a-lago estate, where the fbi seized thousands of documents, some marked "classified." while back in washington, the house committee investigating the january 6th insurrection held televised hearings, one of the star witnesses, a 25-year-old former trump white house aide named cassidy hutchinson. >> he didn't look up from his

phone and said something to the effect of, there's a lot going on, cass, but i don't know. things might get real, real bad on january 6th. >> reporter: in london, queen elizabeth celebrated her platinum jubilee marking 70 years on the throne. her june appearances on the buckingham palace balcony, flanked by family, including her scene-stealing great grandson prince louis would end up being her final times on that storied perch. >> some sad, breaking news. queen elizabeth ii, britain's longest reign monarch has died. >> in september, the queen died at the age of 96. her son, charles, immediately ascended to the throne. >> as i stand before you today, i cannot help but feel the weight of history. >> reporter: for the uk, it was a year of transition, with one prime minister resigning --

>> i want you to know how sad i am to be giving up the best job in the world. >> reporter: then just weeks later, another. >> i am resigning as leader of the conservative party. >> reporter: three leaders in a single year. >> i will unite our country. >> reporter: change was on the minds of protesters in iran. they took to the streets, angered by the death of a young woman who died after she was arrested for allegedly violating the country's strict dress code. while in russia, american basketball star brittney griner spent most of 2022 behind bars, convicted of drug charges -- >> this has been very traumatic experience. >> reporter: before she was released in december in a prisoner swap. ♪♪ . the world gathered in beijing for the winter olympics where chloe kim captured gold again.

>> opening ceremony number five. >> reporter: as the flying tomato came in for a retirement. >> this is i think my last run. >> no matter what this is it? >> i think so, yeah. >> reporter: tom brady also retired and then 40 days later un-retired. and another g.o.a.t. seemed to step away from tennis. but later she proclaimed i am not retired. >> serena williams, who is your best friend? >> reporter: will smith's oscar win overshadowed by the slap heard around the world. smith later apologized. >> what the hell?

>> good morning, aviators. >> reporter: blockbusters came roaring out with "top gun" topping a billion bucks at the worldwide box office. that was not the only sequel making headlines. bennifer is back. j.lo and ben affleck tied the knot 20 years after the first engagement was called off. nasa's launch was called off a few times before taking off in november. twitter got a controversial new owner and supreme court got a history making justice replacing the retiring breyer becoming the first black woman to sit on the high court. >> in my family it took one generation from segregation to

the supreme court of the united states. ♪♪ along with historic hellos there were notable good-byes with the death of bob saget, singer wynona judd, sidney portier and grease star "olivia newton-john. ♪♪ timeless members of the past as the world looks ahead to 2023. joe fryer, nbc news. >> so much to say about the year that we are leaving but you lock back at that segment on the school shootings and struck again by the scope of them. whether a school in uvalde or a

shooting at a parade or a club q why that scourge stays with us for another year. >> willie, every year i am always amazed that school shootings and senseless shootings that take the lives of so many young ten finish in the top ten of the biggest stories of the year when it is the number one story. the tenth anniversary of the sandy hook shooting. uvalde. we swim through a society filled with guns, a niagara of handguns in this countries and alongside politicians with lack of common sense with the annual refusal to address this issue. that to me is and always will be

the number one story of our flawed culture until we address it. >> ten years later another sandy hook in this country in uvalde. the war in ukraine an international story that's an american story as president biden has stood at the side of president zelenskyy and pledged support and given support with him asking america to stay by the side of the american. >> a massive war in europe. there are predictions that russia would take kyiv in a matter of days. the ukrainian flag flying proudly over kyiv as the forces have showed resilience and bravery with help from the u.s.

and the west to repel russia and as the year draws to a close still in control of most 0 of that country but a war that shows no signs of ending. what stands out to you? >> i have to say that the hate crimes, against blacks as the shooting in buffalo, ten people at a supermarket killed. i preached two of the funerals. and then the shootings at synagogues and the shootings of lgbtq people at places. latinos. bringing the hate summit at the white house that i give the president credit for working with us. hate crimes on the rise. it's still with us and we should not forget that. >> as we are at the penultimate day of 2022 what stands out for

you? >> when i think about what befb through in the past several years, barely surviving the trump presidency and then covid, unemployment, rise in hate crimes. it is overwhelm jeff gordon the war in ukraine. i think there's a reason for hope. this is the year that democracy fought back both in ukraine, here in the united states. denying election deniers office. there's room for hope. there's a saying that i hold close to my heart from mart loout king which is we may not be where we want to be but thank god we ain't what we was. that's what i'm feeling. we have a long way to go. >> that's well said. as you said people turning

people back. i want to add in reason for joy and hope and that is aaron judge returning to the bronx with the yankees and the red sox doing nothing to improve their lot. thank you for that. >> yeah. agree to disagree on that one. >> all right. next here, new york city mayor adams will join us. to talk about what's next for more than 8.5 million residents living in his city. "morning joe" will be right back.

beautiful live picture at 8:00 on the button in new york city. welcome back to "morning joe" on this friday, december 30th.

it is our final "morning joe" of 2022. jonathan, mara, reverend al all still with us. it was one year ago this weekend when this took place in time square. >> i will faithfully discharge the duties of the office of the mayor of the city of new york according to the best of my eighties so help me god. >> congratulations! >> new york city mayor eric adams sworn in after this year's ball drop in times square with a frailed picture of his mother dorothy while vowing to carry out the duties asia mayor of new york city. he joins you now.

we have a table of people to ask you questions. if you look at the polling which is pull safety, a former new york city cop who promised to change the way the city feels, crime is up 23%. murders and shootings are down. you promised more stronger policing in 2023 to get at those numbers. what does that mean to you? >> let's go back to january and february. we were up in the major crime categories by 40%. when you look now you see a trend down 20%. when you look at the last almost eight weeks you see a continuous substantial decline. the seeds we planted to allowed me to do the number one focus.

shootings and homicides down. look at the transit system. 6.3 crimes a day. that is the lowest numbers that we have seen in decades so we are moving in the right direction. police are responding accordingly and we are moving in a place we need to be. the big problem is a catch release repeat system. approximately 1, 600 people repeat offenders. arrested for gun charges they are back on the streets. it is not sustainable. >> you led me to the next question. we were talking about the state of illinois and cook county getting rid of cash bail in the

new year. what needs to change about that law so you don't have police officers saying we arrested this guy yesterday and saw him committing a crime on the subway today? how do you change that? >> we pinpoint the problem. when you look at what's called the criminal justice reform, these were my bills and the bills i sponsored and looked forward to in the state senate. it was about fixing a broken system but zero in on the recidivists. approximately 1,640 people are arrested. we had a person who shot three individuals. he had a long arrest record out

on probation or bail for what his actions were. that is what is feeding the criminal justice problem. not only in new york but the entire country. the repeated offenders. that's my fight when i return to albany to say zero in on the recidivists an entweak the law. >> mayor adams, as you deal with the recidivism, at one level you have to deal with protecting people that can't afford to be treated justly in terms of reform and a reason that we said that many of the top black lawmakers should have a summit because it is how do you struck the middle of trying to get this

done where we don't sacrifice peoples' liberties based on the economic standing but don't have the communities that are subjected to violent criminals. we have gone down in high areas but we could go down more if we got on a unified page. >> so true. it is about justice. it is not just prosecuting and i stated this on the campaign trail and live through it now. intervention prevention. when you zero in the d.a.s don't have the attorneys. the defense attorneys do not have enough attorneys. there's something else that many people don't realize. there's never been a mayor in the history of this city doing

more in the prevention area like i am. summer youth jobs. every done before in history. facing for tuition for foster care children. private and public school. what we did with the summer rising program. 110,000 children went to school in the systemer to catch up. we are partnering with blockchain to have the green jobs available. connecting them with probation officers. i visit reichers prison more than any other mayor and see the prevention and intervention plan. >> don't we need more resources

in prevention as well as more resources in terms of people to defend people that need defense like legal aid is not funded a lot. don't we need a lot more resources in the right place rather than catch it at the end of what happens that is sometimes ugly and unfair? >> without a doubt. once a person has a gun in his hand we have already failed and that's what been happening. my policies are based on the life i lived. i know what it is to be arrested and dyslexic. you have a mayor that lived the life of people living right now. our city and chicago we have been inundated with crises we

did not create. el paso would not be going through this. this is a national problem and needs a national response why 31,000 people at our doorstep and i had to deal with make sure they were not on the streets, got food, housing, education for the children. >> i want to talk to you about homelessness in the city. the stats are staggering from the coalition for the homeless. 22,000 single adults in shelters a few weeks ago. new yorkers in shelters up 35% and a sense that the homeless in new york highest sense the great depression. you unveiled a new plan but

critics say that police officers who you have empowered to make that decision are the wrong people for that job. what is your response? give us the plan to battle homelessness. >> let's peel back the layers. i think it is unfair to report a clear appropriate to those with mental health illness that cannot take care of basic needs. that is who will participate in the involuntarily bringing to the hospital to do a proper diagnosis. it is inhumane to allow people to be on the street that cannot take care of basic needs and in danger to themselves. anyone with a mental health and sweeped up taken to the hospital

is untrue. to allow people with severe illness, if they want them on the street that is inhumane and not going to happen under my administration. i stated that we are not going to allow encampments. we removed the encampments on the subway system and the streets. human waste, drug -- bipolar. that is not appropriate. the other mistruth is that this is not a police led initiative. we say it over and over again. we have outreach workers and mental health professionals that reach out. do you need the police?

a call, a mother called for her son dealing with a man tall health illness. the young man stabbed his mother and the police officer. these are real issues and not just a cookie cutter approach. lastly the homeless issue is a real issue. we know far too well in new york city we are right to shelter city to give everyone shelter within a certain amount of time and the only way to do that is build more housing. officials say don't build on my block or district. the housing issue is a city wide issue and cannot be a sacred place. units in willis points.

units in the bronx that did not have them. units in parts of manhattan to rezone. we know the issue and the only way to combat it is to build more housing and that's what we will do in this administration. >> happy new year. >> same to you. >> thank you. it is very easy as mayor to be bogged down and each mayor certainly dealt with a share but you have been in office a year. mayor deblasio launched a pre-k initiative. is there an initiative that you hope to be associated with that new yorkers can feel? >> yeah. think about it for a moment. you are right. first mayor in the history with dyslexia screening. it mean that is that 30 to 40%

residents at rikers island are dyslexic. first mayor to get the land trust passed to get real economics in to the housing plan. never been done before. many people tried but they failed. earned income tax credit for families that need money in the pockets. billions of dollars to child care. something that's a number one issue that parents can't get back to work and adequate child care. universal. children with mental health disabilities getting child care seats where they can get the same thing that other children were not getting. i don't want to be known by one person in a broken system but a

mayor to turn this around and that's what we see every day. >> mr. mayor, what's tomorrow night going to look like in times square? looks like a warm night. maybe rain but warm out there. you confident it will be a secure and celebratory night in times square? >> when you reflect on this administration year to give it a proper analysis we never lived in just surviving but thriving. a covid process. a problem. an issue with crime surging. an economy that was in a terrible state. you see a cover ri.

we inherited an economic challenge and looking at those things and we continue to move the ball forward and will bring in the new year. 2022 was my rookie year. 2023 is my aaron judge year. i look forward to bring it back. >> the bar is set high. new york city mayor eric adams, congratulations on one year in office. >> happy new year to you all. >> thank you. good news this morning for southwest airlines. the company is expected it says to return to normal operations after several days of kans laegss and delays. correspondent blayne alexander has more.

>> reporter: planning to fly some 4,000 flights today on the heels of an unprecedented week that left more than 15,000 flights grounded and stranded passengers. >> every flight was overbooked. >> reporter: after the meltdown comes the makeup with southwest promising to return lost luggage to passengers, shipping bags for free, even flying them on their own planes, and setting up a special website for passengers to submit receipts to get reimbursed for hotels, food and rental cars while stranded. it's something transportation secretary pete buttigieg promised to enforce. >> we are going to be putting southwest airlines under a microscope in terms of their delivering these kinds of reimbursements and refunds to passengers. >> reporter: in a scathing new letter to the airline ceo buttigieg lays out priorities for the airline to its customers from paying $3,800 to each passenger with provable damages

from lost luggage to repaying the cost of flights booked on other airlines. buttigieg says his department will use the fullest extent of its investigative and enforcement powers to hold southwest accountable. >> the airline said to me they were going to go above and beyond what's required of them. i am looking to make sure they actually do that, and if they don't we are in a position to levy tens of thousands of dollars per violation, per passenger in fines. >> reporter: does your department share any blame in this? should you have seen this coming? >> we have taken every step to increase the standard of customer service right now. now, i can't go in and fix an i.t. system for an individual airline that is failing to do its job, but as a watchdog our department is going to do everything it takes to hold them accountable. >> let's hope today is a better day for southwest passengers. nbc's blayne alexander reporting there still ahead on "morning joe," congressman-elect george

santos under federal investigation. what officials are saying about the new probe. plus, joined by an award winning journalist visiting newsrooms in ukraine during the war there. his account when "morning joe" comes right back. ♪ i won't be happy until i see "morning joe" again ♪ ♪ until i'm home again and feeling right ♪ ♪ mika joe and willie do it right ♪♪ >> congratulations on 15 years of intelligent, thoughtful conversation and thank you so much for including me.

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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. well, we fell in love through gaming. but now the internet lags and it throws the whole thing off. when did you first discover this lag? i signed us up for t-mobile home internet. ugh! but, we found other interests. i guess we have. [both] finch! let's go! oh yeah! it's not the same. what could you do to solve the problem? we could get xfinity? that's actually super adult of you to suggest. i can't wait to squad up. i love it when you talk nerdy to me. guy, guys, guys, we're still in session. and i don't know what the heck you're talking about.

nbc news now can confirm congressman-elect george santos of new york is under federal investigation. the probe is at least the second faced by santos. the nassau county district attorney said this week the office would look into santos after it was revealed he lied. nbc reports the federal investigation is said to be in the very early stages and not zeroed in on any one allegation of wrongdoing just yet. prosecutors are examining the finances including potential irregularities with financial disclosures and loans made to the campaign while running for congress. santos loaned his 2022 campaign

$700,000 claiming he made millions from a company he founded last year. that company was dissolved in september and reinstituted by santos after the report that revealed the lies. a spokesman for the eastern district of new york district attorney declined to comment. a spokesman for santos and house republican leadership have not responded for comment. the congressman-elect admitted to embellishing the resume. as the lies pile up so do the questions including when did his mother die. future congressman given several conflicting timelines on the death. he wrote on twitter 9/11 claimed

her life and then said december 23rd. mom you will live forever in my heart. as you have done the math that means december of 2016 and not 2001. both tweets are up on the twitter account. santos claimed while both parents at the september 11th terror attacks neither died. >> i get emotionally. my parents were day. fortunately none of them passed. >> we could not confirm that interview date. many people at the attacks developed cancer. congressman-elect santos did not respond to the request from nbc news for comment. we can add this, when did his mother die question to the long

list where he claimed he was biracial and jew-ish. it is all listed in "the new york times" interview. i guess the question people have is what happens now? there's a federal investigation. might be an ethics probe. republican leadership is silent because kevin mccarthy needs santos' vote to be speaker of the house. and don't want to give the seat back to democrats. >> we have to wonder if his name is george santos. with the calculation it is striking how striking they have been because kevin mccarthy doesn't have the votes to be speak ir. santos pledged to support kevin mccarthy. if santos were to resign one

would figure democrats would be favored in it. it is so disturbing. seems to be no bottom in terms of what santos is willing to lie about. still questions raised about the story about the employees being murdered in the pulse nightclub shooting in florida. he does seem to be almost the perfect embodiment of the republican age of trump. right now george santos is on track to be a member of congress. >> it is disturbing. it is the latest iteration of drama in the new york map. actually control of congress depends on some congressional

map making that went wrong in new york. this seat is quite important. flipped by the republicans. we'll have to see what happens in the courts because if there's any crime committed or potentially committed he is under investigation. i covered years ago michael grim the former congressman who did have to resign indicted so there's a special election. voters may have as you pointed out to vote in a special election. you have a public servant who is lying to us and the con sit wepts. >> right. >> that is not acceptable no matter the political party. who is he? can he be trusted? this is not the kind of behavior to see from anybody. >> this is by the way an

important election. a long island seat flipped from a democrat to a republican and giving them the narrow margin in the house. there's the question of what happens now to santos and then a question of a week now which is how did it get to this point. how did we not know this before? how did opposition research and media not find this? how did this man get this far? >> this is a lesson in gullibility. there was a long island newspaper that wrote back in september. nobody paid any attention. the basic details of some of the fabrications didn't make an impact on voters. "the new york times" in december had a detailed examination. there are the serious issues about what does it mean for

kevin mccarthy. what are the legal ramifications. this reminds me of a great hollywood story about people that are great fabricators like on netflix. there's a great movie with le dicaprio. herman melville wrote "the confidence man." so it's a part of political life. santos has done it again. shame on all of us, especially voters, not looking at the facts an enso struck by the hollywood

details. george santos, if you are not going to be in congress think about calling an agent in hollywood to see if this can be a mini series. the latest from ukraine as missile strikes target critical infrastructure again. "morning joe" is coming right back.

large swaths of ukraine are in darkness after russia launched one of the biggest attacks of the war on the electric facilities. matt bradley has details. >> reporter: rockets have returned. 69 missiles aimed mostly at russia's preferred targets of electricity infrastructure. like this facility in the eastern city of kharkiv that

burned for hours. the country in darkness. 40% of kyiv without power according to the mayor. the attack looked like retribution. coming only days after a ukrainian drone struck an air base deep inside russia killing three russian service men. the ukrainian military said it shot down the missiles at kyiv but an intercepted missile can rain down ruin. the strikes injured three in kyiv including a 14-year-old girl. look at the crater. a man and his son was in this home and lived. they escaped after fast reacting neighbors forced open the door. are you angry about this? sad? >> what else can i feel now? it is not even hate. i just feel contempt for these

people that for many ukrainians is harder to contain. >> matt bradley reporting from ukraine this morning. david ignacius, it will be a year that ukraine is under attack from russia. they continue to go after infrastructure like the power grid as a cold winter grip that is country. president zelenskyy was here last week pleading with the united states congress to hang in there with him. what does this look like now turning the corner into a new year? >> we are in a particularly brutal phase of this war. on the ground it is a stalemate. a war of attrition. bitter artillery battles that remind people that this is the front of world war i and the slaughter there. if you look at the last year there's basic conclusions.

for russia's vladimir putin this is a disaster. however it turns out he failed in the basic attempt to remake the face of europe. he's brought europe together in a way that i haven't seen in decades. it's been a year of success for ukraine. this country that amazed the world. thrilled the world. inspired the world with the bravery. they get pounded. without heat. without lite. these daily attacks on the infrastructure and people come back. i found absolutely unbreakable resolve. i think president biden did a pretty good job to keep the allies together in maintaining a flow of weapons to ukraine. the visit of zelenskyy to the

white house and then congress was an example for that. this is a war that because of its brutality the world would like to see end and yet there isn't an end game that's clear to observers. they're still so far apart on the demands for peace talks. russia said you have to accept that we annexed the territory. there isn't ground for peace negotiations. we'll head into the next year in a war of slugging it out. wars end when they are exhausted. maybe that's what the spring and summer will show. i do know that the united states is figuring out ways to target russian forces in ukraine. learn how to advance on the

battlefield to change the balance. this is a war in which the world should be astonished by ukraine and see that russia's power is distant than putin pretended it was. >> mike, the world is inspired and astonished by the ukrainian people but doesn't mean they don't continue to suffer every day. >> it's an incredible story. the spine, the character, the willingness to fight. they're a role model. especially living in a country that large parts that have been destroyed. by russia. rebuilding of ukraine will have a very expensive effort to take place whenever they sign the peace treaty when peace comes to ukraine. david, you were just in ukraine

and what you just mentioned, the krahns -- ukrainians are going to get the missile systems. targeting and training. could you speak to that from the point of the ukrainians? sophisticated targeting necessary with the weapons and the training to use them that they are being given. where does the training take place? >> i wrote that after the latest visit to kyiv a series what i called the algorithm war and a part that's not visible is the extent to which nato partners are helping with the more advanced weapons of warfare. commercial satellite imagery of

every space updated with intelligence. location of russian tanks detected by algorithms produced by a pentagon program that updates every month. there's a lot of technology combined with the most basic ancient skills of bravery, courage, standing in trenches. that's part of what makes this war so extraordinary. modern and the ancient. they combined them in a way that we have never seen like this with the tools and the message to china i would think as they think about attacking taiwan is be careful. the allies have more in this

technology space for intelligence and targeting than most of the world understands. >> let's bring in someone back from ukraine, charlie senate of the ground truth project recently in ukraine. good to see you. this is an angle of the story that is important. getting the truth of war out to the world. tell us about the newsroom you visited there. >> good morning. u.p. is a place where you see people going about the jobs trying to tell the truth of the war. the name of the organization means ukrainian truth. they go by the name of u.p. and never seen a newsroom so focused. the newsroom is a lens to watch that through. every day a team of about 50 are

going out risking their lives. people back in the office constantly fighting off cyber attacks and incredible cold. they are part of this country trying to survive with what amounts to a war crime trying to punish a people by plunging them in darkness and are frigid temperatures. being there with them and in solidarity in their jobs watching them go at it was really inspiring, humbling and remine us of the importance of those on the ground reporting on their own country materialing the story to citizens of what's happening in there. i came away in awe of work they do every day. coming up, more revelations of the house committee investigating january 6.

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as the final days of 2022 come to an end, we want to take a look at the women who broke barriers, stood up to injustice and trail blazed a path for others despite immense challenges this year. women at home and abroad have fought to save democracy and their own fundamental freedoms. from the ballot box to the streets of iran to the battlefields in ukraine. make no mistake. women were at the front lines of it all. front lines of it all. joining us now for our year in review is ceo of all in together, lauren leader, msnbc host jasmine joins us and the

nonprofit newsroom focused on gender, policy, and politics. what a great panel. thanks for being with me. lauren, start us off and talk about the midterms and how women really showed their power, especially with abortion turning out to be one of the prevailing issues that drove voters. >> i think the lesson of the 2022 midterms is don't underestimate the power of women. all over is uper, pundits were saying that other issues were going to be more important than abortion but women said no. it's what motivated them to register to vote, especially younger women, and for women overall across the spectrum, it drove them to the polls and delivered election results to the democrats that really very few people except maybe the women who were paying attention expected.

>> erinn haines, if you look at whitmer, hochul, the kansas governor, pennsylvania democratic attorney general josh shapiro, all of these people campaigned and won on the abortion rights platform. >> that's exactly right. to lauren's point, if you were paying attention, you knew this would be an issue because abortion was on the ballot. you mentioned gretchen whitmer, who told her story on the campaign trail and that was something that resonated with voters. you had even male candidates in pennsylvania, abortion was on the ballot in the governor's race, in the senate race, fetterman and shapiro saying they were going to protect reproductive rights as an issue.

that was something that i think, you know, for people who were predicting a red wave, they were not predicting that abortion was going to remain front and center. >> it's so weird because a lot of the polls were not showing abortion as a top-tooefr issue. >> yeah. >> so we were sort of watching this play out in real time where people literally told us with their votes what mattered, and 12 women now will serve as governors up from 9 in 2004, so women's issues were the top of the ballot and a lot of women ran for office. >> mika, we talked about this on air about two weeks out from the midterm elections. president joe biden was talking about abortion rights being one of the integral issues going into the midterms and there was a lot of criticism especially on air as why the president wasn't addressing the economy because the economy was the number-one issue for voters, gas prices and inflation.

but abortion proved to be the number-one issue. i was there in front of the supreme court when roe was in fact overturned. i spoke to not only lawmakers there in front of the supreme court but protesters as well talking about how are you going to maintain this momentum to the midterms, and i thought, considering the way history plays out, that it was going to be pretty m possible. but there seemed to be a lot of optimism they could do that. in fact, they did, and kansas kst was kind of the first indication that was going to be able to happen. i went to pennsylvania a couple weeks out, talked to a lot of women voters on the ground in pennsylvania, talked about abortion rights as well. >> that's a really good point. for a lot of women, these issues were linked. abortion is also an economic issue. >> sure is. >> women who need access to abortion care are mothers. >> i want to end by pulling back and look at the globe.

yasmin, maybe we can start with you quickly on the women of iran and their fight for their rights and the women who-in ukraine who are fighting in a different way on a different battlefield, but, wow, are women ever stepping up for themselves and their countries. >> those two stories are absolutely connected, right. as i have been told by the iranian diaspora in the united states, think about this, guys, this is the first female revolution ever. they're calling it a revolution that's happening in iran. these are millions of women every single day months in now putting their lives on the line because they recognize it is time to have equal rights. they recognize a change needs to happen in the country of iran. they are leading this fight more so than anybody else. people ask what is next? what can really happen? can this topple the government of iran? whatever the ultimate end goal

is, that country is never going back to what it was, even just three months ago. these are women going out into the streets with jeans and t-shirts on and no head scarf. it is astounding to think about that reality for myself, an iranian-american woman, who knows how that government operates and how brutal they are. but these women, as they tell me in the diaspora here as well in the united states and across the world, really, they are helping push exactly what these protesters want on the ground there, supporting them, keeping their voices alive as they are continuing to put their lives on the line every single day in iran. and a woman-led revolution, something we have never seen in this world. >> democracy relies on women and that is what we're seeing around the world. it's so extraordinary, in ukraine as well. we talked about it all year, mika, the way in which women hold the keys to democracy for everyone in their societies, and that's why this is so powerful

and men have galvanized as well because they know without women's rights, none of our rights are safe. >> erin haines, yasmin vossoughian, lauren leader, thank you very much. before we wrap things up, a big head to news in 2023. know your value and forbes are hosting the second annual 30/50 international women's day summit in abu dhabi from march 7th to 10th. it's a global event bringing together generations of women from both the 30 under 30 and 50 over 50 lists from around the world. we've got a great lineup. former secretary of state hillary clinton, gloria steinem, malala. to learn more about the summit, go to know your value.com. we'll be right back.

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