mccarthy made to conservatives. still saying this morning it's not enough. this could be a subcommittee of the judiciary committee, look into what they are calling weaponization of the federal government, who are the targets? the targets are fbi, cia, and the broader intelligence community. the department of homeland security for that disinformation panel that they put out. this, jonathan, is driven by conservatives ire over the twitter files that elon musk has put out saying that the federal government is overreaching the areas it shouldn't. this was disclosed in a "wall street journal" column with the headline, the committee on sensors and snoops. >> mike allen, we appreciate it as always. going to be a busy day there on capitol hill. thanks to all of you for getting up "way too early" with us on this tuesday morning. "morning joe" starts right now. this is about demar hamlin,

and it's about a young man at 24 years old that was living his dream, that a few hours ago was getting ready to play the biggest game of his nfl career and there was probably nowhere else in the world he wanted to be, and now he fights for his life. we forget that part of living this dream is putting your life at risk. and tonight, you know, we got to see a side of football that is extremely ugly. >> shock and sadness during monday night football. buffalo bills safety demar hamlin is in critical condition this morning in a cincinnati hospital. he suffered cardiac arrest following a hit during last night's game. we're following the latest on his condition this morning and also the outpouring of support. also this morning, kevin mccarthy has already moved into the speaker's office on capitol hill despite an influential

group of republicans who have vowed to vote against him today. we'll tell you why we may see something on the hill today that hasn't happened in 100 years. we're also digging into donald trump's latest excuse for defeating his party in the midterms. quote, it wasn't my fault, he declared. we'll tell you who he is blaming now. plus, moscow says dozens of russian soldiers have been killed during a massive missile strike in an occupied part of ukraine. we'll take a look at what that means for the ongoing war there. good morning, and welcome to "morning joe." it is tuesday, january 3rd. >> willie, we're going to be getting to so many of those stories and more, but first, we of course are shocked by what happened last night at a game that really, i think a lot of people thought was going to be one of the highlights of the season. so a lot of people were watching

last night as this tragedy unfolded. and i've got to say, i don't really remember another nfl game that was brought to a halt and stopped and postponed. the nfl did exactly what it should have done. >> without question postponing that game. this was the only game. it was a monday night game. a highly anticipated game between the bills and the bengals, josh allen, joe burrow. all eyes were on this game, and they watched in horror as buffalo bills safety demar hamlin suffered a cardiac arrest on the field during the game. the incident occurred during the first quarter after hamlin made a tackle. he stood up, and then fell over on his back and lay motionless on the ground. 24-year-old player immediately was tended to by medical personnel, and was administered cpr right there on the field for nearly ten minutes with reports

he also required a defibrillator. he was given oxygen as he was loaded into an ambulance driven off the field and taken to a hospital. emotional players, coaches standing by. the bills knelt to pray for their teammate. in a statement posted on twitter, the bills said hamlin's heart beat was restored on the field and he was transferred to the university of cincinnati's level one trauma center where he was sedated and listed in critical condition. about an hour after the play was initially suspended after that game was suspended, the nfl officially postponed the game indefinitely. we're going to show the tackle that led to demar's collapse but we're going to show it once, give viewers a chance to look away now if they don't want to see it. this is how things played out on the field. >> there you see hamlin makes

the tackle, and the bengals receive a higgins there, and kind of gets wobbly and falls over backwards. as we said, joe, cpr administered for nine minutes on the field, a stunning spectacle as the two teams kneeled, praying, hoping for the best. some players, josh allen, the star quarterback, openly weeping on the field knowing this was something different they had seen before ever. the only thing i can compare it to is hank gathers in 1990, you'll remember that college basketball star that suffered cardiac arrest on the court and collapsed there. big star in college basketball at the time, 32 years ago, but nothing like this, that i can remember. we're going to talk to peter king in a second here on a football field. >> let's bring him in, nbc sports columnist, peter king. looking at the hit, you know, when i first saw the news break last night, i thought, oh, it's

going to be another one of these horrific shots that we see. it was a hit we see a hundred times every weekend in the nfl, so there was nothing particularly different about that tackle that he made. what can you tell us about the cause, what people are speculating as to the cause, doctors? >> well, joe, a lot of people last night and into the early morning hours today are basically understand exactly what happens. when someone's heart stops, it needs to be addressed immediately by medical professionals. at every nfl game on the sidelines, there are a total of about 25 medical professionals, both emergency medical

professionals, and you know, orthopedic specialists and others, but there is a score of people at every game that understand when a heart stops exactly what they have to do, and that last night meant that damar hamlin got exceedingly good help, and he got it very very quickly. now, i think what everyone kind of wonders now, okay, is this guy going to be all right. and i think there is reason for optimism this morning. and that reason for optimism is because his heart started again on the field, according to medical personnel who were there. he was put into an ambulance. and taken to a level one trauma center. the university of cincinnati medical center. so there probably was absolutely

the medical attention he received was about as good as a person could get in that situation. and i think damar hamlin clearly, what it appears as though happened, you're absolutely right. 100 times a weekend, i might say 500 times a weekend, there is a play almost exactly like that, a guy makes a hard tackle on a 6'4", 220 pound receiver, higgins, and as normal as anything you ever see in the nfl, and he apparently hit him at the exact perfect location that caused this event to happen. so, you know, luckily for him, he's in a level one trauma center, and he's getting the best care possible. and, look, i'm not going to speculate because i have no idea. i don't think any of us really have any idea, but there is

optimism this morning, whereas last night at 9:00, 9:30, when you saw the players crying on the field, and you basically saw the two coaches get together, and look, i've not talked to either zach taylor of the bengals or sean mcdermott of the buffalo bills, but it was very clear that after a certain point that they probably were not -- not only were they not going to play. i don't think the buffalo bills players, in fact, or the cincinnati bengals players would have taken the field regardless of what they were asked to do. i should just say one thing. there's no indication other than, you know, speculation that the nfl regionally ordered this game to go on after a five-minute period. there was discussion on the field. but my information as of last night and this morning, i do not have that understanding.

>> and according to reports that i have read, there was talk on espn that the players would be given a five-minute break, and then they go back. the nfl came back later, and said we have absolutely no idea where that information came from. because we certainly never said anything to that point at all. i'm going to pass it to willie who has a question for you. just to put this into perspective. this is for us, unfortunately, well, i have two friends whose hearts stopped who had cardiac arrest. one was with a personal trainer at the time. they had a defibrillator, got his heart started again, and he was fine. i mean, i saw him this summer, and he said if medical personnel wasn't there when he had the cardiac arrest, he'd be dead, and sadly, tragically, our good

friend fred hyatt at "the washington post," was visiting his family, walking the streets of brooklyn, he had a cardiac arrest, and there wasn't anybody around for quite some time to take care of him, and it made all the difference between life and death. in this case, as, you know, peter said, the nfl has people on the sidelines. they started treating him immediately. we can only hope and pray for the best here because they had great medical help right there waiting for him. >> yeah, no question about it. it should be said even an elite athlete, and if you're playing in the nfl, by definition, you're an elite athlete can have a preexisting condition that he or she doesn't know about beforehand. we're happy to hear a little bit of optimism in peter king's voice today. we'll look to hear more from the hospital coming up a bit later. i was struck by the two teams gathering together, the two team owners were together in the bills hospital. there are images late last night

of zach taylor, the bengals head coach pulling up to the hospital in his own car to go in and check in himself. this was clearly a moment where football was rendered completely meaningless last night. >> you know, willie, you said this, that this by many accounts was the game of the year in the nfl. it was a game between two teams with a totally of seven losses, and here we are in week 17. both teams on long winning streaks. two of the franchise quarterbacks in the nfl getting ready to play each other for the first time ever. and so there was great, great anticipation for this game. the tv rating on this game would have been out of this world, and i only say that because what you saw last night is what i would call sort of the brotherhood of what happens in the nfl between

teammates but between players on other teams. you see it all the time. if there is an injury on the field during the game where a player has to be taken off, let's say, on a cart, you will see the majority of the players on the other team come over and touch his shoulder pads or basically do something to indicate i'm with you, brother. because every player who plays this game understands. as bruce smith, the hall of fame defensive end of the bills once told me, he said, i am in 60 car crashes every sunday. and you have to do that willingly, willie. you can't be afraid to do that, and so this 200 pound safety always very often will take on guys who are bigger than him because that is this game.

and i just think it's important to realize not only the physical demands of this game, but in some ways, you know, when you look at this sport you see so many injuries happen, and i do think the one thing that is unique about this injury last night is that it brought players on both teams to tears. and it caused both coaches to say, look, we know our team and, look, we don't -- we don't know precisely what they have said, but it's clear that both of these coaches were very much in favor of this game not continuing. and so i think the one other point that really should be made, willie, is that in football, i've covered football for 39 years, and in football, i have seen practices where a guy will go down with a significant

injury, maybe a knee injury, a shoulder injury, he's laying on the field, and the coach will simply move the practice 20 or 25 yards away. and he will continue it because these players have been conditioned to understand that the show goes on. and last night, the show thankfully did not go on. >> yeah, booger mcfarland, the former nfl player who's an espn analyst made the point you made. we all understand injuries come with the game, that things can happen on the field, the line is you get to go home with your family after the game. that's why this was jarring. let's hope and pray, continue to do that for damar hamlin. have they even begun to think about or talk about rescheduling this game. is it a no contest? what do they do with this? >> it's going to be very difficult, willie, because

clearly the bills are in no position to play this game. their airplane, with most of the players and team staff on board, returned to buffalo early this morning. several players stayed in buffalo to be with their fallen teammate. so i don't know what's going to happen. the difficulty right now in thinking about playing this game is that this coming weekend is the final weekend of the regular season. and then the week after that, the playoffs begin. so this game had huge ramifications for the playoffs in the afc. but i don't think many people are thinking about that right now. >> yeah, absolutely. nbc's peter king, so great to have you on, bring us some perspective in reporting this morning. we appreciate it. good to see you, peter. thank you. and joe and mika, obviously that game doesn't mean much, doesn't mean anything including as you saw last night, the players, who came in expecting to have a show down, and within a few minutes, sadly, tragically, they were on

the field in tears praying for their teammate, and we're all doing the same for damar hamlin as he's in a cincinnati hospital this morning. >> no doubt about it. i wanted to open this up to you and jonathan for a minute. you know, willie, we've been critical of safety in the nfl. talking about -- i always talk about what jim told me, the former great nbc pentagon reporter, when he was a radio guy in dallas and went out to interview tom landry his final year, and landry pointed at how big and how fast the players were, and landry turned to mic and said, this isn't the game i grew up in. they're too big, they're too fast. it's just not safe anymore. and we could look at tua. we could look at so many other things that happened this past

year. so safety is an issue, and they have to keep working. they've got to make this a safer sport. that said, last night's tragedy seems to be more of a freak accident than anything else. again, the hit that we saw, that's a hit that happened at least a hundred times on sunday afternoon. >> yeah, you and i have talked about this a lot over the years, and peter king just quoted bruce smith as saying the same thing. i used to cover sports down on the field, and i remember watching someone like ray lewis run full speed, plug a hole and hit a line backer and think, i wouldn't survive that. a normal person wouldn't survive that. it is a little car crash every time they hit each other. as you said, it's hard to know what you would have done, other than cardiac screening for some of these guys who may not know they have a condition. we don't know that about damar

hamlin either. this was a completion over the middle, makes the tackle, goes down, and into cardiac arrest. these pictures, you and i watch a lot of sports, a lot of sports for a long time. the only thing comparable that i can remember is hank gathers because he was such a star as a college basketball player and going down and seeing that happen on the field, this was striking last night. >> striking and terrible. one other note, and a hopeful comparison, christian erickson, the soccer player who collapsed, had a remark on the field about a year ago, he recovered. he was playing again a year later. let's hope the same for damar hamlin. it also speaks to football of course. this game we all love watching and do so with reservations. there are people around the league i know, who have been fearful of this moment, something like this happening, whether a hit to the head or in this case, what was a routine tackle turning into something truly terrible, and it's why so many parents across the country

aren't sure they want their kids to play tackle football because danger does lurk around the corner. that's what the players know, as peter king said, players step on to the field every day knowing that something like this, some sort of terrible thing could happen. that's a deal they make. usually that would mean a knee injury. we certainly know about the cte, and we know the ramifications of head injuries. this is truly terrible, and obviously our thoughts and prayers are with damar hamlin and his family. >> for sure. >> they definitely are, and, you know, it is interesting, you talk about parents. when i grew up, our life centered around church on sundays and football. friday night lights, high school football, and started playing football when i was 9 years old, and played it nonstop. my brother played it nonstop. willie, i know you played it nonstop. and there just has been, again,

and maybe it's just the knowledge of all the things that comes with football that we've learned relatedly. maybe this is why i get hit in the head so many times as a quarterback through the years, mika. maybe that explains some of my problems. but it's just so dangerous now on so many levels that it really does take a kid, just absolutely dedicated to doing it because most parents are going to say, why don't you play baseball. why don't you play basketball. why don't you play soccer? >> and that conversation, mika, definitely has changed since joe and i were running around playing football, we didn't know about ct, we knew about the proper techniques, changed equipment, practice, no hitting in practice and all those things. there's nothing you can do about two huge guys, especially at the nfl level, running full speed at each other, who run 4.4, that's

going to be a problem. we're talking about something we believe is a separate issue from what happened last night but all falls under the safety of football. it does, and we're going to follow the story throughout the morning. any developments we'll bring right away. still ahead on "morning joe," it appears kevin mccarthy's fate will be decided in realtime on the house floor today. we'll have the very latest on his bid to become house speaker. plus, congresswoman katherine clark will soon be the number two house democrat. she'll join us as the 118th congress kicks off today. also healed, moscow says a significant number of russian soldiers were killed in a recent missile attack. we'll go live to kyiv with a look at where the war stands this morning. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. ning you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back.

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i don't understand what they're doing. they're not voting against kevin mccarthy. they're voting against over 215 members of their own conference. their conference voted overwhelmingly, 85% for mccarthy to be speaker. this is a fight between a handful of people and the entire rest of the conference. and they're saying they have the right to screw up everything. well, the precedent that sets is so do the moderates, so do the members from florida. i mean, any five people can get up and say i'm now going to screw up the conference too. the choice is kevin mccarthy or chaos. i think the republican party right now is in the greatest danger of melt down that it's been since 1964. i thought at least the house was going to be a sign of stability, and these five guys decided to go out as kamikazes and see if they can't sink the whole republican party. this is not about kevin mccarthy, this is about the

right of any five members to basically throw away the entire rest of the conference. >> and that's former republican house speaker newt gingrich criticizing republican lawmakers who don't support kevin mccarthy in his bid for speaker, and willie, he knows of what he speaks because there were five, six of us back in 1998 that told newt that we weren't going to support him. i think there are a lot of other people that also have a lot of concerns with him, so we were the five that were willing to go forward and say something. but newt has a really good point here. it's not like the republican party is coming off of a strong win. they under performed badly. they're on their back heels. they're viewed as radicals, insurrectionists, weirdos and

freaks. it's why they lost race after race after race, in swing districts and also in swing states for the senate. so to have this chaos unfold on the floor today when you have it coming especially from let's say the five or six members who are the most extreme, based on political views of most americans who decide elections, well, newt's got a great point, the timing here could not be worse for the republican party, and it just sends a god awful message that republicans just don't have their stuff together. still. >> so they've got 222 republicans in this 118th congress. kevin mccarthy needs 218 of them to vote for him to become speaker. that means he can only lose four votes. you have these five who say they're never kevins. you do the math on that. he does not have the votes as we

sit here this morning. he has made concessions to them already, and when marjorie taylor greene is the voice of reason coming out and saying to those five, hey, guys, take a win when you have one in front of you, let's make kevin mccarthy the speaker. he's giving you a whole bunch of stuff you asked for. let's get the process moving and not start the congress in absolute chaos, which is what it will be if he doesn't reach the 218. this could go on for days and days and days. not the way most republicans, anyway, want to start this congress. >>, mika, what kevin mccarthy should do, not that kevin mccarthy would ever take my advice, but kevin mccarthy should go to the floor, like we're hearing he may do. he should fight it out. he should call their bluff. and i would have one republican after another republican after another republican go to the floor and attack however few people there are and say you're a minority, you are out voted,

200 and whatever, 215-5 and you're destroying the republican party, and because he's never going to be able to negotiate with them. he's going to have to run them over. he's just, and if he can't run it over, and if these five people are going to hold him hostage, his speakership hostage for the next two years, it's not a speakership worth having. >> exactly. >> and by the way, they don't have anybody to replace mccarthy. so call their bluff. it's really his only good option at this point. >> well, the vote on the next speaker of the house seems unlikely to be decided on the first ballot, something that hasn't happened in a hundred years in what could be a premature move, kevin mccarthy continued to move his belongings

into the speaker's office yesterday in advance of today's vote. he's moving in. mccarthy, who has long been jockeying for the top job in the house has spent the last several weeks trying to whip the 218 votes needed to take the gavel. the california republican can afford just four defections from within his own party and still be elected speaker. as willie mentioned, as of last night, five republicans had publicly vowed to vote against mccarthy's speakership bid and another nine signed a letter on sunday telling mccarthy he had not done enough to earn their support. nbc news briefly caught up with mccarthy yesterday. >> do you have the votes for speaker locked in tomorrow? >> i think we will have a good day tomorrow. >> are you prepared to make more concessions in exchange for more support? >> i hope you all have a very nice new year's. >> let's bring in the founder of the conservative web site, the

bulwark, charlie sykes and former white house press secretary now msnbc host, jen psaki, good to have you both. >> charlie, this job has been unmanageable for republicans since people like me were in washington, probably because of people like me in washington. you ask john boehner, job wasn't worth it for john. you ask paul ryan, paul put up with it for a while, but just wasn't worth it for paul, a guy that you and i know very well, and now you have mccarthy trying to get this job, and again, i mean, trying to get it at a low point for republicans where every swing voter, most swing voters think they're insurrectionists, weirdos and freaks and five or six republicans are doing their dammest to prove that what they're saying about them is true. >> and there are no good options for kevin mccarthy. he has been trying to shrink himself and self-humiliate

himself into the position for months and amazingly it is not working so what you're going to see on display is an unruly, dysfunctional party that is uninterested in governing. and as you point out, joe, this didn't just happen. i mean, this has been building for years. you have been creating this political environment with all of the incentives for nihilism, for bomb throwing, and, you know, many of these folks, you know, have been -- i mean, this moment has been coming for a very long time, and it certainly reflects what's happened to the republican party that is no longer really interested in being a serious public policy party. it doesn't have a detailed legislative agenda, and when you have a party that's turned itself over to a cult of personality to bomb throwers, to grifters, we shouldn't be surprised to see that we are

going to have on display, this amazing clown car. all the focus is on, of course, these five holdouts here, but think about kevin mccarthy whose speakership now rests on the vote of people like george santos and marjorie taylor greene. the closer you look, the worse this gets for the republican party. on the day that should have been the big celebration of the red wave. so think about this alternative reality. normally when a political party takes power, this is a moment of celebration. people are feeling good. they're celebrating, and you're not going to be seeing that over the next 12 hours in washington, d.c. >> as i keep trying to remind my former republican brothers and sisters, it didn't have to be this way. they didn't have to follow donald trump down the rabbit hole. they didn't have to push qanon conspiracy theories. they didn't have to push election denying. they didn't have to be the radical extremists that they were. they made the choice.

>> and these are the consequences. >> this is the consequence. you lose the senate and the house is a dumpster fire, and so, jonathan lemire, circling back to what kevin mccarthy can do, give him some insight. ten or 11 of us went after newt in '97. we didn't think he was the right speaker. he was too much of a bomb thrower, and we thought we couldn't ever get our policies discussed or talked about because everybody was talking about what newt said here or there. we went after him in '97. he survived that attempt, and then end of '98, we went after him again, got him out. i say all of this to say newt could never negotiate with us. we were never going to accept newt gingrich as speaker. we were going to get him out whenever we could get him out. it wasn't personal. we just didn't think he was good for the party, and neither did karl rove or w. they were glad they weren't

running for president in 2000 when newt was speaker of the house because they'd have to run against newt and al gore. so here we are, we fast forward to '22 and '23 and kevin mccarthy is trying to negotiate with these guys, these women, there's no negotiating with them. you got to win. politically, you're either going to run them over or you're not going to be the next speaker. >> yeah, that's clear that mccarthy is going to have to do that. we're told, looks like they're going to that floor for a vote. he may not win that first one. it will be 100 years since that happened. they're not going to give up. there doesn't seem to be a credible alternative. and his allies are banking on this. if they stay out there and put pressure, there could be pressure placed to eventually get the votes needed. the other thing is prematurely moving into the speaker's office. talk about literally measuring the drapes before you have the votes. that would be footage we play a lot if eventually mccarthy's

effort to become speaker goes down in failure. jen psaki, there were five never kevins and right now, there are nine who seem like probably not kevins, and that's a pretty tough hill to climb for mccarthy. so give us your analysis, though, of just how weak not just this makes mccarthy but the republican party, and what sort of opportunity for perhaps mischief does this present for the democrats. >> it doesn't have to be mischief, jonathan. if we put this in perspective, it's been almost two months since the election, while it was a narrow majority the republicans won, they knew they were going to be able to take over the speakership. kevin mccarthy knew that, and we're going into this vote today without knowing, no one knows, even kevin mccarthy, whether or not he has the votes. that's a basic rule of politics. don't go into any vote, not knowing whether you have the votes or not. so for democrats, no one would have predicted at this point, the democrats are celebrating hakeem jeffries becoming the first african-american to lead

their caucus, right, that's a big, significant victory for them. it's exciting for them. democrats are jazzed about it, and they're just going to wait and watch this happen because right now, whether kevin mccarthy has the votes, no one else seems to have the votes that we all know of, so it could play out as we have been talking about this morning with vote after vote after vote that fails. that is a potential outcome of today and the next couple of days. >> and charlie, again, if you're just talking about power politics, kevin mccarthy may not be capable of doing it. i know a lot of politicians would say, i don't need your votes, i'll strip you of your committees, put them on your committees, talk to the democratic leadership, and we'll figure out how to have a bipartisan two years. maybe i won't get reelected speaker in two years. you probably won't get reelected either. you're going to deliver nothing

to your district. i'll die a political death before your district gets a dime. again, i mean, i've heard tougher things said behind closed doors on capitol hill. i just wonder if mccarthy is limiting himself by going after wacs. >> there's no prospect that he's going to be able to make a deal with democrats. what's interesting about this, brendan buck made this point in the "new york times," this is a majortarian body. with 218 votes you can get a lot done. without 218 votes, you can't get anything done. and kevin mccarthy one way or the other does not have those 218 votes. nobody else does, and, so, you know, you have to think about what is the end game here? what is the most positive outcome, and frankly, i cannot come up with anything that does not lead to an incredibly

weakened speaker who essentially has allowed himself or herself to be held hostage to the most extreme elements of the caucus. over the weekend, kevin mccarthy, you know, who has been willing to put his manhood in a lock box for donald trump for some time now made concessions to conservatives saying i will allow you to have a vote to oust me at any given time. how is that going to work out in this particular caucus. you got to get john boehner on the phone and paul ryan on the phone and say guys, can you just remind me why i'm doing all of this. is it actually worth it. >> yeah, i mean, charlie, that's exactly right. kevin mccarthy has already made these concessions to these five or 14 depending on the group, including what you referenced, one member can raise his or her hand, i want a vote to oust kevin mccarthy, he agreed to that. what else can he give them. the question is if it's not kevin mccarthy, what happens

next? steve scalise is his number two. i'm sure he would be reluctant to take it from him. jim jordan says, no, i want to be the chair of judiciary. what happens next if it's not kevin mccarthy? >> yeah, nobody knows, and there's no plan b. the one thing that's clear, though, is there's going to have to be a number of votes, and you're not going to talk seriously about a plan b until kevin mccarthy decides he's never going to get there, that he's going to have to get on his cell phone and tell his folks to move his stuff out of the speaker's office, this is not going to happen. maybe return the drapes, and at that point, there's going to be a scramble, and we haven't seen anything like this in a hundred years. i mean, that's what makes today so remarkable. >> we'll be watching. charlie sykes, thank you very much for being on this morning. and coming up, we'll go live to kyiv for the latest in ukraine's fight against russia. plus richard haass will join us with his predicting for what in the world will happen in 2023.

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46 past the hour. we are learning this morning more about a rocket strike on new year's day that killed dozens of russian troops. "the new york times" reports ukrainian forces used u.s. supplied guided rockets to strike at a facility housing russian soldiers in an occupied town in the east. russia has confirmed 63 fatalities due to that strike while ukraine says as many as 400 russian soldiers were killed. neither figure has been independently verified. a spokesperson for the russian installed government in donetsk called the strike a quote massive blow and hinted at errors committed by russian commanders. let's bring in nbc news foreign correspondent matt bradley live

from kyiv. matt? >> reporter: yeah, mika, you mentioned two figures, the 63 dead that the russians claim and 400 or hundreds more that the ukrainians claim. the fact is no matter who you believe this is considered to be the most deadly single attack in the last several months by either side, maybe since the beginning of the war, and that's why we've seen a fresh round of criticism from everywhere within russia, all the way from the top ranks in moscow, all the way down to those russian-backed officials in the donbas region where the hit occurred. you mentioned the errors that were committed by the soldiers who were there, by the senior officers who were instructing them to stay in the makeshift barracks. we heard from the russians in a rare admission, it was probably the cell phones soldiers were using to call home on new year's eve that gave away their position. that's a rookie military error, and that's why we're hearing from everybody, as i mentioned, that they're calling for blood. they want to see the officers responsible for this, for

putting those soldiers in such a vulnerable position, investigated and punished. but amid all of this, there has been a rise of the wagner group, led by a man whose name i think you probably heard before, evgeni, one of putin's closest confidants, and all throughout the past week he has been raising in profile because it's the wagner group that private military contractor financed by the russians, that has done the bulk of the fighting, the most successful fighting on the front lines, not the russian military. and this incident just goes to show once again that the russian military is still battling with its own incompetence within the ranks. meanwhile, while vladimir putin was giving his new year's address from a base far beyond the front lines, pregusian was on the front lines, a lot of

bloggers and commentators, pro russian really applauded. this man is rising up where vladimir putin and his military and leaders are failing. this also just goes to show an interesting dynamic here, one we didn't need to see proof for, the effectiveness of u.s. weapons provided on the front lines and even on the home front. this attack was done by a himars missile system, a surface-to-surface missile system, provided a couple of months ago provided by the u.s. this is just the latest example. now, closer to home, they have been using nasams to shoot down the drone that have been flying over, pelting kyiv and the rest of the country. i spoke with a spokesperson for the ukrainian air force, and he told me the german weapons and western weapons have been effective but this begs the question, can russia keep up the pace of the aerial bombardments far from the front line.

here's what he told me. do you think that the russians could run out of missiles, run of drones? >> translator: on the drones, it depends on how many iran would be able to supply to russia, and how strong western sanctions would be in reducing that supply. on the missiles, we see from military intelligence data that now russians are using their untouched spares and that they are also running out of ballistic missiles. we have seen recently they are now firing and striking ukraine with quite fresh missiles that were produced in september and in the summer. >> we heard from volodymyr zelenskyy, the president of ukraine last night. he said that ukrainians should be prepared for an extended prolonged attack by these iranian made drones. mika. >> nbc's matt bradley reporting for us live from kyiv, thank you very much. willie? >> let's bring in the president of the council on foreign

relations, richard haass, out with ten predictions for the new year, entitled, what will happen in 2023. first off on the list, is the war in ukraine will remain the dominant issue of 2022, albeit at a less intense level. we can talk big picture about the war, which the end of next month will reach its one-year mark. what do you see in the attack, using the himars, americans supplied himar in donetsk, and killing the russian soldiers. what does that tell you about the state of the war? >> ukraine is winning the battle between the militaries, russia is fighting a separate war against ukrainian society. my sense is this goes on. if i were a betting man, i would think this is the pattern we see. i don't think either side can sustain great intensity, and i don't see the diplomats having much to work with. i don't think either side at the moment is ready to make the sort of compromises that peace normally does. ukraine sees no reason to compromise, they're doing better militarily.

they don't see a reason to give up territory. putin would worry the compromise would make him weak at home. i hate to say it, my prediction is this war goes on. >> a lot of people experts have said now because of the success of the ukrainian military, increasing desperation of vladimir putin that they will get more violent, that russia will use these iranian drones and hit infrastructure as they have been doing, killing civilians as they have been doing but to step that up even. do you think things get worse before they get better? >> they could get worse before they get worse. that's, again, the only russian tactic that we see. they don't want to have military on military. they have lost that now for ten straight months. so, yeah, but there's zero evidence that it's breaking the will of ukrainian society. if anything, as we learned during world war ii, those kinds of attacks strengthen the cohesion of society. i don't think the russian haves a winning strategy whatsoever. >> so richard, help me out here, again, i don't get it.

i don't understand. what's in this for vladimir putin. he obviously made a terrible mistake going in. it's not going to get any better for him. he's got a gdp that is smaller than the state of texas. the state of texas makes about gdp of about $2 trillion. he's at 1.6, and there's no reason to believe he's not going to go down more. economically he's degraded, militarily he's degraded. politically he's degraded. there is no up side to him continuing this battle. can he -- is he not still in a position where he can declare victory and move on? >> let's say two things, joe, one is he's not persuaded yet that time is not his friend. he looks at some of the splits within europe. he looks at what happened in the united states, republicans taking the house. he's not persuaded ukraine has

the strength to withstand these attacks. one is he still believes. he's banking, whatever chips he's had, he's moved them into the box that says time is on our side. i can sustain this war better than the other side. i don't think that's right. that's the only game he has to play. i think he's worried if he shows compromise, does what you success, sues for peace and compromises and this will be taken as a sign of weakness and some of these forces, the wagner group and others. the threat to putin is not from the left in russia. it's from the right, the forces he has empowered and i think he's worried that any compromise on his war aims will invite domestic challenge to him as well. >> richard, we know the war is being watched carefully in beijing, and so as you look ahead to 2023, give us a tour of asia, what you see, the major story lines in china, and also japan and north korea? >> japan has its hands full,

dealing with covid, a slower economy, if i were a betting man, i would think it's unlikely that 2023 china's going to use military force against taiwan. i wouldn't rule it out in two, three, four, five years. i think china wants to bring taiwan in. i think china has not ruled out military force. i don't believe they're ready for it yet. they couldn't take the risk of sanctions of where they economy is there. that's my sense there. north korea, i think the odds are we may well see a 7th nuclear test. they continue to do the missiles. it's almost station identification for north korea. what i think is the sleeper issue in asia. the most interesting is japan. what we are seeing is the emergence of a real growing power, economically, politically, and militarily. japan has one of the world's largest militaries, doubling defense spending and politically they're more prepared to use it. now they see taiwan essential to japanese defense. i think you're going to see a

much more forward leaning japan, much more willing to do things with the united states, in terms of worrying about what china is doing. that's a big change in geopolitics in the region and the world. >> with all of that, richard, you say the dominant issue of 2023 will be iran because of the pressure we're seeing in the streets, on the leadership. there's the two factions you we need to compromise with young people in the streets. others say we need to arrest them. how does this play out in 2023. >> i think there's a growing split in the iranian establishment about how to do just this. it's against the backdrop of an ageing leadership, which tends to immobilize things. you have the nuclear program continuing to advance. i bet there are people in iran who wouldn't mind the israelis, or americans for attacking the nuclear program for hopes they could go to the protesters. you have to stop. it's unpatriotic. so my sense is they are getting a bit desperate there. the economy is in shambles.

the currency is not good for wall paper anymore. for iran, here we are, 43, 44 years after the demolition. i think for the first time, the islamic revolution is in doubt. i think it's shaky. i can't say it's at the point of regime change or systemic change but i don't think it's crazy now to begin to have this conversation. i think these protests are not going away, and the day will come when one group of security forces won't till protesters and what happens then? do they go over? do other security forces take them on in that will be the interesting day and that comes sometime this year. >> richard haass, thank you so much. we'll talk to you again soon. our next guest is sharing his gripping personal story of the events that took place on january 6th, 2021, and what led up to the capitol attack. former capitol police chief

steven sund joins the conversation at the top of the hour. "morning joe" is coming right back. the hour "morning joe" is coming right back u bring ubrelvy. it can quickly stop migraine in its tracks within 2 hours... without worrying if it's too late or where you are. unlike older medicines, ubrelvy is a pill that directly blocks a protein believed to be a cause of migraine. do not take with strong cyp3a4 inhibitors. most common side effects were nausea and tiredness. migraine pain relief starts with u. learn how abbvie can help you save. ask about ubrelvy, the anytime, anywhere migraine medicine. ask about ubrelvy, the anytime, when that car hit my motorcycle, insurance wasn't fair. so i called the barnes firm, it was the best call i could've made. call the barnes firm now, and find out what your case could be worth. ♪ call one eight hundred, eight million

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. welcome back to "morning joe." it is tuesday, january 3rd, a live look at the capitol where a lot is going to happen there today. jonathan lemire and jen psaki are still with us. we have a lot of politics to get to. capitol hill is going to be rocking today. >> it's going to be fascinating to see what happens with kevin mccarthy. moving his stuff into the speaker's office. still doesn't have the votes. counting his chickens before they hatch. >> maybe a little bit. >> maybe he knows something we don't, but boy, if you read the headlines this morning, yeah, it looks like the battle for the next speakership of the u.s. house of representatives is going to go to the floor. >> kevin, or chaos? >> and it may be drawn out for quite some time. willie, of course, for so many americans who were up last night

watching what was supposed to be the game of the year in the national football league, instead they saw a tragedy, and really, i think maybe the first time i've ever seen an nfl game postponed. tell us about it. >> yeah, this was the game of the year as peter king put it to us last hour between the bills and the cincinnati bengals. two super bowl hopeful teams, two great quarterbacks going at it. the game was rendered meaningless when damar hamlin suffered cardiac arrest on the field during the game. the incident occurred during the first quarter after hamlin made a tackle, stood up and fell over on his back and lay motionless on the ground. the 24-year-old immediately was tended to by medical personnel and administered cpr for roughly ten minutes. with reports he also required a defibrillator. he was given oxygen as he was loaded on to an ambulance and taken to a cincinnati hospital. emotional players and coaches stood by and the bills knelt to

pray. in a statement posted on twitter, the bills said hamlin's heart beat was restored on the field and he was transferred to the university of cincinnati's level one trauma center where he was sedated and listed in critical condition. about an hour after the game initially was suspended, the nfl officially postponed it indefinitely. in a few moments we'll have a live report from outside the trauma center where damar hamlin is being treated this morning, and we also will speak with the radio analyst for the buffalo bills. a lot more information, mika, to learn this morning. what we know is damar hamlin is sedated in critical condition in a cincinnati hospital. we hope to learn more in the next few hours. >> we are thinking of him, praying for him and his family in these critical hours. we certainly hope, pray that the news we hear is good news. and mika, as we were saying last hour, the hit was not anything out of the ordinary for nfl play. i mean, we've all seen, we've

grown up and we've watched really painful, dreadful hits, where you knew immediately that somebody was going to face some pretty serious physical consequences. last night's hit was the hit, the type of which you saw -- would have seen a hundred times on sunday when the other nfl games were played. so we'll see what the news is. we pray that the medical attention he received came fast enough and his heart began pumping quickly enough, and that he will, once again, be able to if not play, at least live a good life and get out of the hospital. >> we will be following this, and we have a live report coming up. we're going to turn now to politics. we're learning more new details from the january 6th house committee this morning regarding the events surrounding the

attack on the capitol. in addition to releasing transcripts from the interviews they conducted, "politico" points out the panel had also posted thousands of pages of additional underlying evidence in a public data base. the trove includes e-mails between trump attorneys, text messages among white house aides and outside advisers. internal communications among security and intelligence officials all relating to then president donald trump's attempts to overturn the 2020 election. some of the big take aways trump's long time social media guru, dan scavino told the committee the former president wrote his own tweets including the infamous december 19th, 2020 tweet, when trump urged supporters to descend on d.c., and writing will be wild. >> he wrote that after his lawyers told him there was no

legal path forward to overturning the election. >> two days after, trump adviser steve bannon told his spokesperson that he did not necessarily think the fight to prevent a biden administration had ended. the house committee also released trump's complete white house call logs in the days preceding the capitol riot, high lying the then president's extreme focus on remaining in power. and the chairman of the joint chief of staff, general mark milley told the committee he had to dissuade trump administration figures from a suggestion that retired military officers who wrote op-ed's critical of trump shown recalled and court martialed. >> sweet jesus, and more from the joint chief milley, in his deposition he confirms that speaker pelosi asked him on january 8th, 2021, two days after the capitol riot if the nuclear codes were safe from then president donald trump. in that same conversation,

pelosi added that trump is quote crazy. the transcripts reveal milley testified to the committee he agreed with her in that characterization and in that conversation. milley and pelosi's conversation was reported in bob woodward's book "peril," where he responded assuring her the nuclear codes were safe, and would not allow the launch process to occur had it been ordered. in sunday's release of milley's deposition transcript, milley confirms that conversation with pelosi did take place and it was reported accurately. jen psaki, extraordinary testimony. and we keep getting more information. again, more information from people closest to donald trump. as much as insurrectionists, freaks and weirdos want to attack general milley now, those

insurrectionists, freaks and weirdos, remember, he was brought on because he was considered to be a trumper, and the mistake that donald trump made was that general milley, like our men and women in uniform actually, well, they take their oath to the united states. they take it seriously. >> that's exactly right. joe, and look, i think you were just showing pictures of chairman milley, i have sat in a lot of meetings with him. if there were a movie about the military, he would have to play himself. he looks like a military leader, right, and that's exactly who he is. his job is to protect and prevent the use of military force from being used for purposes it shouldn't be essentially. that's not something that typically comes into play for a president because most presidents of both parties are responsible about such a decision. not so for donald trump. and that is a big take away we should all take away from his transcript, and from the reporting that's been done about

his concerns. and the concerns of speaker pelosi that the president of the united states not have access to the nuclear codes, right? i mean, this is so serious and this really should make clear to people how terrible it would be if this person were put back into the oval office again. but, yes, chairman milley suffers no fools. i think he kind of eats coffee beans, he's so tough in meetings. and he is somebody who clearly stood between the president of the united states at the time using or attempting to gain access or gain access to classified documents. he did some of that that he shouldn't have. it's pretty significant what we saw from that testimony. >> absolutely. >> willie, in the lead up to the 2020 election, often mika would express her fear that donald trump would try to stay in office. and try to stay in after 12 noon

on january 20th. i always said, well, that might happen, but for the fact that if you look at military men and women, you look at a lot of the secret service, they just wouldn't allow that to happen. they took an oath to the constitution of the united states, and, you know, i was blessed to represent a district that had five military bases. i worked on the armed services committee, and i saw these men and women up close. they really do believe what they say. they really do take that oath to heart. and that's something that donald trump could never understand. >> no, he would never understand that, and as you listen to general milley's testimony, you read through it. he also said donald trump was in what he called a dark place after the loss in 2020. and he was calling around the world to our allies, general milley was calling around the world to allies assuring them we were going to be okay.

we were stable as a nation. our politics were stable. the question raised by speaker pelosi, that the nuclear codes were safe from the president of the united states, just think about that for a moment, but it was people like general milley who ensured that. almost two years after the january 6th attack, our next guest says the capitol remains vulnerable. he's former capitol police chief steven sund who resigned one day after the violence, and sharing his experience in "courage under fire," chief sung, good morning. >> you say out of the gate, you regret resigning the day after january 6th, why is that? >> i had gotten to know my officers well. i enjoyed being a police officer, a chief, and developed a really good rapport with the department. the morale was going in the right direction. when the speaker went on national tv and called for me resignation, i wish she would have had the facts going into it

about what we faced, what my men and women had to deal with, what i had to deal with before calling for my resignation. >> we'll go through what happened that day and your point of view, which is so gripping issue as you read through the pages of the book. let's talk about the couple of days beforehand. from your intelligence division there was a memo put out that said they picked up chatter that something violent was going to happen on january 6th. were you aware of that? did you get those warnings, and if not, how is that possible that the chief of the capitol police was not made privy to them? >> what you'll find as you go through the book, there's a series of intelligence assessments that are put out for january 6th. the last one being put out on january 3rd pretty late in the evening. it comes down, it's a 15-page assessment with a paragraph at the end talking about it could be violent. they see this as the last chance opportunity to overturn the election. so that one paragraph in itself pointing out that congress is the target, you got to understand everybody that comes

up to protest on capitol hill, their protest is always going to be congress. didn't really ring that, armageddon is coming but the next day they put out another assessment, a special event assessment that says low probability of arrests or civil disobedience, they put that out the 4th, 5th, 6th. there's briefings with members of congress that indicate it's going to be similar to the previous two maga demonstrations. we weren't going into it that we were expecting the type of demonstration or type of attack on the capitol that we encountered. thousands of people in a coordinated attack on the capitol. did not expect that at all. >> despite that, you did ask for the national guard to be placed on stand by, which shows an extraordinary level of concern, different than at other times, and you were denied that request. why do you suspect you were denied the requested. >> on january 3rd, when i racked the national guard was to have them be assigned to our

perimeter, not necessarily stand by, but on perimeter. i have done a lot of special events. i knew we were going to have large crowds and with a joint session of congress, i have a lot of folks inside the building i have to staff. i have limited staff for the perimeter. that's the reason i went and asked. it was concerns over the look f the national guard on capitol hill. >> you were a 25 year police officer with the d.c. metro police as well before you joined the capitol police, and you were 18 months into your time as chief on the january 6th. so let's talk about that morning. when did things take a turn from you, and you realized that those threat assessments had been under played and that you were dealing with something that was going to be violent and that in fact, the leadership of the country was the target? >> i can tell you exactly, 12:53 when we were in the command center, we were dealing with the pipe bomb over at the republican national committee. i was concerned about that because you're looking at a steel pipe bomb. that was concerning. but when i saw the crowd and

someone said there's a large crowd approaching our fence line on peace circle and garfield circle on the west front of the capitol. we saw them approaching and very quickly after they approached, it turned violent. i have never seen a protest turn that violent that quickly where they started tearing away the barricades, beating the officers, getting past the officers and running toward the capitol. i knew things were going bad. >> we know president trump was back at the white house watching on television as this was going on. there were calls for the national guard to show up for reinforcements to show up because of what you just described, it turning violent so quickly. walk us through those conversations you were having, the responses and refusals that you received from people to send help and instead, as you note in the book, security teams were sent to homes under no threat whatsoever. >> that day, if wasn't for law enforcement, we would be dealing with a terrible situation.

the military, i immediately, 12:55 started making my first calls to law enforcement to have them provide assistance. they immediately started providing assistance, the metropolitan police department. i make a call to paul irving, requesting the national guard. we ran into a couple of issues. he wanted to run it up the chain. i had to deal with a 71 minute delay getting approval from the national guard by the capitol police board. i'm the only police chief in the country that has a federal law that prevents him from bringing in federal resources. once we got that after 71 minutes, i had to plead my case with the pentagon. i'm pleading my case to bring the national guard up. they're concerned about optics, the look of the national guard at the capitol. what i didn't know is two days earlier on january 4th, the secretary of defense puts out this memo restricting the national guard from the very resources my men and women would need because they're out there fighting a battle that was a

ferocious battle. he restricts them for the day it's obvious they expected to see violence at the capitol. it was clear, miller and secretary of defense miller and milley had talked about locking down the city, revoking permits because they were so concerned about violence, yet they restrict the very resources --. >> why do you suspect that happened? >> the concern for the look of the military. they were concerned that from the demonstrations of 2020, some of the actions of the national guard during the protests around the white house and comparative cities. >> george floyd. >> yep. raised a lot of concerns. if that's the case, why not implement a change in policy. there's a defense support for civil authorities that's a designated policy. why not change that? instead they put these in place for two days, the two days my men and women would need assistance. you got to understand, what's important is when the police need help, and we dial 911, we're calling the national guard. they weren't there for us.

>> we've said over and over over the last two years, how grateful we are, and most americans r almost every american, for the performance of the capitol police, clearly out manned that day, and d.c. metro coming in to help as well. it has to be said donald trump from the testimony and the reports he got was sitting in his office. he was asked to call up the guard, asked to call doj, asked to call the pentagon and just wouldn't do it. >> he left them twisting in the wind because when you take all the testimony together, and you put the time line together. it's very clear he wanted this to happen, and he wants the count stopped, the electoral count stopped. chief, first of all, thank you, love to just express here how much we appreciate your service to the people of d.c. as a police officer and also of course your service at the capitol, not only on january 6th but the year and a half before that. i want to ask you a question

i've asked people that run the pentagon over the past several months. do you have a fear -- did you have a fear then, do you have a fear now that there are a significant number of members in the capitol hill police force that are sympathetic to the cause of the rioters? >> when you were just talking previously, you had talked about the military and the oath of office. when you look back and see the performance of police officers whether it's capitol police, metropolitan police, and we had a total of 17 law enforcement agencies come and assist me that day, all the way up to the new jersey state police. the first day, you raise your right hand and swear an oath to the constitution. regardless, you know, of anyone's political leanings, things like that, they're police officers, and i think first and foremost, they came and fought that day. i had no indication of anyone providing support and backing away specifically because they supported donald trump. they were police officers and i

think they all upheld their oath. >> and of course supporting donald trump is one thing. i've got a lot of friend and family members who voted for donald trump twice. the question is, though, whether they supported his efforts to get those people to disrupt the proceedings. do you have any concern? should americans be concerned that there are a number of police officers in the capitol hill force that were sympathetic to his attempts to stop the vote that day by bringing the protesters up to capitol hill? >> you'll know on the very next day on january 7th, i put a statement that i wouldn't be prouder of the men and women of the capitol police and the hard work they did. i do not think there's a concern that we have a problem with people that are extremist trump supporters at the united states capitol police. they are driven. in their performance of duty, and i wouldn't worry about that

one bit. they're going to uphold their oath no matter what. >> great. >> given the questions you just heard and overall what you have written about in light of everything that has happened at the capitol, how do you feel? are you in touch with, as you put it, your men and women? how do you feel the moral of the capitol police force is today? >> i'm in touch with my men and women. i talk to them daily. sworn and civilian. everybody went through something that day. morale is not where it needs to be. morale is low. they're overworked. many are working six days a week, sometimes doubles. you know, they're very concerned. the reason i wrote this book, i wanted to defend my men and women. i'm worried something like this could happen again, and i think they share that concern. >> let me ask you also, i'm just curious what you think when we've seen especially following

january the 6th some political commentators mocking police officers who broke down and cried, who were shattered by the experience of being beaten to a pulp by protesters and rioters. and also there are those who seem to take great offense at family members of police officers who died as a result of january the 6th drawing that connection. do you draw the connection between the officers who died and the riots of january 6th? >> yes, i draw a connection between the officers that passed away and the riots. it was a terrible day. i mean, it was a very terrible day, and i still talk to police officers. i went down on christmas day and had coffee with some of the police officers, and even to this day, i have people telling me they can't watch the videos because it impacts them so much.

anybody that would watch a police officer being beaten and denied it, you know, they weren't there. they didn't see what i saw. >> chief, so many people who want this to go away have sort of down played what happened that day, from donald trump all the way down. one member of congress called it a regular tourist visit. stuff like that. how does it hit you when you hear not just comments like that but the testimony, everything we have seen about members of congress who helped foment this, who sent those people to the capitol with their rhetoric and cheered on people as they attacked officers. you have listened to this and watched it for two years, how does it strike you? >> i think one of the most important things, and i talked about it in the book, politicians need to realize people look up to them, and words matter. they have to be careful of the word they use and how it can drive actions. >> we saw the action of eugene

goodman that day who sent the rioters in another direction, protecting leadership of congress. can you speak to, based on what you know now, how close we came to violence, and how serious the rioters and protesters, these people who attacked the capitol came to committing real violence against members of congress. >> you had core groups who came prepared, coordinated, trained and brought equipment for the attack. if it wasn't for the metropolitan police department, i had to ask them for additional resources, if they hasn't gotten there as quick as we had, we may be dealing with dead members of congress. >> that's a terrible image to consider. you have mentioned a few times now in this conversation you worry about the danger that lies ahead, something could potentially happen again, not necessarily around an electoral count, but we know the rhetoric

around political violence has picked up since january 6th. do you believe right now that the u.s. capitol would be adequately safeguarded if something like this were to happen again? >> whether it's domestic political violence or foreign political violence, there's so many failures that happened on that day, and i thought we learned our lessons on september 11th, if you had something come up there, there's been a number of recommendations for the capitol, for making it a target, making it hardened, that still has not been completed. i think people are worried. it could be the capitol, the white house. the failures that existed on january 6th have got to be corrected, whether it's intelligence failures, department of defense, or politicalization of security, they have to be corrected before this could happen again. chief, finally, what can we do. tell us, tell our audience. we have a lot of people on capitol hill and the white house, what do the capitol police need? what can we do to support the

capitol hill police, and make their jobs better? >> continued support. what my men and women went through was horrible. the courage under fire is because of the police officers and rhetoric they've gotten. that's why it's titled that. they need a path forward. they need someone that's going to meet with them, talk with them, tell them exactly what the path forward is, good communications will go a long way. that's one of the things i hear talking to the officers, no one is sitting down and charting what's our path forward to move to where we were once upon a time. >> the new book is "courage under fire under sieged and out numbered 58-1 on january 6th," former capitol police chief steven sund, thank you very much for your service. >> appreciate it, thank you. we'll go live to cincinnati, where buffalo bills safety damar hamlin is being treated after

collapsing on the field last night. and eric wood, who played nine seasons with the team. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. team. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. i look back with great satisfaction on my 32 years of active duty. i understand the veteran mentality. these are people who have served, they'e been in leadership positions, they're willing to put their life on the line if necessary and they come to us and they say, "i need some financial help at this point in time." they're not looking for a hand out, they're looking for a little hand up. my team at newday usa is going to do everything we possibly can to make sure that veteran gets that loan.

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we're following the latest on buffalo bills safety damar hamlin. the 24-year-old collapsed on the field last night during a highly anticipated matchup against the cincinnati bengals. joining us from cincinnati, ohio, outside the trauma center where he is being treated is nbc news correspondent maggie vespa. maggie, what's the latest? >> reporter: so, mika, good morning, from as you can see a rainy cincinnati, as you said, damar hamlin inside that trauma center right now, and the latest according to the buffalo bills is he is in critical condition, sedated inside the hospital after they say suffering a cardiac arrest on the field. they say that is indeed why he passed out. as you saw it was an incredibly scarey ordeal, players weeping

and consoling each other. medical personnel working to save hamlin's life. fans stunned by what they saw. the league taking the step of postponing the game after hamlin was taken off the field in an ambulance. it seemed like a routine play, buffalo bills second year safety, damar hamlin, tackling cincinnati wide receiver higgins in the first quarter of monday night's game. >> another bill's player is down. >> after the hard hit, hamlin quickly jumped to his feet, suddenly his body went limp and the 24-year-old collapsed to the ground. the chilling incident shocking players and fans who watched it unfold live on monday night football. >> they are intensely working on damar hamlin. >> reporter: an ambulance was rushed on to the field where for at least ten minutes, medics administered cpr to the young player. overnight, the bills saying hamlin suffered a cardiac arrest and his heart beat was restored on the field.

players on both teams knelt in prayer, the gravity of the situation, some crying, including josh allen. >> nobody is concerned about football right now all the way around. america right now is concerned about one thing, the health and safety of this young man. >> reporter: fans silent during the ordeal. later applauding as hamlin was placed on a stretcher and driven off the field. both teams headed back to the locker rooms, and short after, the nfl postponed the game. league releasing a statement that read in part, hamlin received immediate medical attention on the field by team and independent medical staff and local paramedics, he was rushed to a local hospital where he's in critical condition. >> we got to see a side of football that is extremely ugly, and tonight damar hamlin's dream became a nightmare for not only himself but his family and entire team. >> hamlin seen hugging his mother here in a game earlier this season, the focus of well

wishes from players and fans overnight, including tee higgins who collided with hamlin before he collapsed, writing my prayers and thoughts go out to damar hamlin and the hamlin family. i'm praying you pull through, bro. love. many fans showing support overnight, donating to a charity hamlin created to buy toys for children in need. his initial goal, $2,500 has already topped more than 3 million. that outpouring of love is staggering to say the least. once again, the latest overnight, the buffalo bills saying hamlin is in this trauma center, sedated in critical condition after the team says suffering a cardiac arrest on the field. some people have asked online about the game. the nfl has yet to reschedule saying that is far from their focus right now. they'll worry about that down the line. mika, as you know, this is a

real reminder of the danger these players face every time they step on the field. >> absolutely. nbc's maggie vespa, thank you very much. willie. let's bring into the conversation, former pro bowl center for the buffalo bills, eric wood, now the bills radio color commentator, thank you so much for taking time with us this morning. you were in the building when this took place yesterday. what was it like to watch this play out not just from up in the booth but a guy who played with a lot of the guys on the field there? >> it was extremely tough to watch. it went from maybe the most electric atmosphere i have been and with the anticipation of this big monday night football game to an absolutely horrific situation, and as an nfl player, you understand there is a certain amount of risk every time you go out on the field. we are used to seeing knee injuries, ankle injuries, even head injuries at this point, what happened on the field and the reaction immediately from the players left everyone in the stadium understand there was something extremely serious going on out on the field, and

then to see a teammate of yours, to see someone you love, and blood, sweat and tears every day with get cpr performed on him for almost ten minutes had everybody in the entire stadium shook to the core. >> eric, i'm sure you talked to some of your buddies after this happened, what was it like to be down on the field for them as this was playing out, this horrific scene? >> scary, emotional, shocking, you know, for a lot of these guys, it's not something you ever expect to see on the an nfl field. like i said, this is really an unprecedented situation. i believe almost everybody was in shock, and it seemed like both teams, coaching staffs and organizations, until they had the information on damar, and still really don't, at this point, they weren't willing to go out and play. i respect that decision from the organization and from the league. >> hoping you can tell us a little bit about damar, as we just saw on that report. he's from the pittsburgh area, just 24 years old. had a charity, trying to raise

toys for a day care, had about $15,000 worth of donations after the injury. it's well north of 3 million. his mother was at the stadium, rode in the ambulance at the hospital. tell everyone here and everyone watching at home who's praying for damar hamlin, tell us about him as a person. >> he's a special young man. i got to cover him at the university of pittsburgh. they had guys drafted higher than damar in the draft but all he could talk about was the best pro, damar hamlin, handles his business. incredible kid from pittsburgh. doesn't go too far over to buffalo to play nfl ball. an absolutely world class individual, and prayers are extremely appreciated at this point. >> eric, we know what the team has put out there that damar is in critical condition, that he had been sedated to be intubated. are you hearing anything else around the team, about how he's

doing this morning? >> we're not. everybody is looking for information. the last we heard is they were going to allow him to sleep intubated and they would keep everybody abreast of the situation when they knew something more. >> pass along to the organization and all of those players, our thoughts and prayers. the whole country thinking about one guy. damar hamlin, pro bowl center for the buffalo bills. eric wood, thank you so much, we appreciate it. >> my pleasure, willie. we'll be joined by historians, taking on the biggest legends of our nation's past. "morning joe" will be right back. " will be right back

beautiful live picture. 7:42 in the morning of the

united states capitol. a book out today warns that brazen lies about our nation's history are hurting our democracy. it's titled "myth america" historians take on the biggest legends and lies about our past. it highlights how distortions have led many to believe fiction or facts, making it possible for constructive dialogue, which ultimately poses a real threat to our democracy. co editors of the book, kevin cruise and professor of history and public affairs at princeton, julian zelizer. good morning to you both. >> thank you for having us. >> a lot in this that goes back. let's start first, the idea behind the book, why you thought this was important to put out right now? >> there have been lies and myths and misrepresentations about american history and politics. over the last four, five, six years, it's gotten out of control and distorted our understanding of the present,

these myths about the past. we thought it was finally time to come together and do what a lot of historians have been doing online, on twitter, and facebook. they do what we do best which is to write books, and we brought together an all star cast here to address some of the biggest myths around. >> what have you seen in the last five, six, seven years called the trump era that prompted this reevaluation of our past? >> one thing that happened is history itself became a battle ground, and whether you're talking in the classroom or in public, what we know about the past is now a political issue. we wanted to show what have historians found, what have we found in writing about the role of government in american life, voting and democracy, race relations, and to write short snappy essays from very smart scholars trying to set some of the records straight from what you often hear on air which has nothing to do with the archives.

>> misconceptions of the new deal and great society, how they have eroded confidence in government, something accelerated in the trump era. >> we're trying to shift from a debate over is government a good or bad thing, a legitimate debate to have. as opposed to the idea, government has not had a powerful role in american life. there's an idea that the new deal didn't actually help save the country from the depression, which our historian shows. it's not true. he traces the immense impact of the new deal on employment. and the great society, historians talk about the real impact that the social safety net programs had on american life. >> you got essays, too, kevin, about race, how conservatives have attempted to deny the reasons past appeals to race, the southern strategy in an effort to deny present racism. >> that's right, and this is something that struck me as an odd example of how this new myth making has begun. this was something that was conventional wisdom for people

on both sides of the aisle for decades and decades. you know, the rnc chairman ken melman apologized for the southern strategy just about 15 years ago, and yet over the last five, ten years, there's been a new breed of partisan amateur historians on the right that have tried to deny this and said it was a myth that we made up recently, and so the simple task here was to go back and correct the record and show how this all came about. >> i was going to ask, we talked about perhaps on the backs of that, the reagan revolution, and that's another myth. tell us about that. >> this is julian. >> i wrote an essay, you know, we have this idea that when reagan became president and the conservative movement came to power in the '80s, it swept liberalism away and that the entire country moved right and that rightward ideas were totally dominant in american life. i wrote an essay basically on the persistent of liberal ideas, liberal policies and values in a

conservative era and it was much messier than 1980s, which i think explains how we got to where we are today, rather than some kind of clean sweep, a revolution which didn't really happen. >> mika? >> so, kevin, in the description from the book, it looks at how partisan actors in broadcast media and social media have weaponized distortions of the past to push their agenda in the present. who needs to read in book? who should read this book? >> well, i'd like to say they should read this book, but i think that might be against their purposes. and really wrote this book for people who are professional historians who aren't partisan hacks, sitting on the sidelines, wondering, was the new deal a failure, the great society a failure. it is black lives matter radically different from the civil rights movement. is the insurrection of january 6th unprecedented? is so called white backlash something new?

so to kind of fill in the gaps that people have trying to put their present in the proper context, and we're fighting against people who are pressing a very partisan angle and we're trying to just come back with the truth here? >> kevin and julian, jen psaki has the next question for you. jen. >> hi, i wanted to ask you about one of the most important historic documents we have been looking at in the last couple of days, which is the january 6th report, so as compelling as the case is that it makes against donald trump, they do leave out security and intelligence failures and they don't talk a lot about the silence of people like mike pence and others in the administration. as we're looking at this, ten years and 20 years down the road, is that a mistake in your view? >> i would say it is. and the focus on trump is understandable, and it's very important. it was a political decision how to structure the report. but i look back to watergate, and one of the great myths of the watergate period is that the system self-corrected itself.

nixon resigned, and we moved on to a better state of mind. but the reality was there was a lot of effort to reform american politics, change campaign finance, ethics laws, and the broader the conversation is after that january 6th report, beyond trump, i think the better prepared we will be to ever have another january 6th take place, and so that's where some of those gaps and silences need to be addressed in other forms. >> it's interesting kevin, so much happening in realtime. not necessarily looking back 50 years in history and changing the story. what strikes me, makes this all the more important that some people will say, oh, january 6th wasn't actually that big a deal. you know, it was a protest that got out of hands and we got the capitol hill police chief saying there are members of congress who may have been killed if not for the actions of officers that day. this is a time in history when the record has to be set

straight almost immediately. >> it speaks to the moment we're in. the lies come hard and fast, and we have a duty as historians to not be stuck in the archives writing the books where we would like to be but be engaged in conversations like this. >> important book but also a fun one to read, guys, thank you so much for bringing it to us. "myth america," historians take on the biggest legends and lies of our past, kevin kruse and julian zelizer, thank you for being with us. >> kevin mccarthy or chaos, this morning it seems republicans may choose chaos, with hours to go before a crucial vote, it's unclear if mccarthy joined by c katherine clark who will be the number two house democrat. "morning joe" back in a moment. prevent migraines. you can't always prevent what's going on outside...

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the suspect in the quadruple murders in idaho is appearing in court today. nbc news correspondent stephanie gosk has the details. >> reporter: bryan kohberger is set to return to this courthouse where his lawyer says he will be exonerated. the victims' families anxious to come face to face with the man accused of murdering their loved ones. >> i want him to be sick of seeing us and knowing that these people won't let it go. >> reporter: as there's any possible connection -- >> i've never heard of anybody with that name. wasn't on my radar at all. >> reporter: the lawyer for the family adding they work with investigators to uncover any ties. his parents say they're fully cooperating with law enforcement. his father drove cross country with him in december and pulled

over by police twice. >> i know that they were pulled over in indiana. almost back to back. i believe once for speeding and once for following too closely to a car in front of them. >> reporter: details of the graduate work revealed. he posted a message looking for volunteers for a research project. the post uncovered by internet sleuths. desales university confirmed the email address listed on the post belonged to the suspect as a student. he then went on to the phd in crimology at washington state university just miles from the off campus house where the four idaho university students were stabbed to death november 13th. hoping for answers as the

suspect prepares for his day in court. >> our next mission is to find justice and to have a closing chapter that meets the expectations of the families. >> stephanie gosk with that report. live to capitol hill ahead of a huge day for kevin mccarthy. plus, the latest from cincinnati where buffalo bills safety damar hamlin is in critical condition after his heart stopped on the field last night. "morning joe" will be right back. this house says use realtor.com to find options within your budget. good luck young man. realtor.com to each their home. my name is tonya, i am 42. as mother of nine kids, i think i waited this long to get botox® cosmetic because i take like no time for myself. my kids are sports kids.

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now he fights for his life. we forget that part of living this dream is putting your life at risk. tonight we got to see a side of football that is extremely ugly. >> shock and sadness during monday night football. buffalo bills safety damar hamlin in critical condition in a cincinnati hospital suffering cardiac arrest in last night's game. we are following the latest on his condition and the outpouring of support since this happened last night. kevin mccarthy has already moved in to the speaker's office despite an influential group of republicans who vowed to vote against him today. why we may see something on capitol hill today that hasn't happened in 100 years. plus, moscow said dozens of soldiers killed in a massive

missile strike in ukraine. what that means for the war there. welcome back to "morning joe." it is the third hour of "morning joe" on this tuesday, january 3rd. we'll start with the buffalo bills story this morning. willie? >> with the status of bills safety damar hamlin in critical condition after the 24-year-old collapsed on the feel last night in a highly anticipated game against the cincinnati bengals. they had cpr for ten minutes before being rushed to the hospital. maggie ves pa has the latest. >> reporter: it seemed like a routine play. buffalo bills second year safety damar hamlin tackling tee higgins in the first quarter of monday night's game. >> another bills player is down. >> after the hard hit, hamlin quickly jumps to his feet but

suddenly his body went limp and the 24-year-old collapsed to the ground. the chilling incident shocking players and fans who watched to unfold live on "monday night football." >> and they are intensely working on damar hamlin. >> reporter: an ambulance was rushed onto the field where for at least ten minutes medics administered cpr to the young player. overnight the bills saying hamlin suffered a cardiac arrest and his heartbeat was restored on the field. players from both teams knelt together in prayer. the gravity of the situation displayed on their faces. some players crying, including bills star quarterback josh allen. >> nobody is concerned about football right now all the way around. america right now is concerned about one thing. the health and safety of this young man. >> reporter: fans at paycor stadium silent during the ordeal. later applauding as hamlin was placed on a stretcher and driven off the field. both teams headed back to the locker rooms and shortly after the nfl postponed the game.

the league later releasing a statement that read in part, hamlin received immediate medical attention on the field by team and independent medical staff and local paramedics. he was then rushed to a local hospital where he is in critical condition. >> we got to see a side of football that is extremely ugly, and tonight damar hamlin's dream became a nightmare for not only himself but his family and his entire team. >> reporter: hamlin seen hugging his mother here in a game earlier this season. the focus of well wishes from players and fans overnight, including tee higgins, who collided with hamlin before he collapsed, writing my players and thoughts go out to damar hamlin and the hamlin family. i'm praying that you pull through, bro. love. many fans also showing support overnight donating to a charity hamlin created to buy toys for children in need. his initial goal, $2,500, has

topped more than 3 million. >> we'll get more insight from reporter peter king. joe, you and i have been watching football for a long time. never seen anything like that. there's a degree of concern that you can see on the players' faces with an ankle or a knee but coming a spinal injury or something like last night which most of us have never seen concern is not the word. the devastation on the faces of the players as they took knees and crying while a 24-year-old player at the peak of his physical condition playing in the nfl collapsed on the field and was ginn cpr nearly ten minutes. they were able to restore a heart beat but unconscious for that long there will be concerns about the long-term prognosis.

>> let us hope and pray. willie, we have through the years been critical of how violent the nfl has become and talked about the need for safeguards but bares repeating this was a freak accident. you look at the hit and we have seen them in the nfl over decades. this obviously something happened. it was a freak accident. it was perhaps, perhaps a preexisting condition. >> inexplicable at this point. >> you point out and i think it's a great thing to point out about hank gathers. we have seen through the years kids on the basketball court dribbling down the basketball court and collapsing because of a heart condition they didn't know they had. you talk about hank gathers.

we have seen this from time to time on basketball courts but very rarely in the nfl and nothing like this before. >> no. there's concern among young athletes. these are the fittest athletes on the planet, nfl athletes. might be preexisting conditions and talk about more screening for that. jonathan lemire, this is as joe said pass across the middle. nice gain. a regular tackle. guys hop up and on to the next play but everything took a turn from there and the game suspended and called last night. no player on the field who would start playing football again. >> certainly not. i the end to think about reggie lewis and dropped dead on the court. a workout. not a game. the stage of the game is why this is hitting people so hard.

a monday night football game. one of the most anticipated matchup of the year. the nation was watching and then suddenly as you say a routine play turns tragic. we have the hope that he will be okay. football players know the risks. we have heard from them overnight. they know the risk that something could happen to them to change even the lives but you think of a knee injury or career might end. that happens. a sad reality of the game. a violent sport. this is a hard hit but a routine hit over the middle and a freak accident and we have to hope that the updates are good. >> yeah. we certainly do. we'll be having much more coverage straight ahead on this story. turning to what could be a historical day on capitol hill.

kevin mccarthy will find out today if his gop colleagues will give him the speaker's gavel. correspondent garrett haake reports. by the end of the day today congress is either going to make kevin mccarthy their speaker or make history. if mccarthy doesn't get the votes he needs to public speaker on the first vote around noon today it would be the first time a speaker's vote went beyond the first ballot in 100 years. republicans's slim majority makes it challenging. >> do you have the votes for speaker tomorrow? >> reporter: five republicans could block the bid. >> reporter: the house can't move on until a speaker is selected. a potentially lengthy process

frustrating many in the new republican majority. >> i hope we can come together and focus on what we got to do. >> reporter: opponents demanding rules changes to make it easier to remove a speaker in the future. his allies say he is there. >> it is time to come together. >> reporter: today republicans take control of the house for the first time since 2018 planning an ambitious agenda targeting some biden administration priorities like investigations into the surge at the border and the fbi. none of that can start until someone is elected speaker. >> we need to start on the first day. >> nbc's garrett haake with that report. let's bring in reporter

daviddrucker. the question for both of you is given who's voting for kevin mccarthy and opting not to vote they seem to be aligned on a number of levels. why wouldn't they vote him in to power so they can continue with their agenda and in some cases a crazy agenda? >> well, i don't know that they're aligned on absolutely everything. a lot of people in warnd republicans should have had a massive red wave. david, as annuity gingrich said, my former speaker, i don't quote him too much, but he said earlier this is the worst-case scenario for republicans.

they were rejected for being too radical. >> i think the issue with republicans to begin with, you remember this, they had massive majorities and did not govern even with large majorities. had a hard time coming together on legislation so instead of moving the ball forward to the right in a conservative direction they let things fall back ward to the left when they were dealing with the democratic white house and democratic senate. now they have that scenario all over again but don't have the large majorities they had when president obama was in the white house so i think this is not surprising for any of us that have covered house republicans in this era. i think the issue for them is how important it is to get to work on the things they can do.

and get this speaker vote out of the waiver sus the insistence by a minority of the conference to claim kevin mccarthy as a casualty of what -- of the power they have. regardless of whether kevin mccarthy get it is votes on the first ballot, tenth ballot or ends up being somebody else, this is a preview of what is to come. there are things they have to do govern and would like to do but only happens with a narrow majority if they put together 218 votes on anything that is on their to-do list. so far they can't do it on a vote that would allow them to get the more sought after things started. >> jonathan lemire, it is not as if there aren't five mainstream republicans that would vote

against mccarthy if he darted too far in the weirdos' and freaks direction. hell, there are quite a few republican members who won in district that is joe biden won in. are they going to want to be voting for one bill after another that's put up? or support one investigation after another that's run by an insurrectionist or a weirdo or a freak when they voted to get things done? >> this is the buy mccarthy stuff. securing the votes it is an unruly caucus. now just hours before the vote may have been dealt another blow. the congressman scott perry, the chairman of the freedom caucus put out a statement a second ago about kevin mccarthy. he says in the 14 years in leadership kevin mccarthy repeatedly failed to demonstrate any desire to change the status

quo in washington saying the pitch to try to become speaker was a vague ultimatum lacking in specifics and going through what they want to see from mccarthy saying he let them down closing that kevin mccarthy had an opportunity to be speaker of the house. he rejected it. these are perhaps more votes not going his way making his path to speakership that much more complicated now. >> that's nonsense. kevin mccarthy has debased himself. >> that's what i mean. they are aligned. >> they were never -- >> everything. >> never going to agree on kevin mccarthy. they just wanted to see him debase himself so they could humiliate him throughout the process and then humiliate him today. jen psaki, sounds familiar.

this is what donald trump did to anybody that ever worked for him. they get on board. compromise and then they look up and totally debased themselves and then he throws them under the bus. >> that's right. i'm going to throw out a wild theory. may be the right wing of the republican party likes chaos. beyond today and tomorrow, if kevin mccarthy can pull this off somehow, the concession of the snap vote means by a handful of members they vote for no confidence and oust him as speaker. nothing can happen in the house. can't move forward with committee business and votes, the agenda. whatever that may be until they have a speaker of the house so they have chosen chaos and may

be what they want or a small wing of the party wants. >> congressman perry who put out the statement is separate from the five never kevins which would deny him the speakership now. this is from the group of nine likely not to support him so that's 14 people to put on the never kevin watch which raises the question, let's say he doesn't clear the threshold and doesn't get to 218 and goes on and on, does it through some painful process end up as the speakership or somebody else to step in here? >> i'm talking to sources all morning. everybody keeps telling me they don't know. it is a jump ball. what is important to understand here is talk so much about the never kevins or the house

freedom caucus but there are a lot more republicans that are supportive of mccarthy and conservative pragmatists. they disagree on tactics and believe that you have to govern. we don't talk about where they are in this process. they have no interest to be strongarmed by a minority of the conference and no speaker or potential speaker that the insur rents are going to get to be happy with because the pragmatists won't allow it and you need somebody in the role that raise money who's willing to take tough votes to govern. any republican speaker is eventually some point going to have to vote to fund the government. going to have to vote to raise the debt ceiling.

they will not be satisfied with a deal on the policies to get through a democratic senate signed by president biden. pragmatists know this and willing to make compromises. hoping to use the power of the house majority to move things to the right or at least keep them from going to the left. they're not pleased with how this is unfolding. >> yeah. i think at the end of the day maybe you take to the floor or a fight. it seems to me there's kevin mccarthy or kevin mccarthy. >> yeah. >> i don't think there's a backup plan. it's just a question of how the house gets to it. >> we were talking about kevin mccarthy or chaos. kevin mccarthy is chaos the way he's negotiated this. how does anything get done?

>> as jen said, this is just the opening scene. >> ridiculous. david, "trump threatens to do to his political career what gop establishment can't -- end it" explain what's going on with the trump campaign. >> i think the trump campaign got off to an early start and there was almost nothing left to do. the intent to block republicans from considering a presidential bid and that's not the case and simply because the former president is a diminished political figure. he can still win. in talking to republicans who are watching him they think that he ultimately may be hurting himself in a way they were not able to do.

okay. he's got an unusually high floor of loyal support within the republican party and able to do things in 2016 republicans hadn't done in decades. but they are now looking at 2018, 2020, 2022, the leadership of the party doesn't lead to electoral wins but a lot of defeat and heart ache and all they want many in the party is to win in 2024. if he loses the luster of being a winner then there's less of an appetite to go along with everything else that is trump so i think opponents of trump that between all the set backs and his escalating rhetoric if you thought that was possible to

finally do to himself what they couldn't do to him on their own. >> all right. thank you for being on this morning. as republicans struggle to choose house leadership democrats have theirs in place. joining us now incoming house minority whip katherine clark of massachusetts. good to have you on the show. my question to you would be dealing with the party in power which appears to be a chaotic party, what do you think is possible in terms of getting something accomplished? >> we are seeing chaos today in congress. this is an extension of the extremism that we have seen from the gop. when you have marjory taylor greene as your spokesperson you are in for a rocky ride and the democrats are united. we are here to put people over politics, to continue the work

of finding solutions for people. but we are watching this unfold with you and the american people. we don't know how this is going to end. but i do know that kevin mccarthy has thrown away his moral come pass. he will do anything to get the gavel in his hands and you are no longer a leader and why he finds himself in this situation. >> congresswoman, clark, it is jen psaki. there's been so much focus on kevin mccarthy. i want to hear about your leadership style and how you and the democrats plan to approach being in the minority over the next two years. >> i can tell you that we are excited. we have fantastic new members who are coming in. the most women ever elected to

congress. historically diverse members of the democratic caucus and we want to continue the work that we have done. low every costs. creating great paying jobs. making safer communities. that's where the focus is going to be. we know how to govern. we know how to find solutions for the american people. that's the work we are going to do. in my new role is the same reason i ran for congress. let's bring the voices of women and families to the leadership table. keep the american family as a priority and focus and get work done on their behalf. >> good morning. jonathan lemire. we have been detailing the chaos on the republican side. i know there needs to be some agreements to find common ground. some efforts on things like funding the government and the debt ceiling.

will be the approach to work across the aisle to get those necessities done? >> you can look at the work we did in the 117th congress as our road map. we were able to get bipartisan support for infrastructure, for gun reform. the first gun reform we have been able to do in 30 years. the chips and science bilbreying manufacturing back to our shores. we are going to continue to be there because the priorities are finding solutions that work, that help our economy become more just and accessible to everyone. if republicans are interested in that we are there to work with them. if they default to the extremism and chaos we are going to stand up to them. look no further than the bills they proposed. going back to trying to further

narrow reproductive justice and freedom in this country. we are not turning our backs on women and allow them to make women second class citizens. if they are willing to come to the table and be honest brokers we meet them there. >> incoming house minority whip katherine clark, thank you. we appreciate you being on the show this morning. what will happen in 2023? richard haas has predictions. plus, russia is making major missteps on the battlefield with devastating outcomes. you are watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. k to patiens you can just see from here up when you're wearing a mask. and i have noticed those lines beginning to really become not so much moderate

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buffalo bills safety damar hamlin suffer add cardiac arrest on the field in the game in the

first quarter after he made a tackle. he stood up and then he fell over on his back and lay motionless on the ground. the 24-year-old player immediately tepided to by medical personnel and cpr on the field for nearly ten minutes with reports he required a defibrillator and given oxygen as he was taken to a hospital. emotional players, coaches standing by. the bills knelt to pray for their tell mate. this morning the bills said the heart beat was restored on the field and transferred to the hospital where he was sedated and listed in critical condition. after that game was suspended the nfl postponed the game indefinitely. we'll show the tackle that led to damar's collapse and show it once. give you a chance to look away

now if they don't want to see it. this is how things played out on the field. >> that's -- >> there you see hamlin makes the tackle and then kind of gets wobbly and falls over back ward. just a stunning spectacle as the two teams kneeled, praying for the best. josh allen openly weeping on the field knowing this is different than before ever. hank gathers in 1990. you will remember that. college basketball star who suffered cardiac arrest on the court and collapsed there. big star in college basketball at the time. 32 years ago. nothing like this that i can

remember. we'll talk to peter king in a second. >> okay. let's bring him in nbc sports columnist peter king. looking at the hit, when i first saw the news break last night, i thought, oh, it is another one of the horrific shots. the hit was a kind of hit that we see 100 times every weekend in the nfl. there was nothing particularly different about that tackle that he made. what can you tell us about the cause? what people are speculating as to the cause, doctors. >> well, joe, a lot of people last night and today are basically understand what

happened. when someone's heart stops it needs to be addressed immediately by medical professionals. and every nfl game on the sidelines there are a total of about 25 medical professionals, both emergency medical professionals and orthopedic specialists and others. but there is a score of people at every game who understand when a heart stops what they have to do. and that last night meant that damar hamlin got exceedingly good help and very, very quickly. i think what everyone kind of wonders now, is this guy going to be all right? i think there is reason for optimism this morning and that reason is because his heart started again on the field

according to medical personnel who were there. taken to a level 1 trauma center. university of cincinnati medical center. there probably was absolutely as -- the medical attention he received about as good as a person could get in that situation. i think that damar hamlin clearly what it appears as it happened is 100 times a week. i might say 500 times a weekend a play limb like that. a guy makes a hard tackle on a 6'4", 220-pound receiver. tee higgins. it is normal as anything you ever see in the nfl. he apparently hit him at the

exact perfect location that caused this event to happen. luckily for him he is getting the best care possible. look. i'm not going to speculate. we don't have an idea. but there is optimism this morning whereas last night at 9:00, 9:30 when you saw the players crying on the field and when you basically saw the two coaches get together. look. i'm not talking to the bengals or bills but it was very clear after a certain point they probably were not -- not only not going to play, i don't think the buffalo bills players or the cincinnati bengals players would have taken the field. there's no indication other than

speculation that the nfl ordered this game to go on. there was discussion on the field about that. but i don't -- my information as of last night and this morning, i do not have that understanding. >> nbc's peter king. so great to have you on. we appreciate it. coming, president biden hit it is road to push the economic plans and what could be seen as an unofficial start to a 2024 campaign. we'll go live to the white house just ahead on "morning joe." my asthma felt anything but normal. ♪ ♪ it was time for a nunormal with nucala. nucala is a once-monthly add-on treatment for severe eosinophilic asthma that can mean less oral steroids. not for sudden breathing problems.

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this morning, more about a rocket strike on new year's day that killed dozens of russian

troops. "the new york times" reports ukrainian forces used u.s.-supplied guided rockets to strike a facility housing russian soldiers in occupied town in the east. russia confirmed 63 fatalities due to that strike while ukraine says as many as 400 russian soldiers were killed. neither figure is independently verified. a spokesman for the russian installed government called the strike a massive blow and hinted at russian errors by leaders. let's bring in correspondent matt bradley live from kyiv. matt? >> reporter: you mentioned the 63 dead that the russians claim and the nearly 400 that the ukraines cite. this is considered to be the single deadliest attack maybe since the beginning of the war and seen a fresh round of

criticism from everywhere in russia from moscow to the russian-backed official where this hit occurred. the errors seemed like committed by the soldiers there and the senior officers instructing them to stay in the makeshift bar racks. we heard from the russians from a rare admission the cell phones using to call home on new year's home that gave away the position. that's why we hear from everybody that they're calling for blood. they want to see the officers responsible for putting the soldiers in a vulnerable position investigated and punished. a side point here. there is a rise of the wagner group led by a man that is one of putin's closest confidants

and he's been raising in profile because it's the wagner group financed by the russians that did the bulk of the successful fighting and it shows once again that the russian military is still battling with his own incompetence within the ranks. and he was on the front lines with an address to the private soldiers this people in the military and the bloggers, pro-national russians applauded and rising up where vladimir putin and the military and the leaders are failing and goes to show another interesting dynamic here. the effectiveness of u.s. and western-provided weapons. this attack was done by a

missile system, satellite guided provided by the u.s. a couple mos ago and the ukrainians using it to devastating effect. now closer to home shooting down the drones that have been flying over, pelting kee and the rest of the country. i spoke with a spokesman for the ukrainian air force saying the weapons have been effective and begs the question, can russia keep up with the bombardments? do you think that the russians can run out of missiles and drones? >> translator: on the drones, it depends on how many iran would be able to supply to russia. and how strong western sanctions would be in reducing that supply. on the missiles we see from military intelligence data that

now russians are using the untouched supply and also running out of ballistic missiles. we have seen they are firing and striking ukraine with fresh missiles that were produced in september and in the summer. >> reporter: we heard from the president of ukraine last night saying that ukrainians should be prepared for an extended attack. coming up, how skewed polls fed a false narrative about the my term elections. that's straight ahead on "morning joe." i'm a screen addicted tween. and, if i'm not posting on social media, i don't feel seen. oh my god mom, you gotta look... nope. keeping my eyes on the road is paying off with drivewise. bo-ring. get drivewise from allstate and save for avoiding mayhem like me.

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let's bring in the president of the council on foreign relations, richard haass, out with his ten prediction for the new year titled "what in the

world will happen in 2023?" first on your list is the war in ukraine will remain a dominant issue of 2022, albeit you say at a less intense level. we can talk big picture about the war, which the end of next month reaches its one-year mark. what do you see in this attack, using the americans so deep into donetsk and killing those russian soldiers? what does that tell you about the state of play in the war? >> ukraine is winning the battle between the militaries. russia is fighting a separate war against ukrainian society. my sense is this goes on. if i were a betting man i would think this is the pattern we see. i don't think either side can sustain great intensity. and i don't see the diplomats having much to work with. i don't think either side at the moment is ready to make the sort of compromises that peace normally does. ukraine basically sees no reason to compromise. they're doing better mill tarly. they don't see any reason to give up territory.

putin is worried a compromise would make him weak at home. i hate to say it, but my prediction is the war goes on. >> a lot of experts have said increasing desperation of vladimir putin, that russia will use these iranian drones and hit infrastructure as they've been doing, killing civilians as they've been doing, but to step that up. do you think things get a little worse before they get better? >> well, they could get worse before they get worse. that's, again, the only russian tactic that we see. they don't want to have military on military. they've lost that for ten straight months. so, yeah, but there's zero evidence it's breaking the will of ukrainian society. if anything, as we learned in world war ii, those kind of indiscriminate attacks tend to strengthen the cohesion of societies. i don't think the russians have a winning strategy whatsoever. >> richard, help me out here. again, i don't get it. i don't understand. what's in this for vladimir putin?

he obviously made a terrible mistake going in. it's not going to get any better for him. he's got a gdp that is smaller than the state of texas. texas has one of about $2 trillion. he's at $1.6 trillion. and there's no reason to believe it won't go down more. so economically he's degraded, militarily, he's degraded, politically he's degraded. there is no upside to him continuing this battle. is he not still in a position where he can declare victory and move on? >> two things, owe. one is he's not persuaded yet that time is not his friend. he looks at some of the splits within europe, he looks at what's happened in the united states with republicans taking the house. he's not persuaded yet that ukraine has the strength to withstand these attacks. so one is he still believes --

he's banking whatever chips he's had, he's moved them into the box that says time is on our side, i can sustain this war better than the other side. but that right now is almost the only game he has to play. and, again, i think he's worried that if he shows compromise, if he does what you suggest, that he basically sues for peace and compromises that this will be taken as a sign of weakness and exactly some of these forces. the threat to putin is not from the left in russia. it's from the right. it's from the forces he's empowered. i'm worried any compromise on his war range will invite domestic challenge to him as well. >> richard, we know the war is being watched carefully in beijing. as you look ahead to 2023, give us a tour of asia, what you see the major story lines, china but also japan and north korea. >> china has its hands full dealing with covid, dealing with a much slower economy, dealing with drought and so forth. if i were a betting man i would

think it's unlikely that 2023 china's going to use military force against taiwan. i wouldn't rule it out in two, three, four, five years. i still think china wants to bring taiwan in and has not ruled out military force. but i don't believe they're ready for it. they couldn't take the risk of sanctions against where their economy is now. that's my sense there. north korea, the odds are we may see a seventh nuclear test. they continue to do the missiles. i think at some point that's the only thing they've got. it's almost station identification for north korea. what i think the sleeper issue in asia is japan. we are seeing the emergence of a real growing power, economically, politically, but also now militarily. japan has one of the largest militaries, they're doubling defense spending and politically they're more prepared to use it. now they see taiwan has central to japanese defense, so i think you'll see a much more forward lean jag pan willing to do things more militarily with the

united states in terms of worrying about what china is doing. that's a big change in geopolitics in the region and the world. coming up, we'll go live to capitol hill where house republicans have a majority but not a speaker. the latest on kevin mccarthy's desperate bid to win enough votes to get the gavel.

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6:00 on the west coast. you're looking live at seattle this morning. good morning, everybody. welcome back to the fourth hour of "morning joe" on this tuesday, january 3rd. it is 9:00 on the east coast. we're all wide awake here. we have a lot to cover this hour. >> yes, we do. >> we begin, though, with politics, kevin mccarthy trying everything he can to win enough support to become the next speaker of the house. we'll go live to capitol hill ahead of today's -- >> willie, what is the end game here, willie? >> it's not really a speakership. >> it's speakership. >> no, it's not. if he's speaker, anyone can say, you know what, i don't want him to be speaker. >> but they get nothing. they get nothing. they're holding a busted, what, straight, a busted flush, whatever you poker players call it. whatever it is, these five, six, seven, eight people, they got

nothing. >> there are five of them who say never kevin. now there are nine. we heard the statement in our last hour from the freedom caucus saying we're not with him either. he's about to walk into a meeting in 28 minutes or so with his caucus way behind the number of votes he needs, which is 218. how does he get there and at what price? as you said, mika, he's conceded to them to get their votes. >> yes. >> which didn't work, by the way. i'll put back in place the rule that you can raise your hand to oust me as speaker. >> is that a speakership or is that just nothing? >> it feels like nothing. it feels like nothing. and to what end, joe? i don't know to what end. what are these never kevins looking for? they don't want him to be speaker? he will be eventually but it will be a mess to get there. >> we'll have more coming up about this. >> that was a tease. >> that was just a tease in the tv world. >> teasing.

>> you tease ahead to things. just ahead, donald trump's latest in trying to lead his party to victory in the midterms. he's saying it wasn't his fault. how can it not be? >> you won't believe who he's blaming now -- his base. >> and why did so many people think there was going to be a red wave in the midterms? >> funny republican polls. i don't know. >> how skewed polls fed a false election narrative. but we start with the latest about buffalo bills safety demar hamlin. >> yeah. a lot of people waking up on the west coast to hear how he's doing. he suffered a cardiac arrest on the field during last night's game. buffalo bills against the cincinnati bengals. it occurred during the first quarter after hamlin made a

tackle. he then stood up and fell over on his back, laying motionless on the ground. he was immediately tended to by medical personnel in the stadium and was administered cpr for about ten minutes right there on the field. reports hamlin also required a defibrillator. he was given oxygen as he was loaded into the ambulance and take on the an area hospital. emotional players and coaches stood by, many of them with tears streaming down their faces. the bills kneeling to pray for their teammate. in a statement posted to twitter early this morning, the bills said hamlin's heartbeat was restored ochb the field and that he was transferred to the university of cincinnati's level one trauma center where he was sedated and listed in critical condition. about an hour after the game was initially suspended, the nfl officially postponed the game indefinitely. let's bring in espn national correspondent sal paolantonio. he's covered the network since 1995. thanks for being with us.

what more can you tell us about what happened last night and anything you're hearing about hamlin's condition this morning? >> good morning, willie. let those words sink in for a second, right, willie? his heartbeat was restored on the field. he went into cardiac arrest. he was taken to a cincinnati hospital where he is right now with his mother, nina, and we are awaiting word on his condition. so far we haven't had any significant updates on his condition at all from the hospital or from the buffalo bills. but right now, you know, the whole nfl world is on hold, on pause. everybody is praying for damar hamlin and his family. damar hamlin is one of the best that the nfl has to offer. super smart guy. very tough. leads the team in tackles in his second year. brings joy to the arena and the community, very charitable young man. very well liked not only within

the buffalo bills organization but around the nfl. those who cover it, such as myself. and in the buffalo community, he is really, really loved and certainly everybody is on hold waiting to hear what happens next with damar hamlin. and we are praying. >> sal, you've been around the game for a very long time. have you ever seen anything like this? we've been talking this morning about gruesome knee injuries, spinal injury where is guys are taken off the field, you know, on back boards and put on a cart. those are horrifying. we've seen teams kneel to pray for those players. but have you ever seen something like this where after a relatively routine play, a player goes down in cardiac arrest and the entire stadium is in silence and the players standing there with tears running down their faces? >> no. this is something that's breaking new ground for sure. it's a horrible, sad morning for the nfl community.

i have been involved through espn with the nfl community for 30 years now, in newspaper, and with espn. and when you cover these players and talk to them on a weekly basis, you grow to really like them and be close to them. and, you know, to see them go through this is really difficult. and i think the nfl is on hold, the sporting community is on hold, all around the country and all around the world, everybody's just praying for damar hamlin. that's right now what's happening. you know, the league literally is on hold right now, willie. >> you know, sal, my son, jack, and i were listening to you yesterday on sirius xm. and, you know, to you were talking about the games, talking about -- talking about the week. it's such a positive, exciting thing, especially for my son and i to sort of share together,

listening to you and watching the games, watching "red zone." and you really do, you just forget just how violent of a game it is. i mean, this hit seemed to be an innocuous hit, seemed to be the type of hit that, you know, maybe we saw dozens of times, hundreds of times just this past weekend. but is there more the nfl needs to be doing to protect the safety of its players week in and week out? >> joe, i think the nfl over the last five, six years under roger goodell has really embraced player safety like i've never seen before. under troy vincent, the vice president for game operations, and demar smith, the nflpa executive director, they have gotten together and tried to really institute protections for players, you know, working on

helmets and working on pads and working on tackling and reminding players how to tackle and how to hit. but it is a violent, fast game. so i was in philadelphia on sunday for the new orleans saints and philadelphia eagles. eagles defensive end josh shwet hit his helmet headfirst, crown first, and was carted off. and i left my press box seat because i know josh sweat very well and i've covered the eagles for about 30 years now. and i went down to see him get loaded into the ambulance, you know, his body on a stretcher, his head immobilized, take on the a philadelphia hospital. you know, these are traumatic events that hit everybody, and the league is doing i think a very good job of trying to incorporate new and improved safety guidelines and making

sure that players are aware of how to protect themselves on the field. but, you know, you said it, joe, it's a violent, super violent, fast game. it's what people love about it, but the double-edged sword is that something like this could happen last night, and this is the worst possible event. >> we're really hoping for the very best as we await updates from the buffalo bills or the hospital in cincinnati. espn's sal paolantonio, thanks so much. we appreciate you being here this morning. let's turn to a vascular cardiologist. professor, doctor, thank for being with us this morning. we appreciate it. i know you don't have any specific information about damar hamlin, but you hear cardiac arrest, you see what you saw on the field yesterday, you hear nearly ten minutes of cpr being administered there. what do you take away from all of that? >> well, i was just pulling up

my video here. but first and foremost, my prayers go out to the hamlin family and mr. hamlin himself. i'm hoping and praying for a full recovery. you know, this condition that he had, it can actually have a good prognosis depending on what happened, which, again, we have limited information, so we can only speculate at this point. >> doctor, what do you take away from the fact there was about ten minutes of cpr? how critical are those early moments after cardiac arrest? >> well, it's well-known that the first minutes, seconds are critically important. we have a saying in cardiology, in medicine in general, that every minute is oxygen deprivation and any minute decreases your likelihood of survival. so it's important that anytime someone has a cardiac arrest, which is just another way of saying your heart stop, and there are a bunch of things that

can cause your heart to stop, but in his case it appeared to be defib. if treated right away, the chances ofval are actually pretty good. and if he gets the defibrillator early on, they do very well, particularly in younger, healthy people such as mr. hamlin. >> doctor, obviously, you haven't examined this patient, but walk us through, if you will, we've been talking all morning about how a hit like this is seemingly relatively routine in an nfl game but yet something caused this man's heart to stop. does the type of impact, the exact timing -- was the heart out of rhythm? explain how something like this could have happened where something routine could turn to something really tragic. >> great question. myself and other doctors, including cardiologists, when we saw the video, it looked very similar to a condition which is

really kind of a freak accident. it has to happen right at the point in the cardiac cycle where that arrhythmia would be triggered, and that's between 10 and 30 milliseconds. it's an extremely rare and bad, i should say, for lack of a better word, confluence of factors that would lead to that. an arrhythmia, this is a normal heart here, right, and this is the electrical circuits inside the heart. this is the outside, the inside, and the heart has its own electricity, which makes it the most among all organs. this is what the hearts look like when it's in defib. even though the heart is moving, it's fibry lating, so we still call this cardiac arrest because there's no cardiac output going to the brain or other organs. that's why cpr is so important. when you're doing cpr, you want to squeeze the heart because you want to increase that blood flow

to the organs and maybe the brain because that is what immediate year to dates your patient's prognosis. >> well explained. dr. bernard ashby, vascular cardiologist, thanks for joining us this morning. we appreciate it. mika, of course we'll be waiting to hear from the hospital and maybe from the buffalo bills. everyone kind of holding their breath and hoping for the very best for damar hamlin. >> so far all we know is he's in critical condition and we're waiting for an update. of course we'll bring those developments right to you. >> and of course as the doctor said, just minutes matter. >> so much. >> seconds matter. we don't know exactly what happened on that field. we don't know when the heartbeat returned. we don't know when the breathing returned. there have been different reports based on what we've been reading, but let us hope, let us pray for him and his family, that they were able to move in

quickly and restore his breathing. we're going to move now to capitol hill, where a vote on the next speaker of the house seems unlikely to be decided on the first ballot, something that hasn't happened in 100 years. in what could be a premature move, incoing majority leader kevin mccarthy continued to move his belongings into the speaker's office yesterday in advance of today's vote. who is that right there? our next guest had a front-row seat to this unfolding founder. jake sherman from punchbowl news joins us. he's an msnbc political contributor. so he's really moving all his things in? >> yeah. he doesn't have any other office space. he's had to move out of his previous office, so, i mean, he can set up shop in the local starbucks, but i think that's probably not a great option. here's what i would say. i actually am not convinced he becomes the next speaker, to be

honest with you. i think that the stars are lining up against him at this point. he's got, you know, five to a dozen or so, if not more republicans against him. you know, joe will remember that newt gingrich stepped out of the race when it was clear he couldn't become speaker. that's not going to happen this time. mccarthy is going to the floor to try to have an out, to have a fight with these republicans who he supported over the years, spent more than $70 million to elect many of these folks, and he wants to have this fight with the right, with the conservatives, the freedom caucus that he believes no other speaker or majority leader, republican leader has had in the last decade. >> jake, what's the backup plan for those that are never kevins, for those saying they're not going to support kevin? what's the backup plan? >> you're the backup plan, joe. no. i'm kidding. steve scalese is probably the next backup option.

but moderates are not good with scalese at the moment. i talked with don bacon, a leading moderate, last night and he said he's going to run somebody against steve scalise if steve is the option. he's saying that now. people make decisions very quickly and change decisions quickly on capitol hill, but i can honestly see -- and there's difference of opinion on capitol hill about this -- i can honestly see that this will go throughout the day and could go days. this institution could be paralyzed for the next couple days as they figure this out. mccarthy has given up the store, has given every concession that the right wants within reason, and they're still not for him. they just don't like kevin mccarthy. that's the bottom line. they'll have to rally around somebody because they can't do this twice. the conference is not going to go -- is not going to put with this twice. >> what about tom cole? he seems to be somebody that might have a foot in both worlds, especially since he voted against certifying the

election. >> that's a really option. people like tom cole and frank lucas, both of oklahoma, some of the serious, older, more respected conservative members of the conference, that could be an interesting fallback option for republicans. i think it will be difficult to run him against steve scalise because scalese has a lot more support. but listen, in a 222-seat majority, you basically need every single republican to be on board with the choice for speaker, all but four or five. so whoever they come around to needs to get -- needs to satisfy all camps, and i just -- sitting here today, i don't know who that person is. it's not going to be jim jordan. moderates are not going to elect jim jordan the speaker of the house. so it will have to be somebody that is palatable to moderates and conservatives. is that steve scalese? patrick mchenry of north carolina? frank lucas or tom cole of oklahoma? all are possibilities. but to put it in context, remember, this hasn't happened

in 110 years, a second ballot for speaker of the house. and if you're a democrat this morning, a house democrat this morning, aside from being in the majority, this is about the best way you could hope to start the 118th congress. >> jake, this kind of gives us a window into the next two years if republicans can't even agree on who should be the speaker of the house. what does it mean for, oh, i don't know, funding the government or avoiding a default on the government's credit or all the hearings they want to have and the people they want to drag up in front of the congress? what is this going to look like for two years? >> it's going to be an absolute mess, worst than we've seen in the last 15 years flp's no question about that. and you could see a scenario in which after a government funding fight the conservatives move the remove the speaker of the house. we are in a period of just outright war in the house republican conference that -- and i thought 2010, 2012, 2014 were bad. those years pale in comparison

to what we're seeing right now. >> i know you have to run. there's big gop meeting in 11 minutes. we'll let you hustle over there. co-founder of punchbowl news, jake sherman, thanks for stopping by. where is this going? he clearly doesn't have the votes. he's going into this meeting in ten minutes to try to get them. the freedom caucus has said nope. the never kevins have said nope. that's 14 right there. now what? >> it's hard to think about what else he could give away. he'll go behind closed doors in this meeting and try to sway some votes. his aides have signaled to us if that doesn't work, they're going to the floor and this will play out in the open. to quote jake sherman, it will be an absolute mess. we may not have any answer for hours even perhaps today and it will certainly foreshadow what this republican-led house of representatives is going to be like over these next two years no matter who the speaker is. there are, joe mentioned, a couple names he floated as

possible replacements. mccarthy, i guess you'd have to say he's the favorite but that's for lack of better options. it's not a guarantee it will get done. mika, when he's counting on the votes of the likes of george santos, perhaps that shows you how much trouble he's in. >> well, that and alcyon how he gets out of this, joe. maybe this has happened before. has anyone ever given everything away as much as kevin mccarthy? and i'm serious. if you're on the fence about somebody and they want you to vote for them but they've already said that anybody can just stop his speakership in its tracks at any moment -- >> yeah. >> -- why would you want to vote for that -- >> there's another way to look at this. these people, i'll call them these people, that have made demands on kevin mccarthy,

kevin's accepted those demands. these people are now saying we're still going to the floor. >> yeah. >> and we're still going to fight you every step of the way. the first thing kevin mccarthy needs to do this morning is say, you know what i said before i was going to do, you've broken your pledge to support me if i did that, so that's off the table. that's off the table. there won't be a motion to vacate the chair. go to hell. that's off the table. now we'll start counting again. you guys see if you can take me on. go to the floor, take me on. let me tell you something, if you want to keep this up, keep it up five, six, seven of you trying to destroy the republican majority, keep it up. and if you keep it up long enough you'll force the other 215 of us to find five democrats and make a deal with them. and then we're going to run you over and you'll have to go back to your district and explain why you're the weakest five members in the house of representatives. you can vote for me now or you can vote for me later.

i don't really care. the longer it takes for you to vote for me, the weaker your position gets. that's what he does. everybody goes, oh, they'll never do a deal with -- listen, if at some point 215 republicans see that they're not going to be able to get anything done, they're going to figure it out and they're all going to run over these five, six, seven people that are standing in the way. so he's got to show strength at this point. he's got to tell them all bets are off. you all lose. you had a chance to support me. i gave you everything you asked for. it's still not enough. so guess what? >> forget it. >> i'm going to give you nothing. >> exactly. >> i'm going to give you nothing you asked for and let's just go to the floor and fight. >> not electable now. >> you're going to lose that fight 215-5, and i don't give a damn whether i get to 218 today or not. i may not get there today.

maybe tomorrow. the next day. next day. but when we walk out of this caucus, you have two choices, you can vote for me now or we can walk out of the caucus, you can take it on the floor, you can make the republican party look even stupider, and trust me, i won't take your votes after this meeting is over. i won't take them. you can beg me. you can shine my shoes. you can give me tickets to redskins games if that's even legal. i don't want to go to redskins games. their owner is horrible. you lose. vote for me now or you lose. that's what he has to do. he doesn't have it in him. >> i don't disagree with you. he does not have it in him. that's why he's in this position. to give everything away like that, nobody wants to vote for that. >> has to stare them down. >> the one vote he has is george santos. >> oh, that's -- well, he's got that. better than redskin tickets.

>> the commanders. what are they? >> the commanders now. >> yes. >> okay. commanders. >> dating yourself. okay. george santos -- >> i'm old! >> -- is likely going to take the oath of office and become a sitting member of congress today, but even as he becomes a lawmaker, he'll have to contend with multiple u.s. investigations into his admitted lies. and now at least one investigation abroad. a spokeswoman for the prosecutor's office in rio de janeiro, brazil, says they will revive a decade-old fraud case against santos. "the new york times" -- >> this is not getting better. >> it's not. the matter which stemmed from an incident in 2008 regarding a stolen checkbook had been suspended for the better part of a decade because the police were unable to locate him. court records show santos used a stolen checkbook and fake name to purchase nearly $700 worth of clothing. he admitted to the crime. >> really. it just keeps getting worse for this guy.

>> it's bad. he admitted to the crime, writing to the shop owner on a brazilian social media site he wanted to pay for the clothes in 2010. he told police he stole the checkbook from a man his mother used to work for. we have to tuque about his mother. he was charged in 2011 -- >> is he the one that survived the holocaust, according to santos? >> he actually said he lost his mother in 9/11. >> he said his mom died in 9/11? >> yeah. >> and she survived the holocaust? >> and then another day it was december 23rd, he said, i remember my mom's death today. so it's just weird. >> is his mom still alive? >> so, santos previously denied the -- >> she died on the 23rd. >> -- an interview with "the new york post," saying i'm not a criminal here nor in brazil with any jurisdiction in the world, absolutely not, didn't happen. >> but it did happen, right? >> santos could receive up to

five years in prison but that won't necessarily be enough to remove him from congress? a criminal conviction? what does disqualify -- at this point i want to know, between trump and santos, what is disqualifying? i need to know. >> one of two things, my friend. >> what? >> voters or courts. voters or courts. i guess they can impeach him, right, willie? they can impeach him and kick him out. but, i mean, yeah, i mean, kevin needs his vote. kevin and mgt, whatever she is, i'm not really good with names today, but she -- i'm going to start singing a barry manilow song. i'm from a different era. >> seriously. if you have completely defrauded your voters -- >> he's a run-away beer truck. >> he's going to be sworn in today under state, federal, and now international investigation,

which i think is bad. right? i think that's bad. there's the fraud that he perpetrated on the voters out on long island in his district. that's one thing, the lack of vetting that got him there. then there's also the silence of republican leadership, who didn't want to say a word about this guy -- >> talking about donald trump. >> -- because they needed his vote for this very election that we're seeing today. >> so his mom -- help me out with his mom. she passed away on on september 23rd? >> no. >> december. >> december. >> december 23rd. but he said she passed away on 9/11? >> yeah. >> and he also said she was in the holocaust? >> i don't know about that part. did she? >> didn't she say something -- >> this is a mess. >> family members. it's just a mess. >> this is a mess. >> this is a veritable cornucopia of lies. >> run-away beer truck. coming up on "morning joe," donald trump is speaking up,

deflecting blame for the poor performance by republicans in last year's midterm elections. but while the former president points a finger at everybody but himself, our next guest says misleading polls might have also made a big defense. we'll explain straight ahead.

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32 past the hour. a live look at denver as the sun comes up this morning. former president donald trump has launched a new tirade venting his frustrations on his social media network over his party's poor showing in last year's midterms. "it wasn't my fault," he said. >> he sends out emails all the time saying what a great success the midterms were, all the wins. now he's saying the losses weren't his fault. >> saying "republicans didn't live up to expectations."

he went on to blame, quote, the abortion issue poorly handled by many republicans while calling out senate minority leader mitch mcconnell. a reminder that trump-backed candidates lost senate races in the key battleground states of arizona, georgia, pennsylvania, and nevada. >> it's bad. >> and some of his hand-picked candidates held some of the most extreme positions on abortion restrictions. exit polling showed abortion rights was a top concern for many midterm voters. >> willie, that's not going to really help, is it, going after pro-life voters? and then being angry at them for not coming out to vote. >> no. it also has to be said he endorsed all of those candidates. those were his people he endorsed. >> right. >> with some of them losing he threw them under the bus. this wasn't surprising. but for him to say this was a great success, the media says we didn't do a good job, everyone i endorsed won, and then the

reason it wasn't a success, it was a disaster, it was because of someone else. it's not my fault. >> the pro-life voters. >> or it was donald trump who -- okay. meanwhile, "the new york times" is examining why so many people anticipated a red wave in the first place. in a new piece, the paper largely blames partisan polling for amplifying talks of a republican blowout. joining us now is one of the co-authors of that piece, writer at large for "the new york times" and "the sunday magazine," jim rutenberg. >> this is fascinating. i think all of us would look at the last couple weeks at the polls, whether it was real clear politics or 538, and i kept seeing all of these bogus republican polls. at some point, i said, wait a second, am i self-selecting the polls i want to see? because some of them were just absolutely crazy. and then i remember, i don't know if it was morning consult,

but a poll came out one or two days beforehand and it was completely different and they ended up being dead right about how all of these race were going to drop. i guess the question is why did all the polling a regators and the media fall for these bogus republican-backed polls? >> there was a secret sauce because they were less open about their methodologies. the main street polls work for your organization and mine. they went to work figuring out how they could be better and they did a good job this cycle. the conservative-leaning pollsters were ahead of their skis at the end, ahead of the

election, and how we have reality because we had a skewed picture of what was happening in this election. >> yeah. you know, so we never felt the red wave. we kept talking about it. we didn't understand the talk of the red wave was coming from. still, though, again, you saw the media all seemed to run along. i want to ask you about something specifically in polling that i still haven't figured out. maybe you've figured it out and can educate me and the rest of us on it. right after roe was overturned, we saw that abortion was extraordinarily important, we saw what happened in kansas, which i personally believe was 2022's version of 1978's prop 13, a sign of things to come, a dramatic shift in american politics, those that know prop 13, a precursor to reagan and the reagan revolution.

so what happened? why did we see polling that showed abortion at 3%, 4%, 5% going into the election and then suddenly on election night all the exit polls had it like 30%, 35%? >> i can't speak to how -- where those polls came down and why. but i will speak to the coverage because once you start getting the red wave kicking in, and tom bonior, quoted in our piece, a prominent democratic data specialist, was really steaming up about this. what was happening is the red wave coverage -- why is there a red wave now post dobbs? what is going on here? so the coverage starts leaning into this idea maybe abortion isn't really the thing we thought it was for this election cycle. so it all becomes self-feeding. and, look, this is rank speculation, but perhaps the coverage is feeding voters to think more about inflation and crime. we have more stories about inflation and crime, which certainly people cared about.

i'm here on the isle of long right now, long island, so i'm not saying that wasn't happening, but the whole balance kind of shifts and this all becomes self-fielding because, you know, polling is an inexact science. and there is some art to it. i think it all starts feeding each other for a stew where some ingredients were badly off. >> as you write in the piece, it wasn't just the media or pollsters, it was the campaigns themselves. you talk to people the way we all do, and there was great pessimism among in democrats who would say the house is gone, we just hope by some long shot we can hold on to the senate. and even they were underestimating their own chances. i guess looking at some of the same polling we were looking at, was that your experience too, that even some of the campaigns misread the data? >> well, to me that's one of the most fascinating things we found is, if you look in the piece, there are on the record voices

from democrat who is had a lot of responsibility for where money went in this election, and their own internal numbers were often show nothing red wave, but they were so freaked out by the last couple of cycles and having it wrong and the noise, they just questioned their own numbers, and it meant in the house they took their foot off the gas in some spots and maybe that would have made a difference. but law, related with the superpac, close to mitch mcconnell, he felt like it affected his strategy because he saw adam laxalt as needing help and in nevada where it was winnable, saw arizona as hot a great race for republicans this year, and the rest of the party didn't go along because the polls showed laxalt is okay, especially the partisan votes. >> jim, it's jonathan lemire. we saw the impact of these polls on many organizations, the impact on the campaign themselves, and also impact on the voters.

some people, momentum, no need for me to go out, we've got this in the bag. then maybe you don't. so where do we go from here? everyone you talk to, how do you think they can fix things and improve this so voters, campaigns, media can better trust these polls for 2024? >> well, the partisan pollsters who we called repeatedly didn't really want to talk to us. so i'm not sure where they go. the mainstream pollsters feel like they, again, had an okay cycle. but nobody is going to rest on his or her haunches. this is a really tricky time for polling. i think the best lesson that they'll take is you can be right one cycle, wrong the next cycle, keep changing. we in the media, you know, my entire career -- let's not get taken over by the horse race coverage. we have to fight that instinct.

so, you know, lots of lessons because whatever reason, this is the third cycle where the balance of the coverage kind of missed some important things that were going on in the electorate, and that's -- our job is to get it right. >> the new piece is entitled "the red wave washout: how skewed polls fed a false election narrative." writer at large for "the new york times," jim rutenberg, thank you very much for being on this morning. >> okay. president biden tomorrow in a show of bipartisanship will visit kentucky alongside senate minority leader mitch mcconnell to highlight investments in infrastructure. let's bring in white house reporter for politico and "morning joe" senior contributor, eugene daniels. this is quite a show of bipartisanship. tell us about the trip. >> reporter: it will be at an area where there's a bridge people point to talking about crumbling infrastructure. it's exciting for folks when you

hear that president biden will be hanging out with mitch mcconnell, celebrating the bipartisan biden win that happened just last year. these are men who have worked together in some form or fashion for about 36 years. obviously mitch mcconnell one of those 19 senate republicans who voted for the infrastructure law. president biden was asked this question just yesterday about why he would do an event with the senate minority leader. just yesterday. >> why is it important to go with mitch mcconnell to kentucky? >> it's -- >> why is it significant to be with mcconnell there? >> we've been friends for a long time and -- >> a very biden answer there. for this white house, the infrastructure bill has been one of its crown jewels, so you'll see vice president kamala

harris, others out this week celebrating and talking about these aspects of it. it also represents how president biden sees himself, someone who came to washington, to the white house to work in a bipartisan fashion and to do things promise to do, which is pass some type of infrastructure bill. this is also about making sure that americans who look to washington, d.c., they see a juxtaposition. you see republicans fighting it out, trying to figure out who's going to lead their party, be speaker of the house. they're going to be focussing on a bunch of investigations, both as this white house would say without martd, most without merit this white house would say, and then you have president biden who's going to be working across the aisle and talk about how he's working across the aisle, and this is just possibly a month or so out from his likely announcement about his decision to run or not run for president. so to be able to highlight and run as a president who is trying to do the most he can for the most americans is what this white house wants to do. >> politico's eugene daniels,

thank you very much for coming on this morning. and coming up, what's ahead for the u.s. economy in 2023? big banks are predictsing a downturn this year. cnbc's andrew ross sorkin joins us to weigh in on that. "morning joe" is coming right back. at booking.com, 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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choose acid prevention. choose nexium. all right. live look at los angeles at 6:48 in the morning. welcome back to "morning joe." time now for a look at the morning papers. florida today reports that governor ron desantis will be sworn in today to his second term as florida's 46th governor. the term is already being seen as the platform for his expected white house bid in 2024. in michigan, "the battle creek enquirer" reports on a massive amount of money spent on advertising in the 2022 gubernatorial race.

campaign records show governor gretchen whitmer spent nearly $1.5 million on facebook ads in her campaign last year. that is nearly 11 times more than what she spent in 2018. whitmer last year also spent $1.3 million on youtube ads, records show. in mississippi, "the clarion-ledger" covers the rising home birthrates across the country. among the almost 4 million births last year, nearly 52,000 of them occurred at home. that is nearly a 12% increase compared to three years ago. and "the atlanta journal constitution" reports that air travel has returned to normal after a hectic holiday season. southwest airlines says it has resumed its normal resumed its normal schedule following a nationwide meltdown. in addition the tsa screened 1.5 million more people compared to this time last year.

willie? >> more than two-thirds of economists at the largest financial institutions in the united states now believe a recession will occur this year. "the wall street journal" surveyed two dozen large financial an economic downturn in the coming months. a decline in the housing market and tightening lending rules a the many banks. the findings come after the fed raised rates seven times last year to fight soaring inflation. does it not represent a turn from a by the of the banks? >> for some of the banks, it's a reversal. for some of them, it appeared they were going into the fall at least or christmas that there were a soft recession and we have had debates around this table of what it means. theation is that the first half

of the year is going to feel tough. the question is the second half of the year, does it get worse or better? i think the markets are still trying to sort of understand all of that. but i say this at the beginning of the year. i think -- forget about the stock market. i think life is going to feel challenging. and that's not a great message to start the year. >> some of the banks survey say it goes into 2024 or maybe becomes worse in 2024. >> the truth is, we haven't lived through this in a long time. at least in my lifetime, for the most part, call it mid-'70s or really i should say early 80s to now, you have a recession for a year or two. and if you close your eyes or held your breath, after about 18 months, everything was back to normal.

and wasn't like that. the question is that away we're looking at or are we looking at something different? >> the "wall street journal" has the top of its business and finance session says investors are bracing for turmoil in the markets. what i want to know from you, andrew, you talked to so many people every day who lived this stuff. i i don't talk to a lot of people, but the few people i talk to in the business world -- i'm saying in this area. like a week ago the alarm bells started ringing. they said we're going to have a slight downturn but it's going to be okay. get everything out of the stock market. suddenly, something happened over the past couple weeks that really made people change their outlooks. what was it? sgri don't know if there was -- i i think untrntly part of the wall street world is a group think. there was a move this fall among some of the larger hedge fund managers and part of the issue is that privately they tell each

other what they are doing and that started to seep out. we were starting to hear them talk on the air in november around thanksgiving what their people were either dweting out of the pool now. how much that trickles into the rest of the wall street world and even to the public. i think maybe it's starting to trickle out even more we were trying to report on that for the last month. i don't know if there's a specific thing to look at, but one thing that's an example of it. when it comes to earnings, we talk about elon musk, you look at tesla. willie is now showing tesla misses yearly delivery target. but that's indicative of the issue, which is to say they had 40% growth year over year. that's terrific except for the fact people expected ask they had guided the public that they were going to be at 50% growth. then away does that look like in

'23 and '24? >> from that "wall street journal" story, tesla endured a challenging year losing $675 billion. and their stock collapsed by over 60%. how did they turn this around? >> by the way, that also impacts what might be the described as the wealth effect. that a lot of folk who is had been playing the market had owned the fang stocks. the facebooks and alphabets. down clearly so people have less spending power. how does tesla around? the analysts report the view is that tesla is going to struggle. they are still growing at a massive rate. can you grow at an even faster rate to justify the valuation of this company, which is still multiples, multiples of the valuation of a gm or ford. and you have to decide. is this a car company or is this

something else? they have charging stations and other things, but that's part of the debate. sdwl what are we seeing with the covid outbreak in china, and the impact on supply lines and supply chains? >> that's the other thing things will slow down there clearly over the next couple months. it's ironicic because china is opening up in one direction meaning people can travel there now, kept you may not want to. and also there's a lot of factories and other things that will slow down. that's going to make supply harder to come by and make thing mrs. expensive. when you think about the inflation picture, it has a piece of it. and that i'm not sure was baked into a lot of the economists' forecasts even a month ago. >> andrew, thank you so much. >> that does it. happy new year. that does it for us this morning. the coverage picks up after a final break. ing. the coverage picks up after a final break.

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good morning. it is 10:00 a.m. eastern. i'm in for jose diaz-balart. for a shocking scene from l