democrats, really bipartisan opposition to the proposal to cut spending from the military. that was allocated by democrats last year. but what we're really seeing is an example of how mccarthy's concessions, the implications of those things are really global. they're not just happening here in washington. they're not just settling these personal scores that he might have had with those hard line members, but they're having global implications now and in the future. you think about something hike ukraine aid and the negotiations that will come down the line for that. even something like the agriculture bill which is usually bipartisan could run into issues given the hard liners feelings and thoughts and input. we'll see how mccarthy navigating those factions. this is one of many nightmares to come. >> a lot of republican on republican political violence in the months ahead. alexi mccammond, thank you as always for joining us this morning. thank you to all of you for getting up "way too early" with us on this tuesday morning. "morning joe" starts right now. i only need 11,000 votes,

fellows, i need 11,000 votes, give me a break. so look, all i want to do is this, i just want to find 11,780 votes. which is one more than we have. because we won the state. there's nothing wrong with saying that, you know, that you've recalculated. >> no, i mean, nothing wrong with it if you want to commit a federal crime and state crime. yeah, totally fine. >> donald trump made that phone call just over two years ago, and he could soon face criminal charges because of it. a special grand jury in georgia sent its final report on the former president's efforts to overturn the 2020 election to a judge in fulton county. we'll take you through what is next in that probe. also ahead, the department of justice is reviewing classified documents found at a personal

office for president joe biden. this discovery appears to be very different from what happened at mar-a-lago. we'll explain. plus, after hundreds -- >> i'm going to ask jonathan lemire, actually. we're going to go down this. i'm going to ask jonathan lemire if it really is different or whether it's the libs trying to hide things from the american people. we'll go through the questions with him. should we go ahead and do it now or later? >> yeah, you know. he's feeling it, so. >> do you mind if i ask a couple of quick questions. this is your beat, right? >> joe, go for it. >> is he allowed to say no? >> so on these docs, it's the same thing. trump has docs, first question, so did joe biden's lawyers lie to the fbi and the doj about actually having all the documents returned to them? did he do that? >> no, they did not. as soon as they discovered that

there were these documents in this think tank associated with joe biden, they then notify the federal government. >> but the doj obviously, just like in the trump case, so they had to go on a long, drawn out negotiations, right, to try to get these biden documents back like they did with the trump -- long drawn out negotiations over months, they had to do that, right? >> actually, joe, no, they didn't, the biden team turned over the documents the next day after they discovered them. >> but the biden team, before they turned it over, just like the trump team because i'm sure it's the same thing, this is the same thing, both of them, i'm sure the biden team in between that time when they turned it back, biden had them go in to the warehouses and remove documents, right? get them out of there after they were notified by the doj to hide them somewhere? >> no, president biden has said he first learned that these

documents even existed and were in his materials when his lawyers discovered them in november. there was no effort to hide them. they turned them over. >> okay. but it's still the same thing, because we all know, we've read the stories, when biden was vice president, he would often tear up government documents, flush things down the toilet. >> eat them. >> eat them, flush them down the toilet, biden did that just like trump, right, this is the same thing, really, and the libs just can't admit it's the same thing, right, because he tore up a lot of government documents? >> they was known for saying malarkey a lot. no, he's not known to tear up documents or eating them, and his white house has pledged full cooperation with the investigation. >> okay. i'm confused, willie. i'm genuinely confused here. i'm looking around the way i am, i'm confused. i mean, this doesn't sound anything like -- >> willie wants to know part of this, and i agree.

>> it doesn't sound anything like it. yet i'm reading on the twitter machine it's just like. there doesn't seem to be any similarities. this has to be the libs trying to pull something over us. >> those were leading questions, your honor, and i would like them stricken from the record. >> no, by the way, also there was no fbi search warrant that had to be exercised, executed at the residence of the president. >> or a raid. >> former president, right, they did not have to take a year and a half, the national archives, asking first politely, and threatening the fbi to get those documents back. the national archives didn't receive the documents and realize they only had a fraction of them left so the fbi then had to go execute a search warrant to get the rest of them. none of that happened in this case, taking classified documents is a very serious matter. we're not saying it's not. of course it is. but there's no comparison here.

>> this is what the kids would call false equivalency or aristotle in many of his writings would call malarkey. >> i'm going to finish talking about what we're talking about because this is an important story as well that we'll be covering on "morning joe" today after hundreds of brazilians stormed the government buildings in support of former president bolsonaro who left the country for florida almost two weeks ago. there's no pressure on the biden administration to send jair bolsonaro back to brazil, so we'll get to tall of that in just moments. big news coming out of georgia about possible conviction, a possible conviction, but possible grand jury news and how that impacts donald trump. but first, let's talk about georgia for a second, willie, and, i don't know. >> yeah. >> here's the thing. i don't know how to say this

politely. >> well, say it impolitely. >> okay. when you let a team that loses to kansas state play in the college football championship, right, and you have a team coached by nick saban that lost, yes, two games on the last play of each one of those games in two of the hardest places to play in college football, this is what you get. and all of these bots, they're not bots, but they were like bots, but they lost two games, but they lost two games, but they lost two games, this is what you get. i mean, and listen, i mean, 2006, florida won the national championship, 2007, lsu, 2008, florida, 2009, alabama, 2010, auburn, 2011, alabama, 2012, alabama, 2013, you get the idea,

teams from the deep south win the national championship. now, people don't like that. they can do what ohio state did in 2014, they're the one team not from the deep south that won it. we knew this was going to happen. like alabama crushed k state, right? and i respect these guys, but seriously, you put tcu in a national championship game, and i wonder what the committee is thinking now that everybody turned the game off after the first quarter. >> yeah, the final score last night for people just waking up, georgia, 65. tcu, 7. 65-7 in a national championship game. it was 38-7 at half-time. georgia was on cruise control mode for the second half. the guy you just saw there, stetson bennett, the senior quarterback, four passing touchdowns, two rushing touchdowns, six total touchdowns in the game. georgia wins back-to-back national championships. they lost 15 players to the nfl

last year. 15, including five off of their defense. oh, it's a young team. we don't know how they're going to be this year. 15-0. they're 29-1 over the last two seasons. an incredible program kirby smart has built there. game was never close obviously from the outset. this, by the way, is the biggest margin of victory in any bowl game ever. not just national championship games. since they started playing bowls in 1902, 65-7 is the biggest margin. joe, nick saban was sitting up there as an analyst for espn, you know he had to be thinking, we would have liked a shot at these guys. they did lose the two games. they lost them in the last play of the game. they didn't get into the s.e.c. championship game where they might have had a shot to beat georgia. ohio state probably should have beaten georgia in the final four. ohio state is up on the s.e.c. level. really, to your point, no one else is. alabama is probably the second best team in the country. you could put tennessee right up there as well.

ohio state belongs there, but my gosh, the gap between the s.e.c. and the rest of the country, particularly now georgia and the rest of the country was stark isn't even the word, 65-7. that's the gap. >> well, you know, alabama, who knows, they probably would have lost to this georgia team. and again, this isn't even about me being from alabama, me cheering for alabama. we have won enough. i understand it. we're like, you know, people look at alabama the way i look at duke basketball, right, enough already. but if you're interested in having the best teams play in the final game, the committee really screwed up badly. they screwed up in realtime, they picked a team that lost to kansas state. no disrespect to kansas state, no disrespect to the kids from tcu, an incredible run. it's just two different levels of play.

and i can understand why, you know, kansas state and tcu thought they deserved to be there. i totally get it. we have a bowl committee to avoid things like this. and, listen, if they want to just have computers decide this, a team lost two games, this team lost one game, put them in. so we can, like, keep seeing this, jonathan lemire, that's fine. but even after this game, did tcu not end up being ranked number two in the nation when nobody on the planet would take tcu over alabama straight up. it's ridiculous. >> i mean, the score here speaks for itself, 65-7. i think it's clear that georgia had an off day against ohio state. that game coming down to the wire as willie said, they easily could have won that game. georgia was the best team all along. we got the right outcome in terms of national title game. no competition here, no drama whatsoever last night.

you feel bad for the tcu kids who were totally out classed. they didn't belong on the same field. it helps that stetson bennett is 38 years old. that goes a long way to help you win. >> i think he's older than brady now. >> he is, the two of them are squaring off. he is 25, which is old for a college quarterback. >> he's as old as lamar jackson. >> he is. >> that part, he actually is as old as lamar jackson. they lost all of these players to the pros. they're going to lose more next year. they're going to be great next year. s.e.c., clearly the top conference, and we got maybe the best college football semifinals saturday, since they entered this new system, and then we got the worst. >> it even shows, joe, the gap between say michigan who had a great undefeats season. people say, is michigan the best team in the country. they lost to tcu. georgia beat tcu 65-7.

there's your big ten gap as well. you touched on it a second ago. tcu was five and seven last year. had an incredible run with their first year coach, sonny dykes this year. you tip your cap to their run. but georgia and the s.e.c. clearly the better team and the good news, joe, is that this thing is going to expand in a couple of years. while tcu will be in, so will be alabama, and you'll get a sense of who the best team is. >> yeah, and by the way, let me just say, sonny dykes should be coach of the year, no doubt about it. the tcu team, it's extraordinary what they've done in the year. extraordinary what they've done. they just aren't on the level of the s.e.c. that's not knocking them. usc, one of the most storied programs in america. they're just not. michigan is not. the big 10 is not. so again, why in the world, this bowl committee, set us up with this game. you know, i did feel really bad

for the tcu kids, and it's one of the reasons i turned the game off. it was too painful to watch. that's not tcu's fault. that's the bowl committee's fault. they screwed up. listen, i'll give my real opinion next hour. >> please do. and before we get to our top story, willie, in the world of football, i follow it a little bit less than you all, but damar hamlin, buffalo bills safety, released and sent back to buffalo. he is headed home to buffalo as he posted yesterday, with a lot of love in my heart. watching the world come together around me on sunday was truly an amazing feeling. the same love you all have shown me is the same love i plan to put back into the world and more. bigger than football and the heart sign. really really great news. >> beautiful. >> when he was literally dead on the field a week ago.

it feels like a miracle. >> it's stunning. think about where we were seven days ago on this show on tuesday morning. we weren't sure if he was alive. we still have that scene, the players were crying, how could they go on. he's back in buffalo. he's left the hospital. one of the great details that the doctors offered yesterday, incredible doctors at the university of cincinnati hospital and the trainers on the field and everybody else who saved his life. the doctors said during the game on sunday, the huge game against the patriots when the kickoff, the opening kickoff was run back for a touchdown by the bills, all the icu alarms from hamlin's room started going off, they were worried, they ran in there, he was jumping up and down celebrating this touchdown by his team. he's up walking around, talking, and well enough to fly home to buffalo. it's amazing. >> i was happy to see the opening kick off. a week ago he was dead. he's up, walking, talking,

eating, breathing on his own. making a remarkable recovery, and it was, as he said, it was really emotional to see the whole league rally around him, no matter what team you route for. at this point, it is miraculous that he's doing so well, and let's hope it continues. >> and we will follow all of this. let's get to our top story this morning, at quarter past the hour, a special grand jury has finished its criminal investigation into whether former president trump and his allies tried to overturn the 2020 election in georgia. its final report has been filed with a judge in fulton county. jurors recommended that the report be made public but a hearing in two weeks will determine if that happens. fulton county district attorney fani willis called the special purpose grand jury last year because it had the power to issue subpoenas to force witnesses to testify. trump lawyer, rudy giuliani, south carolina senator, lindsey graham, former white house chief of staff mark meadows were

questioned about trump's efforts to change the election results. georgia governor brian kemp and secretary of state brad raffensperger also testified. the main focus of the investigation was that phone call, former president trump made to raffensperger asking the secretary of state to find him 11,780 votes. >> i only need 11,000 votes. fellows, i need 11,000 votes. give me a break. so look, all i want to do is this, i just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have. because we won the state. there's nothing wrong with saying that, you know, that you've recalculated. >> it's really, again, every time you play it, it gets more damming every time. he sounds like such a thug on

there. come on, just steal 11,000 votes. >> recalculating them. all you need to do is steal 11,000 votes, come on. give me a break. >> let's bring in nbc news legal analyst, andrew weissmann, the former general counsel of the fbi and served as lead prosecutor in the mueller special counsel's office. >> so andrew, i have been weary through the years of watching people come on this network, and other networks, talking about that donald trump is going to get charged by a grand jury, charges are going to be against him. the prosecution is going to begin. i told everybody, he's above the law. it's never going to happen. this guy gets away with everything, he can lie and cheat and break fec laws, nothing ever gets to him. i must say, i must say, i'm starting to get wobbly on that. at this point, it's hard to see listening to that call with the

testimony that's gone in there, how he doesn't get charged. what are your thoughts? >> couldn't agree more. you know, i have the same view. this is a man who for decades has escaped all sort of civil and criminal liability. and so, you know, i can understand everyone, including you being skeptical of these sort of predictions. but here, you know, you've played the tape. there's other evidence. it's very hard to see that the special grand jury that has been, you know, for eight months isn't going to find probable cause that the former president committed a crime. remember, the standard is just probable cause, and that, by the way, is the same standard that a normal grand jury would need to apply to find criminal charges. so i think it's just incredibly unlikely that the special grand

jury report won't say that the former president committed a crime, and that means that the d.a., as well as i think will be really hard pressed to overrule that and say i'm not going to seek charges. so i think, i don't know if this is the end of the beginning or the beginning of the end, but i think we're going to enter a new phase where we will see criminal charges out of georgia with respect to the former president on this aspect of what he did to overthrow the will of the people in a national election. >> andrew, as you know, the reason the district attorney fani willis asked for this special grand jury is because it had subpoena power and compelled people like mark meadows, and rudy giuliani, and senator lindsey graham to testify. eight months later it will come out with its report, mechanically, if you can explain to our audience what happens from here now, where does it go? >> well, this is a really unusual process because federally you don't have sort of two types of grand juries.

you just have one. so the initial grand jury and the report that we're talking about is because it's a special grand jury where its function is to gather evidence, as you noted, willie, to issue subpoenas, bring witnesses in, and then it can issue a report, but it doesn't have the power to bring charges. a regular grand jury does have that power, and there's nothing that stops the da from impanelling that grand jury and presenting evidence now. in other words, the d.a. doesn't have to wait until the report is issued. so it's hard to know exactly what will happen, but i think that it's hard to see that the d.a., who has the report now, isn't proceeding at pace. if the report says that the former president committed a crime, then there's nothing that stops the d.a. from going ahead and presenting that evidence to a grand jury. that process, just to be clear, can take a single day.

having done grand jury work, this is not a lengthy process. you can take the evidence that you've already presented to this special grand jury, and you can give it to the regular grand jury. you don't have to recall all of those witnesses. so you could see charges happening simultaneously or shortly thereafter upon the release of this report on january 24th. so andrew, we should note the former president defended that call that we played at the beginning of the segment as perfect, which is the same word he used of course for the call to president zelenskyy of ukraine that got him impeached. we may see this all public in the next couple of weeks. a decision will be made about that. but underscore to us why so many in trump's orbit have been the most nervous, out of all of these investigations, most nervous about this one. it's a state case. therefore his attempts to win

back the white house in 2024 would matter. >> two reasons this is a worrisome case if you're donald trump. one, he is on tape, so this is, if you're a prosecutor, you're basically please press play, and you let the jury hear the actual defendant, and then you have all of the other evidence to contextualize what he was doing. so he's front and center, and he can't say i didn't know what was going on or it wasn't me, the evidence was made up. you have his own voice, which as you alluded to and everyone has now heard is really damming. the second point is it's a state charge. state charges are not subject to a presidential pardon. for instance, president trump at the end of his term issued all sorts of pardons to various criminals, including many of his own cronies, roger stone, michael flynn.

they dismissed the charges and issued pardons. that is not possible with a state charge, so if trump or an ally were to become president, it is irrelevant to these charges. so these are ones that, if you are donald trump and his defense lawyers, you are keenly aware of just how much these could really stick if a strong case is presented to a georgia state jury. >> nbc news legal analyst, andrew weissmann, thank you very much for being on this morning. we'll be following this of course. >> thank you so much, andrew. and he talked about really damning, jonathan lemire, i want us to end this block where we began, talking about joe biden, and what joe biden did, compared to what donald trump did. i left out a question. so forgive me, and it may be the most damning question. what was the role, specifically, based on all of your white house

reporting, what was the role that joe biden had? by extension, what responsibility does joe biden have for putting tcu in the championship series? >> wow. i'm checking the notes, i'm going to be on it for the rest of the show, joe, but at this moment, it seems president biden had no role whatsoever, if putting the horn frogs in the title game before they lost 65-7. he seems to be not involved there either. >> okay. i'm going to file it. i don't know. >> check back. we have many hours of the show to get back to it. >> many many hours. still ahead on "morning joe," we're just starting out, everybody. senate majority leader chuck schumer joins us -- >> and he's very sorry, he is. >> of house republicans voting to rescind irs funding. he says democrats won't let it happen. plus, congressman george santos who appears to have made up most of his resume is now the subject of a new fec complaint. we're digging into that.

and we're gauging the fallout from sunday's riots in brazil, and the growing calls for president biden to extradite former far right president bolsonaro from the u.s. and later this morning, best selling author james patterson joins us with a look at his brand new thriller. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. watching "" we'll be right back.

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nbc news correspondent sam brock has the latest. >> reporter: after chaotic clashes with police, where protesters used metal barricades to crash in the windows. 1,500 civilians are behind bars supporting the former president jair bolsonaro who like trump pushed election fraud for months without evidence. a scene that looked an awful lot like january 6th. police flash bangs and tear gas going well into the night to quell the crowds. >> the constitutions, we are thinking about what's happening in the united states. if it didn't happen in the united states, it wouldn't have happened in brazil. >> president biden condemning the violence as an assault on democracy, throwing the country's support behind the newly elected luiz e nas owe

lieu silva. >> i think it's very similar. just as sad. like here, people are lost faith in the electoral process. >> reporter: bolsonaro has been spotted in florida, with his wife saying he was admitted to the hospital with abdominal pain. >> if an individual has no basis to be in the united states, an individual is subject to removal by the department of homeland security. >> reporter: all of this as brazil buckles, but tries not to break under its biggest attack on democracy in decades. >> you know, it can sometimes be a tricky thing when you're talking about extraditing a former leader back to a country. i know, one of the most famous examples involved mika's dad, the iranians were demanding that the sha of iran be sent back to

iran, and dr. brzezinski told them in short order to go straight to hell because he knew that once he got back there, he would be executed. there was no rule of law there. it's just the opposite here. you have former leaders people going on riots to try to undermine the rule of law there. so not exactly sure why there would be a problem sending him back to brazil. >> yeah, and on the diplomatic question, i mean, he's not president anymore. so that visa runs out after 30 days. we'll see where that stands. let's turn to the president of the council on foreign relations. from what we saw visually, the rhetoric that led up to it. there are messages, attention patriots on january 8th. we will bring brasilia to a halt. all that's missing is we'll be wild at the end of some of these

tweets. what did you see in the protests, i think it shocked a lot of people. the protesters and attack on the capitol at brazil, and do you think it looks like what happened at the capitol on january 6th two years ago. >> the bad news is it does look like it because it was like it. we used to export democracy, we were going to be the shining city on the hill. we're a different kind of city, and it ain't shining and the idea that you had this kind of emulation of what happened here now happens there is depressing. the good news is brazil had a decent election, a democratic candidate committed to democracy won. the strongest part of brazilian democracy over the last couple of years, even while bolsonaro was in power trying to undermine it was the brazilian legal system. what we're going to see is the legal system, the courts have tremendous power in brazil. my guess is they will say brazilian democracy. if they ask for bolsonaro to be extradited, i think we will comply. he will get a fair hearing. the courts in brazil tend to

be -- deed, lula was brought down by the courts. people forget. they investigated him over the corruption scandal. i think we can depend on the legal system there. it shouldn't be us, if you will, driving the train here. let the brazilians drive the train, and i think their system can hold up. >> on the law enforcement side, 1,500 people have been arrested and rounded up, a day later, that tells you something as well. what do you think about the biden administration's reaction, they have been quick out of the gate, the president publicly, privately talking to lula, offering his support, saying we stand with him. how important is that? >> the whole idea when you have nondemocratic efforts to bring down governments, coups or what have you, everyone is committed to pushing back against it. i think it's good that the united states were straight out of the gate. i wish we had heard from the new speaker of the house and others to make it clear that it was a nonpartisan sort of thing, and also, again, this puts the

pressure on us to make our democracy work. the best thing we can do for democracy and the hemisphere and around the world to show that american democracy works and american democracy delivers. that's the real issue. yes, the fact that we were so quick to condemn it was the right thing to do. >> and great to hear about the courts of brazil, and the rule of law in brazil, a real hope for moving forward. richard, we have been asking the past couple of days about the new republican leadership in the house who have struck a deal with some of its more extreme members, extreme members who are against us funding ukraine, extreme members who want to conduct search and destroy investigations of our intel community, want to undermine the fbi. some of most powerful people now in the new house republican leadership have talked about publicly defunding the fbi.

they want to attack the intel community. they want to defund our military. they want to slash $75 billion in funding from our military. and now there's a debate whether all of that was in the rules or not. i think most of it was. and i'm curious, if these new house republicans get their way and the military budget has slashed $75 billion in the most dangerous time since the cuban missile crisis, and the intel communities pushing back on china's espionage, spying, if they're allowed to be attacked and undermined by kevin mccarthy's republican house, how bad is that for america's national security? how less safe does that make every american? >> look, joe, what you're pointing to, i'll put it generously, the contradictions in the republican position, they're against mounting deficits, what's the first thing they do?

they want to take the money away from beefing up the irs so it can implement existing tax law. i think one of the first things the new speaker is going to do is go out to taiwan, which is a trip which will, shall we say, royal the waters, literally and figuratively. a pelosi plus situation there. how can he be reassuring to japan, and south korea and taiwan if the backdrop are defense cuts. the biggest national security is ukraine and how can the united states stand for order in the world if the united states is not going to fund that. republicans are tough rhetorically on iran, opposing the 2015 agreement. i agree with that position, but we now face a situation where militarily we could be challenged in three geographies, in europe, asia, and the middle east because of iran. are we going to fund the u.s. defense capabilities adequately, so i think these contradictions in the republican position ought to be, you know, talked about for what they are and attacked.

yeah, it's not just defense. it's the irs. let's bring in congressional reporter for the hill michael schnell. it's good to have you on this morning. everything that went down yesterday, especially as it pertains to repealing irs funding. >> if we start with the irs bill, mika, this is the bill that kevin mccarthy had been teasing as the first piece of legislation that a house gop majority would bring up should they win control of the chamber, and essentially what the bill does is it rescinds the bulk of that $80 billion that was appropriated to boost funding for the irs and the democrats inflation reduction act passed over the summer. the majority of the spending was basically meant to zero in on enforcement of high income earners. republicans characterized this as a way the irs was going to hire 80,000 new agents, though the department has come back and

said that is not true. this was meant for not just agents but hiring other employees, ones in customer service, computer science and accounting for the tens of thousands of employees they expect to resign or quit over the next ten years. but nonetheless, republicans took this up as the first piece of legislation to pass in the house gop majority. it kind of gives you a sense of what the next two years may look like. messaging bills coming from house republicans that will appease the base that have no chance of moving in the democratic controlled senate. >> it's fascinating, the cbo reports, the congressional budget office reports that this will cost $186 billion, translating into $114 billion increase in deficits over the next decade. it's remarkable. so on the first day at work, they increase the deficit by over a hundred billion dollars?

>> that's right. and this report came yesterday afternoon as they were preparing to bring the bill to the floor and conduct debate. this was a bill democrats brought up a number of times on the house floor. the bill passed along party lines with all republicans present voting for it, all democrats present voting against it. again it likely has no chance in the senate, and the president came out with a statement of administrative policy, opposing the legislation. >> congressional reporter for the hill, thank you so much. >> thank you. >> whether it passes or not, richard haass, you have republicans that one day in pass legislation that would jack up the deficit by a hundred billion dollars. it seems one of the great ironies over the past 20 years that republicans talk about deficits and smaller government, and yet, deficits grew at record rates under donald trump.

he inherited a deficit from barack obama and he jacked the deficit up every single year of his presidency. the four years of his presidency, record debt, record deficits. you can say the same for george w. bush, who inherited a $155 billion surplus, and left with massive deficits, record deficits. this is incredible. and these republicans, again, i keep saying this, richard, you're a former republican yourself, i think you were. the republican party, they just don't learn. >> the kings of france, they experience history, they don't learn from it. this is irresponsible. it's also, joe, connected to something else ux. you said. it doesn't just fail.

how you anti-china if you make the united states more vulnerable to what foreign governments might do. it's part of the mindless indiscriminate attack on government. you go after the fbi, the irs. you go after all the authorities of government. there's no discrimination between those things necessary and legitimate, and those that might not be. to me it's just totally mind lets, and it's just not in any way thought through in terms of its implications for american economic security or american national security. >> and we've talked about this, jonathan lemire, before. it is mindless, this reagan skepticism of the federal government has turned into nihilism, where you attack the irs. you have the most senior republican senator accusing irs agents of taking ar-15s to iowa and knocking down doors, and threatening to kill small business owners, which is a total lie. you have the lies about the fbi

coming and knocking down doors to arrest trump supporters. a complete and total lie. so you have power republican senators attacking the united states military every chance they get. even saying they wish that the u.s. military, strongest in the world, by the way, and relative to the rest of the world, strongest in the world in the history of the world. but you have republican senators actually say they wish our soldiers and marines and sailors and airmen and coast guard officials were more like the russian military. that's how sick this nihilism has gotten and this hatred of all things american. this hatred for the united states military, this hatred for the chief law enforcement agency in america.

it's gotten insane, and again, let me repeat, it's why they keep losing elections. >> yeah, and these attacks on american institutions, conspiracy theories, obviously part of donald trump's legacy as well. he accelerated it. whether it's the fbi or department of justice, the intelligence agencies, he we want after them day after day. and richard, there's a connection to how we open the blocks, assaults on institutions of government, including democratic institutions when you lose elections that fueled january 6th and fueled what we saw in brazil, and in fact, it's some of the same characters. as we detailed yesterday at length on this show, it's the steve bannons and jason millers. people who work for trump are pushing the same unrest in brasilia. my concern is, you came into the segment saying we used to export democracies, now we're exporting this. it's not just brazil. what other countries do you feel like are vulnerable to this sort

of conspiracy theories, might we see a january 6th not just in brazil but other world capitals. >> it clearly helps our foes when they see the united states in political and economic social disarray, they use this as justification for their systems. you see it regularly, for example, on chinese and russian media. they point to us, and use that to justify what they do at home. looking around the world, i'm worried about other parts of the americas. western hemisphere was the part of the world advancing most in democracy, a couple of decades ago. we're seeing all sorts of setbacks, mexico being one place, some other places as well. parts of eastern europe, obviously hungary and all that, we've got to worry about that. it makes it very hard for us to promote democracy by example. one other thing, i would expect one of the other places, the republican house is going to look to cut funding is on stuff for democracy promotion abroad. anything to do with quote

unquote foreign aid is a give away. you know that's going to be a popular target for these. but the part of the world i would worry most about is latin america, and also we have nothing else there. we don't have a trade policy. it's not a priority for america. we tend to ignore it. president went there the other day. one visit, there's not a latin america policy. it worries me, we're seeing deterioration and it's been linked to immigration pressures. if we don't have a stable, successful western hemisphere, one other way it's going to show up is of people moving toward the united states. coming up, senate majority leader chuck schumer will be our guest. also ahead, we'll be joined by a new york city nurse amid a major labor strike by nurses at two hospitals there. "morning joe" will be right back. s there. "morning joe" will be ghrit back sand. (engine revving) (cheering) love a bit of sand. expedia tracks the price of your flight, and lets you know when it's best to book. so you can go see more of all the world's sand.

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the united states continues

to pledge its unwavering commitment for ukraine, as russia continues to launch punishing and deadly attacks on the country. as the war rages on, there are increasingly new calls inside the u.s. government to pull back on support. it's not the first time our nation has wrestled with that question when it comes to global conflicts. a new book takes a look at a time when america mostly kept to itself, focused on domestic issues, maintained a relatively small army, and refused an international leadership roll. "the ghost at the feast" america and the collapse of the world order, 1900 to 1941. by robert kagan, gives an account of america's rise to global superpower coming out of world war ii when similar debates raged about the u.s.'s role in world conflicts. >> and robert kagan joins us

now. thank you so much for being with us. you know, it's interesting, i did a lot of research on harry truman a couple of years ago, and i couldn't help but see, as truman was trying to pull us out of the isolationism after world war ii, how the ghosts of this time period you're talking about impacted republicans whose instincts were to basically build fortress usa and even had somebody like robert taft, mr. republican, say enough, enough. we can't hide from history anymore. talk about those years that haunted so many americans after world war ii. >> well, when we see the arguments we're having now over ukraine, you have to magnify that times a thousand to get the sense of the kind of arguments that were occurring in the united states, especially in the 1930s, when you had the rise of hitler's germany, the rise of imperial japan, and the country was deeply divided.

interestingly, it was divided very much along republican and democratic lines. republicans who were in opposition at that time to rose frank to delano roosevelt. they accused him of being a socialist and a communist. and since roosevelt's general approach to world affairs was internationalist, republicans took the opposite view which had been their view for quite some time. and so even at a time when the threats were mounting, you know, in a way that i think as we look back on it, it's almost inconceivable that people could actually oppose getting ready for these threats, the country really was in turmoil, and the arguments that we're having about whether democracy should be promoted, whether the united states should be involved in the world, these were all front and center in the 1930s, and honestly, the debate really was never settled except by the japanese attack on pearl harbor, and then all the people who had been opposed to involvement overseas were discredited.

the republicans were completely discredited as a party during world war ii and they have to resurrect themselves afterwards, which they did largely by becoming sort of fervent anticommunists. but it was a real political blow to republicans at that time. >> robert, let me ask you about this isolationist period that led to the horrors of world war ii. growing up, reading about it, learning about it, there was always sort of this pad answer that it was wilson's fault. after versailles in 1919, an arrogant wilson came back and tried to shove this internationalist agenda down a republican congress's throat, so they just didn't do it. that an oversimplification of what happened. if wilson had had a lighter touch, would he still have been able to move these isolationist republicans? >> i don't think so. wilson had his flaws as a leader. he was obviously very arrogant, and he didn't really get along with people who he disagreed

with very well. but the fact of the matter is when wilson came back from paris with the league of nations treaty and versailles agreement, americans were largely supportive and it was, i would say, the brilliant if unfortunate legislative efforts by henry cabot lodge who was not a radical conservative republican. in fact, he had been an internationalist, but in order to defeat the democrats, in order to defeat woodrow wilson, in order to win the presidency in 1920, the republicans came out and opposed the treaty and had a huge impact on the subsequent american foreign policy. you'll be shocked to learn that politics played a huge role in our foreign policy decision making. >> hey, bob, congratulations on your latest volume. let me ask you a counter factual. what do you think the united states would have done in the 40s if japan had not attacked us at pearl harbor? would we have gotten involved in

the war? what would have been the trigger? what's your sense of how history was playing out absent that attack? >> well, i think that the particular means of the united states getting into the war, which was the japanese attack on pearl harbor, it didn't have to happen that way. roosevelt was pushing steadily to get the united states more and more involved in the war. and that was particularly the case in the battle for the atlantic, which was then going on. he deployed american ships. he ultimately was hunting german submarines. he was providing exports to trading the british ships, et cetera. ultimately, i think that he was waiting for hitler to make the first move in terms of declaring war, and i think he would have pushed as far as he could. and as far as the japanese are concerned, it's worth remembering, as you do, richard, the japanese didn't attack pearl harbor out of the blue for no

reason. the united states was taking actions, which i think is correct, but nevertheless, taking action to slow and stop japanese aggression. the japanese had invaded china, killed, hundreds of thousands of people in the united states which it often does, disproving and to the point that the japanese felt if they didn't knock us out, the united states would strangle them. these were decisions that actually americans made, and i think that the answer to your question, richard is, i think that's where the united states was heading in any case. certainly roosevelt felt that war was unavoidable. >> the new book is entitled "the ghost at the feast, america and the collapse of the world order, 1900 to 1941." robert kagan, thank you for coming on the show this morning.

we appreciate it. >> and, richard, the giants going into the playoffs, how deep are they going to go? >> we're feeling good about sunday. they wanted minnesota, not san francisco. they're going to beat them this sunday. >> willie, do you think the giants can beat the vikings? maybe the worst 12-4 team in football? >> i do. i think daniel jones is hot at the right time, if saquon can run the ball. the defense is playing well. we are believers, go big blue. still ahead, one of the nation's most prominent civil rights leaders, the former head of the naacp ben joins us with his new memoir. a pair of broad way stars, tony award winner pen -- ben platt and macayla diamond will be here with an exclusive announcement. "morning joe" will be right back. if "morning joe" will be right back if

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for an investigation, and i think we're going to let that play out right now. i think it's important to let the brazilian authorities take a look at this appropriately and determine if someone's responsible, who that might be and at what level. >> national security adviser for the white house, john kirby weighing in on the january 6th style attack in brazil, and just like in washington, d.c., there were warnings that a protest was coming. we'll have the latest reporting on that. meanwhile, the biden administration is facing growing calls to send the man the rioters were fighting for back to brazil. we'll tell you where jair bolsonaro has been hanging out and why he's there. plus, the lawmaker who made headlines for lying about his background and experience is now accused of breaking campaign finance laws. we'll have the very latest on that. welcome back to "morning joe."

it is tuesday, january 10th. jonathan lemire is still with us, and joining the conversation, we have pulitzer prize winning columnist at "the washington post," eugene robinson joining us. >> we already went on a rant. i already went on a rant about the game last night, on and on and on. >> keep it a little shorter this hour. >> saying tcu shouldn't have been there obviously. maybe michigan, but they still shouldn't have been there. last night was s.e.c. team against, man, just a squad from a completely different level of college football. >> yeah, it was. i couldn't watch the game to tell you the truth, i mean, it was just too painful. >> that's like joe. >> so when did we finally just declare that the s.e.c. is like the junior pro league? and put it in a different class. i'm sorry, but, you know, i'm a big ten guy, and ohio state was great. michigan was great, but they

weren't -- i doubt that either of those teams was in the league of georgia or alabama for that matter. the s.e.c. is just a different league. it's a different level of football. and you saw that last night. >> i mean, it really is. you watch red zone on sundays, willie geist, and it's one alabama player after another alabama player, after another alabama player. another georgia player, another lsu player. they're dominating the nfl right now. they have the best players in college football, and again, no knock on tcu. their coach, coach of the year, he's done an extraordinary job. willie, the fact that after the game, they ranked tcu number one in america, and absolutely nobody, nobody would bet a dime on tcu over alabama, that they put at number five is just a joke. i don't know what the sports writers are trying to prove.

i don't know what the bowl committee is trying to prove, but it is a complete farce. >> well, it's been a tradition that whoever loses that game, they make them number two. based on the result we saw last night, you can make a good case for ohio state to be number two. alabama, tennessee, any of those teams before tcu, to your point about the nfl, georgia had five players from the defense last year drafted in the first round of the nfl. five, half of their defense was drafted in the first round last year into the nfl. and, you know, we and espn and others always accused of having an s.e.c. bias. it's based on the facts, based on the results. it's based on who wins the national championship every year with clemson thrown in every once in a while, and ohio state every so often. they just have better players, they just have better teams. they just have better coaches. the s.e.c. does it every year. back-to-back championships, you're listening on the radio. georgia won last night. 65-7 was the score.

65-7. 38-7 at the break, was never close. stetson bennett, the guy right there. threw for four touchdowns, ran for two. he's back-to-back national championship quarterback. that's the kind of stuff, joe, that gets statues built in athens, georgia. >> they put up the sort of thing that makes somebody have you run for the senate 30 years later. and you have a committee, a bowl committee that jonathan lemire that knows the history. and yet they put in a team that lost to kansas state into the championship series. again, 2006, what willie was talking about, florida, national champs, 2007 lsu, 2009 alabama, 2010 auburn. 2011 alabama, 2012 alabama, 2013 florida state. ohio state the exception, 2014, 2015 alabama, 2016 clemson, 2017, alabama. 2018 clemson, 2019 lsu, 2020

georgia, 2021 georgia, 2022, georgia, there's a theme here and you have one of those teams, again, it's the last thing i'll say, jonathan lemire, but you have a team that -- well, i'll just stop talking about alabama. they got what they served. that's all i'll say. i hope tonight the blame is put where the blame belongs and that is with the people, jonathan lemire, as you said earlier, that left those classified documents in joe biden's library in delaware. >> there it is. >> it all kind of connects there. this wide ranging conspiracy, joe. there is some talk when the conference title game when tcu lost to kansas state, whether they would make the final four. they did, and they obviously had a great season otherwise. and now it's puzzling and that win over michigan stands out as being so stunning. that game was a great game, and they did win it at the end, and they didn't deserve to be on the same field last night.

and we were saying earlier about how we had two classics in the semifinal round. but last night with the biggest blow out in the history of any bowl game ever and tvs across america flipped off by the end of the first quarter no doubt, but the playoff field is expanding, joe, in coming up, so hopefully that will avoid things like this in future title games. >> my vanderbilt commodores lost to georgia. 55-0, they were three points closer than tcu was last night. >> and as far as what you guys say. >> you know that. what's the stadium? what stadium is it? >> the dogs have to come to the dud october 14th. we're going to turn their three-peat hopes upside down in nashville. >> you go to the dud on saturday night, anything can happen. >> come on now, we're turning it

around. athletic director, we're headed in the right direction. >> i'm very excited. i'm very excited for vanderbilt. two pick six's, a targeting call that wasn't called at the end of the game, and a touchdown that was clearly a touchdown. everybody in the stadium knew it was a touchdown. they took away from michigan as well. so, you know, i don't know. again, that said, tcu, had a great season. the coach deserves to be coach of the year. the quarterback did an extraordinary job. let's just stop pretending that the s.e.c., as gene said, the s.e.c. doesn't play on a completely different level than everybody else. >> all right. and let's stop talking about sports and do the news. >> would you like me to talk about liverpool, we could go on for a while. >> we could learn more from the fallout of sunday's riots in brazil. more than 1,500 people connected with the breach of the nation's

supreme court congress, presidential palace have been arrested. "the washington post" reports, the brazilian government was actually aware of the planned protest, days in advance, but they thought they would be able to contain it. the lula administration says it was assured by the pro bolsonaro governor of the region, that everything was under control. brazil's supreme court has now suspended that governor. it is unclear whether he intentionally misled the government about the scale of the protest. meanwhile, brazilian president lula and president joe biden spoke on the phone yesterday. biden reaffirmed support for lula's win while the call's readout announced lula will visit the u.s. next month to meet with biden. so we'll be following that, and how they perhaps work together a little bit, willie. >> more than a thousand people in brazil have been arrested already after storming government buildings in the name of jair bolsonaro, the nation's

former president, possibly, though, not even in the country. bolsonaro widely reported to be staying in florida outside of orlando. last night, bolsonaro posted this image on twitter showing him in a hospital bed saying he had been admitted and released from an orlando hospital where he was treated for discomfort stemming from a 2018 stabbing. several lawmakers have called on president biden to remove bolsonaro from the country. national security adviser jake sullivan said yesterday the u.s. has not received any requests from brazil regarding bolsonaro's visa status. let's bring in columnist for the daily beast, the author of "american resistance," the inside story of how america saved the deep state. and professor of history, ruth ben-ghiat, the author of "strong

men." you write the republican the carbon copy insurrection was not shocking is the two are so clearly and intimately related. bolsonaro has been a trump imitator want to be. as happened with u.s. advisers close to trump spread the idea that bolsonaro's supporters should contest any election result that did not favor him. watching the scenes unfold and the response of the brazilian government should have been not only eerily familiar for american audiences but frankly uncomfortable. the current outbreak of the right wing authoritarian virus did not originate in the u.s., the u.s. is a super spreader, fail to go contain the spread of the political plague and accelerating and enabling its virulence. whatever parallel do you see. steve bannon was pushing a lot of this in brazil, same rhetoric, patriots storming the

capitol building, and everything that comes with that. very familiar language to what we heard before january 6th? >> yeah, it's hard not to see parallels here, the pictures look the same, the crowds, the mobs, the tear gas, the destruction within the capitol. of course the brazilian mob went into the supreme court and presidential palace, but this is all part of a bigger movement. it's a part of a global movement that's one of the real challenges of our time. it emanates, i think, originally out of moscow, but in country after country, there have been efforts to dilute or deconstruct democracy, and this, you know, goes from asia, modi, and india, to brazil, with bolsonaro to orban in europe, and what is troubling that typically in these kind of situations, as you discussed in the last hour, the united states stands up and is

the defender of democracy, but days before, hours before this attack that took place in brasilia, what did we see? we saw coup defenders, election deniers, elevated in the u.s. house of representatives. kevin mccarthy was the first person to embrace donald trump after the coup. donald trump is the leading republican candidate. so for those brazilians who were thinking let's go and undertake this attack, the message from the united states is, coup plotters are rewarded. they're not held accountable. they continue to be able to advance their message. it works, and that's something we really need to look at hard because this is one of the great challenges of our moment in history. >> so ruth ben-ghiat, your thoughts on this? obviously there are parallels in the execution of this riot. but also clear connections.

steve bannon and others in trump world kind of promoting something like this in the months leading up to it. what do you make of that? >> yeah, i think this is -- we have to see the gop, and it's sobering to do this as an autocratic party led, you know, by someone with a personality cult. donald trump just like bolsonaro, and they're not only out to wreck democracy at home, they are now embedded and enmeshed in far right networks that stretch from moscow to budapest to orban speaks at c pac, he's the mentor in all things autocratic, to brasilia. it's very important to have this frame, and the difference in brazil, of course, is that brazil had a 21-year bloody military dictatorship that started with a coup. and, you know, it only ended in 1985. so millions of brazilians live

through this, and they know that people were tortured and disappeared. so you're seeing a very different reaction by the lula government. but we will see more. there's a reason that the governor of brasilia was suspended for 90 days, immediately. a third of my book is about coups and a mantra about coups i develop is some must act and others must stand down to let the operation proceed. you have dereliction of duties among conspirators, so you're going to see, you know, who was responsible for the police being outnumbered and we'll find out much more about that. but the reason that the government will have such a stern response is that they have a coup in their past. >> so gene robinson, brazil had

its own january 6th on january 8th. you write for "the washington post," a piece entitled, america's trumpist export to brazil, election denialism. expand on that if you will, and weigh in as to how america is now viewed across the world where this is now what we are known for a riot like this in our seat of democracy, that we see emulated other places. how does that, perhaps, empower our enemies abroad. >> look, it's incredible. we think of ourselves as a beacon of democracy. we think of ourselves as trying to export democracy across the world and president after president, you can go back to john kennedy, and every president talks about democracy as the ideal, as what we hope for the world of this ability of self-determination of freedom and liberty, and instead, in this case what we exported was

our january 6th. we exported, you know, bolsonaro supporters and bolsonaro himself followed the donald trump playbook. he began -- bolsonaro began saying before the election that the election would be rigged against him if he lost. and that was the mantra. that was what he encouraged his supporters to believe. he refused to acknowledge his loss, he refused to concede, and he allowed his defenders and his supporters to continue this drum roll of lies. it was a free and fair election every observer agrees, it was a close election, but lula won, and bolsonaro, by not acknowledging that, and by

actively and tacitly encouraging his supporters to deny the election, it led, i believe, to january 8th in brasilia. it's incredible, really, to watch, just to sit there at home, and watch what was happening on sunday in brasilia city. i know well because i covered it, i spent a lot of time there, and to realize that it happened here first, that we -- we provided the example, we showed how to try to stage a coup. fortunately it was unsuccessful in brazil as it was unsuccessful here. but the danger remains. those are still out there. >> the danger remains, and david, the danger remains especially when you look at some

of the people who made kevin mccarthy speaker of the house. you have house republicans, not conservatives, i'll just say it. i'm a conservative. i actually -- you and i have disagreed on many things. we disagreed on the iran nuclear deal. i think quite vehemently, i would guess we disagreed on the church commission, you know, i campaigned against, you know, the excesses i said of the church commission. i know that horrifies a lot of people. i always wanted a stronger military. i say all of this to compare what reagan conservatives, what thatcher conservatives were compared to these group of people who haven't found an institution they don't want to tear down, who hate our u.s. military, who says it's too woke. say they wish we were more like the russian military. can you believe senators are

saying that? they attacked the intel community, at war with the intel community. they attacked the fbi, the fbi is coming after people who voted for trump, saying the helicopters that we used in afghanistan were now going to use against trump supporters here. they attack health care officials. you look at the numbers for those who took covid vaccines, those who did not. and yet they fight their fights on twitter. it's not even a close call. you have the most senior republican senator, forgive me for going on. but it needs to be said saying that the irs is going to small business owners and families in iowa with ar-15s and kicking down their front door. this nihilism now runs the house of representatives because the

very people who said defund the fbi and were the most extreme were the very people that put kevin mccarthy over the top. so we've exported a lot of that to brazil. and unfortunately we're importing our ideas from orban, from putin, from other autocrats, so what's the way forward? how much danger are we in over the next two years? >> i think the first step is to call it what it is. you know, there were commentators last week who would refer to people around mccarthy as the conservatives in the house or the moderates in the house, and as you point out, they weren't conservatives. they weren't moderates. these are nihilists, these are, as ruth just said, these are authoritarians, and we have to distinguish between the reasonable policy debates we once had in the past and the fact that these people are

systematically trying to destroy the institutions of the united states government. look at the actions they took just yesterday. they want to eliminate the ethics committee. they want to go after the justice department. that may seem like they're trying to defend themselves. but what is it trying to do? it's trying to give a free pass to authoritarians. they don't want to fund the support for ukraine. what does that do? that helps the leader of this authoritarian movement worldwide. vladimir putin tried to impose his will in an illegal war in ukraine. they embraced orban. this is a pernicious party. this is a dangerous political movement in the united states, and if we dress it up, we will bear the cost of normalizing what is extremely dangerous and a threat to literally the values we hold most dear in the united states of america. >> you know, david, you bring up such a great point because it made me cringe when they would

take these radicals, these extremists who supported violence on january the 6th and they call them conservatives, and then people who are far more right wing than i have ever been are now calling them moderates. there are no moderates in that republican house. well, maybe one or two. i think there are one or two left that i serve with that you could still call a moderate. but very few. and i just -- while we talk about definitions. i want to ask both of you this question because people have been hedging about what you call something fascism or not. i always learned, i always learned that if you have a group of ultranationalists that use violence to overturn democratic

outcomes, that fits very tightly. and the use of violence for other political means, that fits definition of fascism. i want to know, why are we afraid to call republicans in america who support january 6th fascists. why are we afraid to call what we saw in brazil fascism, if that's not fascism, please, somebody, ruth, tell me what it is. >> yeah, i'm so glad you bring this up because since 2016, first in the atlantic and other places, i started writing about trumpists posing a fascists and authoritarian threat, and at first, people laughed at me and thought i was crazy, and it was very very important to call things as they are. it was frightening to people, and it also means that people might have to do something about

it. and change their lives to defend democracy. and that is something that people are reluctant to sometimes do. there's also the illusion that america is only the beacon of democracy. the coup i mentioned before, 21 years, that was backed by the united states. the united states has a whole history of propping up and enabling authoritarian states. we have this double legacy. just one more thing, the talking point that today's fascists use to call themselves conservatives and moderates is a global talking point. the neo fascist prime minister, she calls herself a conservative, and viktor orban calls his system a liberal democracy. there's nothing democratic about his state. so this is a global talking point meant to whitewash the fascism and the violence and

this is why we see in brazil, the nihilism, fury and the rage, and that's what fascists embed and that's what january 6th was about as well. >> david, final thoughts. >> final thought is that we must do something about this. we need to not only change what we call these people but we need to start holding these coup plotters accountable, finally. brazil has arrested more people in 24 hours than we have arrested in the past two years. it took president lula precisely an hour to call these people out as fascists. the biden administration is doing the right thing at a top level in terms of the foreign policy handling of this. it's time the people behind the coup, the financers of the coup, the organizers of the coup are penalized or we're going to continue to be the super spreader. we're going to continue to be

seen as a nation that rewards coup plotters, or lets them off scot-free. the time has come for action. >> professor of history at new york university, ruth ben-ghiat, thank you very much for the conversation. >> i want to say this quickly, we have to go to break, i know, when we're debating iran, debating the iran nuclear deal and there's tough back and forth, that's democracy. and by the way, it's a great debate. a critically important debate. i can understand, you know, why you took the position you took. i know why people took the position i took. that's within the guardrails. that's what america is supposed to be. >> yeah. >> this is far outside the guardrails, you know. >> it is. thank you for being on. still ahead on "morning joe," former trump organization cfo allen weisselberg faces sentencing today after pleading guilty last year to tax fraud.

we'll get a live report from outside the courtroom. plus, a major nurse's strike in new york city is entering day two. we'll be joined by a labor and delivery nurse at the union, negotiating team at mount sinai. and take a look at the morning papers coming up, including positive news about the u.s. postal service and the 2022 election. >> oh good, i like good news. >> you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. 're watchin joe. we'll be right back. migraine hits hard, so u hit back with ubrelvy u level up u won't take a time-out one dose of ubrelvy works fast 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 could help you save. ask about ubrelvy, the anytime, anywhere migraine medicine.

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♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ voltaren. the joy of movement. in virginia overnight, there was an emotional vigil in honor of the teacher who was wounded in last week's shooting at an elementary school. police say the shooter was a student just 6 years old, and this morning we're learning more about what happened. nbc news correspondent catie beck has details. >> reporter: from her hospital bed monday, recovering from a gunshot wound, first grade

teacher, abigail zwerner had one pressing question. >> do you know how my students are. she was worried about them. >> reporter: hailed a hero, police say during classroom instruction friday, a 6-year-old student drew a 9 millimeter handgun and fired a single round. the bullet went through zwerner's hand and struck her in the chest. >> she suffered a gunshot wound and was able to get all of the students out of the classroom. she was the last person to leave that class. >> reporter: police say the 6-year-old brought the gun to school from home. the firearm legally purchased by his mother. the child now receiving treatment in a medical facility. administrators back to the drawing board on safety protocols for lower schools. >> i'll be honest, who would be prepared for a 6-year-old to bring a loaded weapon on to school and shoot their teacher?

>> reporter: the elementary will remain closed the remainder of the week. parents visiting campus, and still shocked. >> so surreal. >> reporter: an outpouring of concern for a heroic teacher and the little ones left to heal. >> to have something like this, a safe place where kids are supposed to run with their friends, where they're supposed to pass notes to school, that's the kind of darkness they shouldn't have to deal with. >> mika, so the handgun was brought from home, legally owned by the family, a 6-year-old, this was not an accident. a confrontation. the 6-year-old had a beef with the first grade teacher and pulled a gun on her. police went into detail talking about how the amazing teacher was shot in her hand and upper body. her first instinct was to get the other kids out of the classroom, between 16 and 20 of them, first graders, got them out of the classroom to safety, and then thought about herself after that. extraordinary stunning details.

>> just what next? we'll be following that story. it's time now for a look at the morning papers. "greenwich time time" reports recreational cannabis sales begin in connecticut today. seven stores will open their doors. the state already has medical marijuana dispensaries. many of which will now double as a retail medical hybrid. officials say the recreational marijuana industry will create tens of thousands of jobs and bring hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue over the next few years. in wisconsin, the daily tribune has a front page feature on the struggles dairy farmers are facing right now. the state's department of agriculture says the number of dairy herds has dropped 45% since 2013. this as farmers are retiring and being forced out due to rising production costs. "the press and sun bulletin,"

the usps delivered 54 million ballots nationwide, and nearly 99% of them made it to election officials within three days. and finally, "the tampa bay times" in florida, the ozone layer is slowly thickening. efforts to repair the atmospheric shield are working. at this rate, scientists say the ozone could recover to what we saw in the 1980s by the 2040s. the ozone layer blocks harmful ultra violate sunlight from reaching the earth's surface. and coming up, we'll be joined by the former national president of the naacp who's going to tell us why he remains hopeful that america can still come together despite our deep

political divisions. also ahead, senate minority leader chuck schumer is ahead, talking about the recent chaos on capitol hill and a house bill that would remove billions in funding for the irs. we'll be right back. n funding for the irs. we'll be right back.

welcome back to "morning joe," 41 past the hour. more than 7,000 nurses at two major hospitals in new york city went on strike yesterday. the nurses at mount sinai hospitals are demanding fair contracts that improve patient care. here's what one nurse who works in mount sinai's neonatal icu yesterday. >> i'm in charge of 56 babies at

a time, and i'm also responsible for my staff on the unit, so you can imagine trying to be in charge of 20 nurses and 56 babies is extremely stressful. however, at the same time, all of my nurses have three to four babies and all needing something differently. so it just, you know, poses huge challenges for us because we can't give the right amount -- the care we want to our babies. the whole issue comes down to staffing. we can't be stretched this thin anymore. >> new york's private and public hospitals still have at least 17,000 nurses working. the privately owned hospitals are postponing nonemergency surgeries and diverting ambulances to other medical centers in efforts to handle the walkout. matt allen, a labor and delivery nurse at mount sinai and director at large for the new york state nurse's association. so matt, give me a sense of where things stand right now in

terms of what the nurses need to get back on the job, and can you talk to me a little bit about the decision to strike? >> i mean, what we're looking for right now is really, you know, strong staffing enforcement in our contract. that's someone that has been lacking, you know, for years now, and it's allowed the hospital to continue to kind of provide us with inadequate staffing. the nicu nurses have been taking care of double the amount of sick babies for years now, and they have been crying out for help to the hospital administration but nothing has come of it, so that's why we're here now, right? we've pushed and pushed. we have tried to use contract negotiations to improve our working conditions. the employer refused to budge on those things, so we are using our, you know, rights to go on strike. we need to push back.

we can't accept the status quo anymore and that's what we realize. that's why we need to flex our power to say enough is enough. this hospital needs to do better. all of the nurses on the two hospitals are out on the picket lines right now. >> how long were the negotiations before the decision to strike was made. that must have been a tough decision to an extent for many nurses to leave what they do for their patients. so how long and were they given ample warning that this could happen. >> yeah, i mean, we have been negotiating, you know, since september. and we were -- have been talking about our contract renewal for about a year and a half now with the nurses, but we have been at the table with management since september, and i think that's what's frustrating to us is that, you know, they refused to budge during that entire time and waited until, you know, we push things to this limit, right? we could have come up with solutions beforehand in, you

know, september, october, november, but it's been dragged out and they have not taken it seriously until, you know, we issue a notice, that's when we actually started talking to us meaningfully, and it's pushed to the point where we're on strike. so we have been educating our members about it for, you know, over a year now. then we have been in management since september. >> hey, matt, you mentioned obviously some of the staffing issues, but tell us a little bit about for those watching at home, the toll the last years have taken on you guys. new york city of course was the epicenter of the first wave of the covid outbreak here in the united states. still cases are on the way up again as well as of course fluid rsv. just talk about how you guys are holding up after all of these years. >> yeah, i mean, i think our staffing was a huge issue, you know, before covid. then covid, you know, completely exacerbated that. you know, people left the work

force. people left the work force because of the intense burden that we were having. you know, and we continued to lead now, and unfortunately, you know, the hospital did implement an official hiring freeze, so we left lots of vacancies, and that has left our working conditions severely under staffed. they have currently 500 vacancies, that means almost every unit is under staffed. we come to work, taking care of double the patients we should be. we're not getting a break. we can't provide the care that we want to. that we should be providing to the patients. that is demoralizing for us. that breaks our heart. when you see the impact that has daily on new york city. >> labor and delivery nurse at mount sinai and director at large of the new york state nurse's association, matt allen, thank you very much for sharing your story with us this morning. still ahead, we're going to go live to the new york state courthouse in lower manhattan where a former trump

organization executive is expected to be sentenced today for tax fraud. plus, senate majority leader chuck schumer joins us at the top of the hour to talk about how the democrat-led senate will respond to what's coming out of the republican-led house. "morning joe" will be right back. republican-led house "morning joe" will be right back

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beautiful sun rise from ragan national airport in washington. 7:51 in the morning here on the east coast. in a country that in some ways is more divided than ever ben jealous says he is hopeful that america will come together. born of an interracial couple he weaves personal stories with lessons in the new book "never forget our people were always free." he joins us now. professor of practice at

university of pennsylvania. ben, it is great the see you. good morning. >> thank you. great to be here. >> congratulations on the book. >> thank you. >> you opened up your life and found stuff you never expected to find. >> it blew my mind. robert e. lee and dick cheney is my cousin. >> there's a moment. >> i was maybe prepared for dick cheney because he is obama's cousin but throw robert e. lee in there and i had to walk away from the keyboard. >> your grandmother is at the heart of story. >> she was a crusading social worker. she was on fire to end poverty even more than racism. i had to figure out why. she was her grandfather's granddaughter and he had built a

movement in the early 1880s with a former confederate general to save the free public schools of that state. they created a party that's led by a former confederate general. the general was punished by history why the state wrote him out of its history. the daughters of the confederacy disowned him. cut him out of pictures. they left a radically expanded virginia tech. they saved the public schools. they abolished the whipping pole and the tax. we were never taught that confederates and former slaves got together to take over a state party. >> you write in the book how realizing that and understanding

that informed the way to go about the work as the head of the naacp. how did that and your own parents with a white father, how did that inform the way you grew up and lived but carried on activism? >> what i learned from my grandfather and general pow you will powell is find the one thing to agree on and go get that done. when i was president of the naacp that's how we abolished the death penalty in six states in five years with people like michael steele. shrunk the prison system in georgia. we all worked together. we need more of that in this country in these times. the people of the country agree on a lot. politicians profit by dividing us. it is time to reassert the

common sense that we have more in common than we don't. >> you draw lessons here including three big lies you say about race. tell us about them. >> yeah. the big one is that it's always been this way and always got to be that way. when i started to do the chronology of the virginia colony this color caste is newer than experment that is this country. race was an italian word for tribe, for group of people bound by geography. it hasn't always been that way. not even on this soil and doesn't have to be that way. that we can undo what we have done. >> ben, gene robinson is here

with a question for you. >> ben, i agree when you look at the long arc of history you can find reasons to be optimistic but when you look around today, when you look at where the country is at this moment, what gives you hope? what gives you any feeling five years from now the situation with race and discrimination and hate will be better than it is now? >> gene, you are a historian yourself. you know the middle part of the centuries are tough. on the other side of that our country seems to pull it together and make leaps toward the end of the century. my grandmother lived the life. i prefer to stay on the balcony of the horizon.

there's great hope. whites in the process of becoming a minority, too. it makes sense that the most conservative try to hold on to that power that they have enjoyed. by all means. but the reality is most people in this country just want to get along and create a better day for the kids. i live in if you will trump country in maryland. but my friend, my neighbors we get together and we agree on a whole lot of stuff and we fish and talk about the schools and how to help the kids to do better. >> we can all bond by going fishing and not catching any fish together. the last lesson, build uncomfortably large coalitions.

we're all americans and need to work together. words to live by. "never forget our people were always free." always great to see you. congratulations on the book. >> thank you. >> gene, we'll see you again very soon. new reporting on a private document that only some house republicans have seen. we'll explain how it can play a role in how the house is run. chuck schumer joins the table here in new york straight ahead on "morning joe." [finger-tapping] if your work, works for your community, then you're on team earth.

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>> yikes! >> not funny. all right. we have a lot to get to this hour, the third hour of "morning joe" including the unrest in brazil and the calls for the former president to be removed from the united states because bolsonaro is hanging out in the orlando area for almost two weeks. >> maybe he was going to universal? >> yeah. i'm thinking -- >> rides? >> i think mar-a-lago. >> what knows? >> the possible legal trouble for former president trump now that special grand jury in georgia finished the investigation into the 2020 election. plus, after a chaotic week for republicans in the house the gop came together to pass a new rules package and followed through on a promise to strip billions in funding from the irs. jonathan lemire is still with us. willie, you have a big guest at

the table. >> bring into the conversation senate majority leader chuck schumer. >> sort of big guest. >> no, no. this is a big one. >> we were talking before coming on the air what happened before election day. facing some headwinds. historical inflation and everything else. added to the majority in the senate. how did you do it? >> number one, we passed some of the most sweeping, important legislation to the american people in decades. people said the most successful skegs since the great society and those that care about the climate said maybe since the new deal. we got a lot done. the american people saw that. same time they saw the extreme republicans trying to overthrow the elections, gnawing away at the roots of democracy. and they didn't like it.

so you put the two things together and first our base is quite good in turning out young people, people of color. second, a good number of republicans and conservative leaning independents who said i'm a bush or ragan conservative and voted for our candidates. i hope this is a signal to the republican new majority in the senate if they follow the hard right it's sort of like following thelma and louise over the cliff. >> maybe a message in the senate but not the house given what we saw in the last week. what were you thinking as you watched the last week? >> who can they let 20 people at the extreme right maga wing, to the right of the average republican, just steer the whole show. kevin mccarthy wanted to be speaker. they will have a choice.

i congratulate speaker mccarthy. i intend to sit down with them to help the american people. my belief is that not in the next two weeks but little while the mainstream republicans who if you watch the body lack wage and talk to some of them went alodge. i think they'll say we can't go this far right. to cut social security and medicare and slash military spending that's not going to fly with republicans let alone independents and democrats. i think they will come to the -- i hope they will come to their senses. >> we'll see. >> one of the first things they passed yesterday, a bill to

slash enforcement by the irs. by the way, if your constituents are their constituent that is called the irs in the last five years. it is radically underfunded with the workers and the old computer systems but this bill they had yesterday adds over $100 billion to the deficit. >> yes. >> what do you say to republicans that you work with in the senate who lie about the irs, who say the irs is going to iowa where they kick down doors to shoot middle class workers? >> it is absurd. the republicans are helping the wealthy corporations who pay no taxes to not be audited. when the tea party came in they

slashed the irs and trump made it worse. there are reports that under the trump irs, joe, that if you made $40,000 you are more likely to be audited than $40,000. they said there's fraud but they wanted to let the multibillionaire friends, the wealthy corporations get away with the lawyers and account apts that they use to exploit the loopholes. the fact they started this shows they haven't learned the lesson. the lesson is obvious as you remember from 2017. they came in saying let's do tax cuts for the middle class but they were for the very rich. that was exposed and couldn't use it against the initial planning in the 2018 election. to defend them and prevent them from being audited and the

auditing capabilities for the people went way down. it is ridiculous. it is ridiculous. and democrats in the house yesterday and we in the senate will expose this. the first thing they do is help the very wealthy and big corporations who pay little taxes to do that. we're not letting it happen. >> let me ask you about corporations like the archer daniels mid land, salesforce, nike, amazon, occidental petroleum, oil corporations that pay zero or have paid zero in taxes in recent years. this is what i don't understand. republicans act like it's a communist move if you want

billionaires and the richest corporations in the world to pay the same tax rate that is you or i pay. >> right. >> that clerical workers pay. the secretaries pay. i don't understand. now i'll turn it on you. why democrats keep losing working class voters when this is a party that's determined to let the richest billionaires in the world pay zero in taxes. >> this is an issue that we feel strongly about. i came out strongly with a statement about what they did on this thing. we are going to be -- that's an issue to pursue. it is harder in the senate and with the 60 votes needed that we actually decreased the deficit in the ira to reduce the deficit by $300 billion.

the move increases the deficit by $300 billion. but this is a great issue for democrats. the polling data shows that prescription drugs, getting the cost is top number one and number two is making the corporations pay the fair share. you will hear about that from us in these two years. >> you say you want to work with the speaker of the house. given the promises that kevin mccarthy gave to the house republicans, what areas of improvement or being able to work together are there? what are you hoping to get done, especially given the fact that one member can motion to vacate and get him out at the drop of a hat if they don't like what they see? >> you know, what helped us win

the senate and deter the huge losses predicted in the house is getting things done. of the seven big bills we passed this summer six were bipartisan. there were good numbers of republicans in the senate that wanted to work with us on the issues. you needed ten and we got more than that. to get it done. the house republicans party is somewhat different than the senate and the majority members will not agree with us on a lot of things but -- but they will want to come to their senses so my prediction is there are ways to work together. if a large numbers of the mainstream republicans reject the maga fring kevin mccarthy will have to follow because the very tools that the magas can use, the mainstream republicans

can use, as well. they put themselves in a very difficult position. kevin mccarthy did it to become speaker but there is going to be pushback. people don't want to look at the fates as i said like thelma and louise over the cliff. they know if they follow the maga proposals to cut medicare and social security. george bush tried that back in 2005 and nancy pelosi and harry reid and i fought that tooth and nail and we won. not in the next couple of weeks but if the republican party first if interested to work with us we will but second if they don't it's going to lead to their own detriment and you could -- what happened in 2022 could happen veto a greater extent in 2024.

you can't be an extreme and win in america. >> voicing some hope that they'll turn away from extremism but some in the house seem to be embracing that. though the appetite for success maybe is hopeful but limited, some things have to get done. government has to get funded. the debt ceiling has dealt with you. how concerned are you considering the rhetoric from some in the house to be a bargaining tool? do you think they are willing to go off the cliff here? >> it can't be 20 steering the whole thing. they are at the extreme right wing. they have said crazy things in the past. i don't think that will happen. look. to default on our debt is devastating. bills we have already paid. under joe biden we came to ultimately passed -- you can only do this in a bipartisan way

and came to an agreement only voting to raise the dead creel jeff gordon we got them. they would step aside but not stand in the way. under donald trump these republicans, maga or otherwise didn't say we're holding the debt ceiling hostage. the destruction to cause the average american family let alone the full faith and credit and interest rates going up is huge. i'm an eternal optimist or i wouldn't be in this business if i wasn't but they'll come to their senses like they have the last four times. >> remains to be seen. interesting how the goal posts moved. moderates helped stage an attempted coup against the government. i want to ask you about immigration. the president at the border in el paso on sunday. this is an issue now that not

just republicans but the mayor of el paso, groups say we are overwhelmed. do you see legislation coming in this new congress around immigration to help stop what's happening? >> last session in december senator sinema and tillis tried to deal with the problems at the border. they didn't quite get there. but yesterday four democrats and four republicans went to the border to check out what's happening. look. i have encouraged both democrats and republicans in the senate to come up with a bipartisan solution. ultimately at least from my experience and i was involved since 1986 working with reagan, comprehensive immigration reform is really the only way to get

things done. it is ironic. having a larger solution is easier to get done sometimes because when people are all included it worked. the bill in 2013 when ch the gang of eight put together with john mccain and myself had the support of the religious groups. it had everybody. i am encouraging efforts to deal with the border issue bipartisan but i hope we can get -- it is a long, hard road up. comprehensive immigration. >> the problem is acute? >> it is a serious problem and the only solution is a bipartisan solution and encouraged the group to come up with something. they had a good meeting at the border seeing what's going on but wanting to work with each

other. >> so senator, i think there are a lot of people watching this show and watch this network and they hope that you can provide a counter balance to some of the radicalism in the house over the next two years. i will ask this question as a conservative, a guy that we worked together in the house. >> yes. >> i'm a conservative guy. >> conservative red sox fan. i know you well. >> there are a lot of people like me driven away from the republican party. >> yes. >> we are fearful of the next two years. let me tell you how some conservatives i know are fearful and want to know what you can do to protect the institutions that keep americans safe. >> right. >> we talked about the attack of the irs and republicans saying

they will gun down and kill small business owners. it is a total lie. >> of course it is. >> people instrumental to help kevin mccarthy become speaker of the house pounding the fbi and talking about defunding the fbi and intel agencies when they push bag against chinese espionage and russian espionage and you have republican colleagues that have talked about how the u.s. military is weak. how they wish they were more like russia's military. you have the most watched people on cable news talking about how u.s. military helicopters used in afghanistan going to attack

trump supporters. they attack the chairman of the joint chiefs. yes, it is radical and we know they will lose 2024 if they continue this radical i say anti-american approach attacking the men and women in the military and intel. what i want to know as a conservative who's scared of these people who attack the military and our fbi professionals, what can you guys do, what can you senators do to protect america from the extremists that put kevin mccarthy in power so they don't slash the military budget, so they don't attack the fbi, so they don't defund the fbi. what can you guys do? >> we certainly aren't going to let them defund the fbi. given that we have the majority in the senate and i can put bills on the floor we will make

sure that they can't do that. many of the radical things will be stopped in the senate because we have a democratic majority but i think you answered your own question in a certain sense why the american people proved in the last election and made me joyous that they were going to reject this extremism. all these crazy people who ran for the secretaries of state and all these other offices lost. i think that as our mainstream republicans go home they will talk to people who say the following, just sort of what you said. i was a bush republican. i'm a reagan republican. i can't live with this republican party. democracy as you know we have talked about this over the decades is a slow but very sh very strong force.

the roots of this democracy are deep. i think that's what the election showed. despite all the harsh rhetoric and you go to twitter and some ril n hearing this stuff. it won't sink in. they have a sense, the average voter, has a sense when things go too far. one way or the other. i think they will push it back and it will occur before the election. before the election. because it's just how it is. so your type of conservative who loves our democracy and is willing to fight for it is going to be one of the antidotes and

democrats standing up but there's the other side. we have to show average folks who don't have to be people who agree with us on everything that we want to get things done like last time and did have republicans join us. i will try to get them to join us again. if we can do that in the senate i think it seconds a message to the mainstream republicans in the house join us. don't stick with the maga wing. it is bad for america and your future. >> you are a new york city guy and known and worked with and against donald trump. do you believe his influence on the republican party is waning? yes he is running for president. he will be around. we saw the loyal foot soldiers last week ignore the calls to vote for kevin mccarthy for

days. do you think they can move away from him? >> i think his power is declining some. i wouldn't underestimate him. the problem is in the primary votes we don't have the whole electorate voting. it is closer to a majority of republicans who prefer somebody else in the primary has the strength. he's a danger to our democracy but i do think that the republican party is in for a reckoning come the next year or so and not just trump. will they follow this maga type proposals or will they go back to the more traditional party? >> the most important question. two teams in the nfl. >> what a day. >> the bills. what a story. new york giants. we'll get a super bowl from one

of them? >> that would be great. sunday is football day. 1:00 the bills. 4:00 the giants. you know, i love the bills so much. i'm not a streamer. you cable guys. i pay $280 to buy sunday nfl to watch every bills game no matter what city i was in. i don't want watch all this stuff. >> red zone package. impressive. i'm a giants guy. >> they played well. sorry. >> go for it. >> their front line has so improved. look at the sacks the last four or five games. who do you root for, joe? don't say dallas cowboys. >> don't insult me. don't insult me.

unfortunately i have suffered with the atlanta falcons since coming to atlanta in 1966 where i was born. i was thrilled watching the lions. i told my 14-year-old son, i said this giants team reminds me of phil simms when they won the super bowl with a quarterback not flashy but good on defense, good offense. it is a solid quarterback. a good defense. a good balanced attack. teams like that can go in the playoffs. >> it is true. they never had a home field advantage and went the whole way. >> danny dimes getting it done. >> willie, we have to ask him the toughest questions. >> what's that? >> first super bowl i remember. i'm a falcons fan and also being an alabama guy you got to love

joe namath. super bowl iii. i had a soft spot in my heart for the jets. what a rough season. you have to do something to help long-suffering new york jets fans. what can you do? >> oh golly. you know, their quarterback situation was just -- you thought it would be better and then really good and really bad. straighten out things at quarterback and they have other assets. >> a good coach. >> good coach. i agree. but i have been in the afc a bills fan. >> go bills. senate majority leader chuck schumer breaking down the nfl playoffs for us, thank you. all right. thank you. ahead on "morning joe," the special grand jury investigating efforts to overturn georgia's

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and now a lot more people can. so let's go. the digital age is waiting. a special grand jury has finished its criminal investigation into whether former president trump and allies tried to overturn the 2020 election in georgia. the final report is filed with

the judge. jurors recommended that the record be made public. a hears will determine if that happens. the grand jury was called to have subpoenas to force witnesses to testify. trump lawyer, south carolina senator, former white house chief of staff all questioned about trump's efforts to change the election results. governor of georgia and secretary of state also testify jd the main focus of investigation was that phone call former president trump made to raffensberger asking the secretary of state to find him 11,780 votes. >> i only 11,000 votes. fellows, i need 11,000 votes. give me a break. all i want to do is this.

i just want to find 11,780 votes, which is 1 more than we have because we won the state. there's nothing wrong with saying that, you know, that you've recalculated. >> it's really again -- >> hard to hear it. >> sound like such a thug saying come on. just steal 11,000 votes. >> recalculated them. >> he's saying all you need to do is steal 11,000 votes. come on. give me a break. >> bring in nbc news andrew lessman. >> so andrew, i have been weary through the years of people on networks talking about donald trump will be charged by a grand jury.

the prosecution is going to begin. i told everybody he is above the law. it is never going to happen. he gets away with everything. lie, cheat, break laws. nothing ever gets to him. i must say i'm starting to get wobbly on that. at this point it is hard to see listening to that call with the testimony that's going on in there how he doesn't get charged. what are your thoughts? >> couldn't agree more. i had the same view. this is a man who for decades escaped all sorts of civil and criminal liability so i understand everyone being skeptical but here you played the tape. there's other evidence. it is very hard to see that the

special grand jury isn't going to find probable cause that the former president trump committed a crime. the standard is just probable cause. that is the same standard that a normal grand jury would need to apply to find criminal charges so i think it's just incredibly unlikely that the special grand jury report won't say that former president trump committed a crime and that means that the d.a. i think will be really hard pressed to overrule that. so i think -- i don't know if this is the end of the beginning or the beginning of the end but i think we will see criminal charges out of georgia with respect to former president trump on this aspect of what he did to overthrow the will of the people in a national election. >> the reason the district

attorney asked for this special grand jury because it had subpoena power and compelled people like rudy giuliani to testify. eight months later it will have the report. if you could plain what happens from here now? where does it go? >> this is a really unusual process because federally you don't have two types of grand juries. so the initial grand jury and the report that we're talking about is because it's a special grand jury where the function is to gather evidence to issue subpoenas and bring witnesses in and then issue a report. it doesn't have the power to bring charges but a regular grand jury has that power and nothing that stops the d.a. to impanel that grand jury and present evidence now. they don't have to wait until

the report is issued so it's hard to know what will happen but i think it is hard to see that the d.a. with the report now isn't proceeding at pace. if the report says that the former president committed a crime then there's nothing that stops the d.a. from presenting that evidence to a grand jury. that process can take a single day. having done grand jury work, this is not a long process. you can take the evidence that you have presented to the special grand jury and give it to the regular grand jury. you could see charges happening simultaneously or shortly thereafter upon the release of this report on january 24. >> nbc news legal analyst andrew weissman, thank you. coming up, richard haas is

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president biden is facing mounting pressure to remove fromer president of brazil bolsonaro from florida coming a day after supporters of the former far right leader stormed brazil's capital. nbc news correspondent sam brock has the latest. >> reporter: around 1500 brazilians are behind bars supporting the former president bolsonaro who pushed a narrative of election fraud without evidence for months.

police flash bangs and tier gas well into the night to quell the crowds. >> these people -- institutions to be thinking about what's happening in the united states. if it didn't happen in the united states it wouldn't have happened in brazil. >> reporter: president biden condemning the violence as an assault on democracy throwing the country's support behind the newly elected president who served two prior terms. as brazilians saying watching the riots felt like the american insurrection. >> it is similar in a way. it is just sad. people lost feith in the process. >> reporter: bolsonaro has been spotted in florida. his wife saying he was admitted to the hospital. >> if an individual has no basis on which to be in the united states an individual is subject

to removal by the department of homeland security. >> reporter: brazil buckles but tries not to break. >> you know, it can sometimes willie, be a tricky thing talking about extraditing a former leader back to a country. a most famous example involved mika's dad. the doctor told them in short order to go straight to hell because he knew that once he got back there he would be executed. there was no rule of law there. it is just the opposite here. you have former leader's people going on riots to undermine the rule of law there. not sure why there would be a problem sending him back to brazil. >> yeah.

on the diplomatic question he is not president anymore so that visa runs out after 30 days. we'll see where that stands. let's turn to the president on the council of foreign relations richard haas. the rhetoric that led up to it, messages attention patriots on january 8th we'll bring brazilia to a halt. what did you see in that protest? i think it shocked people. the attack on the capital in brazil. do you think it looks like the capitol two years ago? >> it was like it. we used to export democracy. the idea is to be the shining city on a hill. we are a different city and it ain't shining. it's depressing. the good news is brazil had

decent election. a democratic candidate committed to democracy won. the strongest part of brazilian democracy over the last couple of years was the brazilian legal system and what we will see is the brazilian legal system. my guess is the courts will save democracy. if they ask for bolsonaro to be extradited i think we'll comply and then he'll get a fair hearing. the courts in brazil tend to be -- lu la was brought down by the courts. people forget. we can depend on the legal system there. so if and when it comes to it it shouldn't be us driving the train. the system can hold up. how the change of leadership in the house could impact u.s. relations overseas. author tackles the long standing

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the united states continues to pledge its unwavering commitment for ukraine as russia continues to launch punishing and deadly attacks on the country. as the war rages on, there are increasingly new calls inside the u.s. government to pull back on support. it's not the first time our nation has wrestled with that question when it comes to global conflicts. a new book now takes a look at a time when america mostly kept to itself, focused on domestic issues, maintained a relatively small army, and refused an international leadership role. "the ghost at the feast: america

and the collapse of the world order, 1900-1941" by robert kagan gives an account of america's rise to global superpower coming out of world war ii when similar debates raged about the u.s.' role in world conflict. >> robert kagan joins us now. thanks for being with us. you know, it's interesting, i did a lot of research on harry truman a couple years ago, and i couldn't help but see as truman was trying to pull us out of the isolationism after world war ii, how the ghosts of this time period you're talking about impacted republicans whose instincts were to basically build fortress usa, and even somebody like robert taft, mr. republican, saying enough, enough, we can't hide from history anymore. talk about -- talk about those years that haunted so many

americans after world war ii. >> well, when we say the arguments we're having now over ukraine, you just have to magnify that about a thousand to get the sense of the kind of arguments that were occurring in the united states especially in the 1930s when you had the rise of hitler's germany, the rise of imperial japan, and the country was deeply divideded. interestingly, it was divided very much along republican and democratic lines. republicans who were in opposition at that time to franklin delano roosevelt, they were attacking every aspect of his policy. they accused him of being a socialist and a communist. and since roosevelt's general approach to world affairs was internationalist, republicans took a quite different view. even at a time threats were mounting in a way that as we look back on it, it's almost inconceivable that people could actually oppose getting ready for these threats, the country

was really in turmoil. and the arguments that we're having about whether democracy should be promoted, whether the united states should be involved in the world, these were all front and center in the 1930s and honestly the debate really was never settled except by the japanese attack on pearl harbor, and then all people who had been opposed to involvement overseas were discredited. republicans were completely discredited as a party during world war ii. and they had to resurrect themselves afterwards, which they did largely by becoming sort of fervent anti-communists. but it was a real political blow to republicans at that time. >> so, robert, let me ask you about this isolationist period that led to the horrors of world war ii. growing up, reading about it, learning about it, there was always this sort of pat answer that it was wilson's fault after versailles in 1919, an arrogant wilson trying to shove this internationalist agenda down a

republican congress' throat so they just didn't do it. is that an oversimplification of what happened? if wilson had had a lighter touch, would he still have been able to move these isolationist republicans? >> i don't think so. you know, wilson had his flaws as a leader. he was obviously very arrogant and they didn't really get along with people who he disagreed with very well. but the fact of the matter is when wilson came back from paris with the league of nations treaty and the versailles agreement, americans were largely supportive, and it was i would say the brilliant if unfortunate legislative efforts by henry lodge, who was not a radical conservative republican, in fact he'd been an internationalist, but in order to defeat the democrats, in order to defeat woodrow wilson, in order to win the presidency in 1920, the republicans came out and opposed the treaty and had a huge impact on the subsequent american foreign

policy. >> the new book is entitled "the ghost at the feast: america and the collapse of the world order, 1900-1941," robert kagan, thanks for being on the show. coming up, we'll go live to the courthouse where donald trump's longtime money man will be sentenced today for tax fraud. what allen weisselberg's plea means for the ex-president's challenges.

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all right. look at this beautiful shot of denver this morning. it is 7:00 in the morning. >> it's gorgeous in denver.

can you believe the flooding in l.a.? >> it's nuts. >> the rain is going to be hammering l.a. all week. here's live in l.a. they're under flood warning there. a torrent of rain has come and it continues -- it's actually going to continue for another week. >> so we're launching the fourth hour of "morning joe," and just ahead we'll have a live report from capitol hill on the first legislative test for newly elected speaker kevin mccarthy. and we'll go live to the courthouse where donald trump's longtime money man will be sentenced today for tax fraud. but we begin, as joe mentioned, in california, which is dealing with another massive rainstorm, triggering widespread flooding, leading to mass evacuations and emergency rescues. and a new threat of dangerous mudslides. as many as 15 people have died in this series of storms.

nbc news national correspondent miguel almaguer has the latest. >> reporter: as mountains gave way and deadly floodwaters rose, tens of thousands were given the emergency order to evacuate. restaurants in montecito and in sacramento and santa cruz forced to leave their homes as flood waters swamped the region. how quickly was the water rising? >> it was -- i mean, you could watch it, you could see it rising. >> reporter: with torrents of water overtaking cars, a woman in central california was killed. a 5-year-old boy who was washed away in a separate incident is still missing. to the south, businesses flooding in ventura county. in l.a., heavy rain causing this massive sinkhole that swallowed a car and several people overnight. they were safely rescued. first responders scrambled

across the state. this is just the latest storm to unleash havoc. >> grab my hand. i got you. >> reporter: as rescues continued to unfold, hundreds of thousands losing electricity when trees sliced through power lines into homes. the damage from this storm in just a few hours will easily top the millions. but after a week of wicked winter weather across california, the destruction will likely exceed the billions. and now as the rain slows comes the increasing threat of mudslides. >> oh, my god! mom! >> reporter: exactly five years ago in montecito, 23 people lost their lives as hills crumbled intohouses, the area home to celebrities like oprah and ellen, who posted videos of floodwaters nearby. >> this is crazy.

we're having unprecedented rain. >> reporter: today montecito and so much of california is dealing with disaster all over again. >> stunning scenes there out west. nbc's miguel almaguer reporting for us. back on capitol hill, the republican-led house passed its new rules package last night governing how that claim ber will be run for the next two years. the package passed mostly along party lines, 220-213. texas congressman, tony gonzalez, the lone republican to join all democrats in voting against it. the rule changes include lowering the threshold to a single lawmaker to force a floor vote to oust kevin mccarthy as speaker. a single vote. a ban on automatically raising the federal debt ceiling. eliminating proxy or remote voting, allowing the house to create a select subcommittee to investigate the origins of the covid pandemic and the, quote, wep anization of the federal

government. also gutting the independent office of congressional ethics that investigates lawmakers. also a bill to rescind $70 billion in funding for the irs. the money was approved by congress last year as part of president biden's inflation reduction act. it will help the irs crack down on tax evaders, hire 87,000 workers, and update the agency's technology systems. many republicans claim the agency would use the money to go after middle-income americans. one top senator, you'll remember, going so far as to say irs agents would be coming with loaded rifles ready to shoot small business owners. that was senator chuck grassley last year. the new legislation likely won't even get a vote in the democratically controlled senate. president biden called it a reckless bill, and the white house says he would veto it if it ever made its way to his desk. joining us now, capitol hill

correspondent ali vitali. these rules are in place. a single raise of the hand from any member of congress can force a vote to kick kevin mccarthy out of his job. what is this going to look like now that we actually have a congress? >> reporter: first of all, welcome to divided government, right? the same way we saw the inflation reduction act passed last year, now we're watching republicans start to chip away at it, specifically moving first on those 87,000 irs agents, democrats saying that's a moment where republicans are letting tax evaders get away with it. so, this is what this period is going to look like. we're watching them, though, move forward with the implications of the negotiations from last week, willie. you talk about this one-member threshold to fire the speaker of the house, that's something that is going to loom over kevin mccarthy for the next two years, something that people like john boehner and paul ryan dealt with the specter of and eventually had to leave their posts because of. now, though, we're watching the

freedom caucus empowered. you have on the screen here the parts of the house rules package. of course, we're so focused on the idea of how easy it is now to oust the speaker, but you know that washington is a place that operates on tight deadlines. they're not automatically raising the debt ceiling, there are spending requirements, balanced budget agreement, and then that 72 hours for members to read a bill, that means no matter what you have to have three days elapsing between the time a bill gets to the floor and the time it gets voted on. it will require a procedural sleight of hand on the republican leadership if they have to speed things up. for people like chip roy, yo who pushed that in the package, the slowness was the feature here, that was what they were looking for, but it's going to make the way congress works much messier, especially with funding deadlines. >> so, ali, can you tell me why

the house republicans who love to talk about running against the swamp in washington, d.c., are so aggressive and gutting the house ethics committee, the very committee that stops republicans and democrats from engaging in swampy behavior? why did they go to war against ethics? >> reporter: yeah. that is one of the key features of what they've done here too. look, ethics is notoriously in the house a slow committee, slit 50/50 between republicans and democrats. it's where, for example, you know this, the january 6th committee landed their referrals for the members of congress who rebuffed subpoenas. it's in part of when they did that, but also because this committee is notoriously slow, we knew those referrals weren't really going to go anywhere. but this is how republicans have chosen to do it at a time when people like george santos are facing tons of allegations of

doing illegal things with campaign finance money, lying about his resume. it makes the recourse of the members, they have very few places to put it. it is an ironic point. i don't know that i can get inside the held of republican leadership on this, but, look, it's not good optally for all of these reasons you and i are both bringing up. >> yeah. we'll have more on george santos in just a moment. nbc's ali vitali. thank you very much for your reporting. >> think about the hypocrisy of that. everything they do is hypocritical, but, i mean, willie, they talk about, again, the swamp, oh, they're running against the swamp. actually, it's -- this is the swampiest group there is. they're actually gutting an independent ethics committee. >> yeah. and promising to go after the irs, the fbi, the department of justice, and with. people who have now been appointed the head of these committees, you have jim jordan, the held of judiciary, others at

the head of oversight who have promised to do all the things that they talked about last year as payback, effectively, for way they believe democrats treated donald trump. the way donald trump was treated by the fbi by getting a legal search warrant to look at mar-a-lago, to get these classified documents back because he refused to turn them over. let's talk about george santos, who made headlines for lying about his background and resume. the campaign legal letter has filed a complaint with the federal election commission. the complaint could lead to a formal investigation of san tos' campaign, including the possibility that unknown individuals or corporations may have illegally funnelled money to the campaign through santos' company. this as a cnbc report reveals a staffer for the santos campaign

impersonated the chief of staff, now house speaker kevin mccarthy, in a bid to raise money for his election. >> wow. >> cnbc reports wealthy donors received calls and emails from a man who said he was dan meyer, karpt's chief of staff during the 2020 and 2022 election cycle. his nam actually was sam miele, and he worked for santos. neither congressman santos' office nor miele has responded to request for comment. nbc has reached out to an attorney for santos, who did not respond to request for comment. jonathan lemire, there's all this salacious stuff, which is stunning about his completely made-up biography, but there's real stuff that could get him in legal trouble. >> from the first hours of this scandal, some of the sharpest

analysts said it will be a campaign finance stuff. it is not illegal to lie to voters, but it is potentially illegal if you misrepresented your campaign finances and the money you received and where it's going. that's a concern. we should also note we've been talking last week about how kevin mccarthy remains silent on george santos because he needed his vote to be speaker. well, he's speaker now. doesn't need george santos' vote anymore. here we have reporting that george santos, someone on his staff impersonated someone on kevin mccarthy's staff. so this is mccarthy's own staff that has been violated, office violated by santos, and yet still nothing from kevin mccarthy. >> stunning. that is stunning. we'll be following that angle as well. axios has new reporting this morning on a private document that only some house republicans have seen and others refuse to talk about. but that could play a role in the governance of the chamber

over the next two years. the document contains concessionings that house speaker kevin mccarthy made to rebellious freedom caucus members to secure the speaker's gavel. reportedly, these concessions are not included in the rules package passed last night. come on. is there more? what could he give up? >> hard to say. >> nothing left to give. >> let's find out by bringing in political reporter from axios, alexi mcgannon. what else are they supposed to do? shine shoes every morning? >> it wasn't included in the rules package because these aren't technically rules. their very exclusion from the rules package suggests the nature of these concessions, basically promises or pacts that mccarthy will hold a vote on congressional term limits, that he'll give certain people lake gaetz the chairmanship of certain select committees. he's starting a subcommittee on

the wep anization of the federal government to investigate big tech in the white house among other things. so they're not really official rules that would be written into the rules package that will last beyond this congress, but they're concessions and promises he's making to these hard-liners who, in some respects, are holding him hostage and changing the way he can be speaker by making these backdoor deals. >> alexi, it's jonathan. good to talk to you again. so, this is another example of mccarthy potentially giving away some power. they got the rules done yesterday. there was speculation the republicans would have a struggle passing that. that's through. but how are these conservatives already threatening to wield in influence over mccarthy's speakership? yes, they have potentially the ability to call for a vote for his ouster, but, like, they can wield so much power over him, particularly over some extraordinarily consequential things coming up like playing chicken with the debt ceiling. >> that's exactly right.

you had chuck schumer on earlier. he's already warned that house republicans could cause a government shutdown because of the sort of inability that we've seen from them to govern themselves. these hard-liners are doing these things, as you mentioned, one could call a vote to remove him as speaker at any time if they're unhappy with something he does, but the other thing these hard-liners are doing are pushing away their moderate colleagues, like nancy mace from south carolina. she's mccarthy ally. she almost voted against the rules package yesterday, ultimately voted for it, but she told axios she's raising yell over this secret concessions document going around because she's left with more questions than answers. she's feeling left in the dark from her party. >> political reporter for axios, alexi mcammond, thank you very much. good to see you. allen weisselberg, the trump organization former cfo, expected to be sentenced today

for tax fraud. in august, he pleaded guilty for his role in the 15-year-long fraud scheme where he dodged taxes on $1.7 million in job perks. as part of the deal, he also testified against the trump organization, which was found guilty of tax fraud last month. for the very latest, let's bring in nbc news investigative correspondent tom winter, who is live outside the courthouse. tom, what can we expect today? and is he still working for the trump organization? >> reporter: as the last we heard and last we checked, he is still an employee of the trump organization, not doing the cfo responsibilities day to day, mika, but as he testified on stand on trial in the courthouse behind me, he was expectd to get a bonus of upwards of a million dollars in this new year. so we need to still try to figure out and have been trying to figure out whether or not in fact he has received that bonus, but aall accounts he's still on

the trump payroll. as far as what's going to happen today, this sentencing is different from the federal court system we speak about where prosecutors in a situation like this where they secure a guilty plea, they have a cooperation agreement, they tell the judge, they say, you know, look, judge, this is what the normal guidelines are, kind of the rules of the road of where you should sentence this person, but based on their cooperation re-ask for a range of x months to y months. it's different here in the state court system in that when allen weisselberg pleaded, initially prosecutors asked for six months, the judge agreed to five months so, it's kind of pro forma. no public filings or indication from prosecutors that they intend to argue that weisselberg lied on the stand and committed perjury in the course of his testimony against the trump organization. so this is kind of a pro forma exercise today. when we get in the courtroom, i always like to say you never know what's going to happen. but we do anticipate that that five-month jail sentence will hold, which will yield approximately 100 days in jail

when you take out -- take into account, rather, time for good behavior. >> nbc's tom winter, thank you very much. and coming up this hour in the fourth hour of "morning joe," tonive in award winner ben platt and actress michaela diamond will join us for broadway news. also ahead, james patterson and mike lubica join was their latest book, which was about -- >> let's let them explain. they'll explain to you. >> this is not a commercial. >> it kind of is. >> "house of walls" is best thriller of 2023. >> it was only january. >> the best. >> best in january. >> best thriller in 2023.

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9:22 here in new york, 6:22 as you wake up out west. we are learning more about the shooting of an elementary school teacher in newport news,

virginia. she survived a single gunshot inside her classroom that police say was fired by a 6-year-old student. catie beck has details. >> we as a society are failing our teachers and our students by not offering a safe place to work and to learn. >> reporter: this morning, outrage and calls for change amid an outpouring of support. a packed vigil for beloved first grade teacher abigail zwerner, who many are calling a hero. zwerner, who co-workers and students affectionately call miss c. is recovering in stable condition after a 6-year-old brought a nine-millimeter handgun to school friday, firing a single round while she was teaching. >> she took a defensive position, raised her hand, exited the rear of her hand into her chest. >> reporter: police say the shot was intentional but can't speak

to what was going through his mind at the time. >> i believe that the actions were at or towards the teacher, but you never know how someone is going to react with a firearm, students, and we're talking about a 6-year-old child. i don't know what all was going through that child's mind. >> reporter: after being hit, she quickly ushered her other students to safety. >> i believe she did save lives because i don't know what else might have happened if those kids would have stayed in that room. >> reporter: police say she was the last to leave her classroom, and when she woke up in the hospital -- >> she asked me, first question, do you know how my students are? she was worried about them. >> reporter: investigators say the firearm came from a child's home, legally purchased by his mother. the child is under a temporary detention order and is receiving treatment at a medical facility. legal experts say it's unlikely the child would face charges because of something called the infancy defense that argues children that young are unable to form criminal intent.

police say it will be up to local prosecutors to determine if the child's parents will face any charges. teachers who work closely with abby zwerner say she was as selfless on friday as she is every day. you probably weren't surprised to hear her actions that day, then. >> not at all. >> to catie beck reporting. you hear that story and read the details, first of all, that a 6-year-old took a weapon from home, a legally owned weapon by someone in the family, brought it to school. this was not an accidental shooting. police it was a confrontation of some kind, that the 6-year-old continue fronted the teacher, and that the teacher, shot through the hand and the upper torso, the first instinct was get the other kids out of the class because she didn't know what was coming next and perhaps she saved their lives as well. >> it's hard to think about what happened there. the 6-year-old had the confrontation, won't face any sort of criminal issues for it, but within of course worries

about that child's well-being going forward and the situation he or she is growing up in. but this teacher, such heroism, first instinct is to save her kids, gets them to safety, and then in the hospital ask about them later. that's a dedication to the job obviously going above and beyond what we should be asking our teachers to do. >> so glad she's okay, joe, and hopefully she can get back into the classroom and see those kids again soon. >> i hope so. the importance of liability being attached to parents and others who don't keep their guns locked up and secured in the homes. >> yeah. >> this is a no-brainer. we've seen this time and again. you know, everybody that i know, of course freaks, extremist freaks on these issues, oh, should be able to do what i want. no. no. growing up in the deep south in

florida, georgia, alabama, mississippi, all responsible gun owners i know keep -- they have shotguns. they keep them locked up. if they have handguns, they keep them in safe, secure location where is the kids can't get a hold of them. the more people have guns as far as people that have grown up with it, whose grandparents, parents had it, hunting is something that they just do regularly, they're the ones, willie, that usually take those precautions. gun shop owners will tell you to take those precautions. so there's nothing conservative about being against liability for people who were responsible indirectly or directly for the shooting of others because they don't secure their guns at home from their children. >> yeah. especially when there are kids in the house. we're just glad that this wonderful teacher is going to survive and that her first instinct was for the kids in that classroom.

in idaho, investigators are working to get a clearer picture of the motive around the suspect accused of murdering four university of idaho students in november. nbc news correspondent stephanie gosk has the latest. >> reporter: on the university of idaho campus, there's still unease, even as classes are set to resume. >> someone needs to be convicted and put in prison for these heinous acts. i think that would go a long way for bringing peace back to the community. >> reporter: just days ago, the court revealed a detailed account of evidence that led to bryan kohberger's arrest on four counts of first-degree murder. security footage, cell phone data, dna evidence, and a roommate's firsthand account seeing an intruder wearing black clothing and a mask. but the probable cause does not offer a motive. kohberger's phone was near the students' house on at least 12 occasions in the months leading

up to the murders even though he lived and went to school ten miles away. sunday, august 21st, police say the phone was in this area from 10:30 at night to 11:30. the roommates were all likely in the house. fall classes began the next day. one forensic psychologist suggesting the possibility that the suspect was stalking. >> the majority of stalkers are either trying to repair a failed relationship or they're seeking a relationship that exists in fantasy. >> reporter: kohberger applied for an internship with local police in pullman, washington. in an essay for the job, he said he had interest in assisting rural law enforcement agencies with how to better collect and analyze technological data. it would be the analysis of technological data that led police to the 28-year-old. investigators laying out minute by minute details of where he was, including in the hours after the murders. at 9:12 that morning, his cell phone was in the area of the students' house before the 911 call was made, suggesting he

returned to the scene of the crime. there are also apparent missteps, like the knife sheath left behind with dna. >> anybody who's just starting out in crime, even if they have the best theoretical understanding of what they're doing, they're going to make mistakes. >> nbc's stephanie gosk reporting from idaho. still ahead, a major corporation rolling out a relatively strict return to office policy. we'll tell you which company it is and what the policy looks like next on "morning joe."

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welcome back. for the first time in nearly three years, the walt disney company will require workers to report to the office four days a week. right now, they only have to work from their offices three days each week, but ceo bob iger sent a memo to employees yesterday saying this will

benefit the company's culture and creative process. he's been trying to boost morale. the new policy takes effect march 1st. a lot of the kids are used to a hybrid of three days in, two days off. >> or one day in, four days off. >> okay. all right. the changing workplace. i don't think it's all bad. moving on, a suspect in the shootings of the homes and offices of several officials in new mexico has been arrested. the man was arrested on unrelated charges. no other details were provided. there were four shootings in december and two this month. they happened at homes and offices associated with two county commissioners, two state senators, one state representative, and new mexico's attorney general. no one was injured in the shootings. and microsoft is planning to invest $10 billion in the

company openai. that's according to a new site, sefafor. chatgpt can generate text as though a human wrote it. microsoft will reportedly get 75% of openai's profits until it starts to make money back on the investment. willie? joining us in new york, "new york times" best-selling authors james patterson and mike lupica. their latest book is titled "the house of wolves." it's out now. good morning. good to see you. >> hey, willie. >> good to see you. >> ai sounds pretty good. let the computer write the book. >> they do come out fast. >> i'm looking at the sheet. i see you guys are on yesterday. i go, wait, didn't they just have the book out, "the horse woman," big hit? now "the house of wolves." >> that was last year. >> for two weeks it's this year. you have a good thing going here, mike. how did it come about?

>> well, we met at a bar. i'm not proud to tell you. and i was thinking this guy needs a boost, you know? a boost. >> i got it. >> we just hit it off. and i was wondering how it was going to work. it just worked. we talk about -- >> he says it worked. i don't know. >> it's early. but we talk about five times a day and we came up with the idea. he loves yellowstone. i love succession. we needed a dysfunctional family. and boy, did we find one. >> actually, this week is weird because harry's book will be coming out this week, and then "house of wolves," which are probably the kind of two big books. but the thing about the royal family is they're nothing compared to this family. they got slapped an a little bit. he's not talking to his dad. that's nothing. >> or his brother. >> no murders. whatever. >> you hinted here the wolf plenty has plenty going on. give us a quick taste of what

this will be about. >> the wolf family is one of these powerful, rich, and problematic families. they have a lot of problems with people and one another. they own the newspaper in san francisco. they own a lot of media in california. and they own the football team, san francisco, which mike knows everything about football. it's not a football book. it's a family book. it all comes together or doesn't come together. >> john, the suns think they're going to get the ticket when something unfortunate happens in the first three pages to the old man. and jenny wolf is a high school teacher, knows more about football than everybody in the family, and stuff happens and all of a sudden her brothers are not happy with the distribution of wealth. >> our wives read all of our books and they're kind of mean. >> no, no! >> they're nice, but they're tough. and they like -- they really -- they said this is the best

individually or together that we've done, "house of wolves." that's high praise. >> that is higher. >> and mike's mother-in-law, who doesn't like him that much -- >> that's not true. simply not true. >> well, she loved it. >> tough stuff, joe. >> i'm here to confirm mike's mother-in-law does not like him. >> that's not true! >> i never met her. i'm joking. i'm joking. >> he's going to have a tough time when he gets home today. >> james, tell me generally, help us understand what is it in us that we love -- you guys talked about "succession" and "yellowstone." why do we love those types of stories? why did we love following along with the corleones, which tony soprano and the families? >> or the royal family. >> the murdochs. exactly. the royal family. what is it about this that draws us all in? >> i think part of it is it

makes us feel good about our own families. you know, i thought we had problems, but compared to the duttons and -- we're okay. you know. a lot it is just familiarity. we kind of know -- we think we know the family dynamic and we like watching things we're familiar with. so that's a big piece of it. then the twists and the turns and the surprises, which we all know that happens in our family life. oh, might be god, do you know what aunt sara did? >> yeah. exactly. >> mike lupica, same question for you. i mean, we can look at the royal family, just an obsession with the royal family, with the tabloids in britain. it's remarkable how they follow every little thing there, which, again, goes into this book and other books about powerful families. >> joe and mika, when jim and i found out that william had slugged harry, we're thinking whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, you're stealing our act here because

there's some fisticuffs in this book. of course it'sny wolf who does the slugging in this. but, yeah, no, the royals as a dysfunctional family, they would get the silver medal compared to the wolves in "house of wolves." >> yeah. if that. i don't know if they'd get a medal compared to the wolves. >> so, mike lupica, here's your chance to take a victory lap and tell the committee that you told them so. they insisted on putting a tcu team into the college championship game that lost to k-state. they insisted on keeping, as you said, alabama out, a team that nobody would bet against if they were head to head against ohio state or michigan, or tcu, and yet they put them in, and what happened last night? >> close game. close game. >> by the way, i think georgia just scored again. but there was a flurry of text messages when alabama was winning its last game.

there is no yardstick, there is no yardstick, two losses or not, that alabama was not one of the four best college football teams in the country, and yet we had great semifinals. we did. we had great semifinals. but to my mind, and i know i'm preaching to the choir with mr. scarborough, i believe that alabama should have been in the tournament. >> james, you had the same reaction i did as a vanderbilt guy. >> oh, yeah. that's right. willie and i are both vanderbilt guys. >> only lost by 555. >> willie and i went there together. >> just overlapped by a few years. james patterson, mike lupica, great to see you. >> thank you. coming up, a big announcement from two broadway stars, tony award winner ben platt and micaela diamond joining us straight ahead. shingles. some describe it as an intense burning sensation or an unbearable itch.

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♪ suddenly loud as a mortar there is hope ♪ ♪ this is it ♪ >> a song from the show "parade," which sold out show after show last fall at the new york city center. it tackles themes of anti-semitism and racism, telling the real-life love story of leo and lucille frank, a newlywed jewish couple living in georgia in 1913. joining us now, tony award winning actor ben platt and micaela diamond, his co-star. we've been teasing this morning a big announcement. good morning to you both. >> good morning. >> what's the news? >> we are really excited to say that our show "parade" is moving to broadway. >> all right. congratulations. >> yes. thank you. >> we're very excited. >> yes. our first preview is february

21st. and we open march 16th. it's at the bernard jacobs theater. and we're just thrilled and honored. it's just the perfect story at the perfect time. i'm really grateful to do with it her. >> i want to give our audience a show of how close you are. from the minute you sat down you've been holding hands. >> we deeply love each other. >> for people who don't know the story and don't know this real-life story, tell us about the franks and everything they went through. >> yeah. unfortunately, it's not the happiest of shows unlike the title kind of maybe says, but essentially they are married and leo is accused of murdering a 13-year-old girl in his pencil factory that he runs. and it's kind of the trials of that story.

and you kind of see their marriage and their fight for justice, because he's accused because he is a jewish man. it's a really gray story that i think is really important to tell right now, with the right of anti-semitism happening in this country. and, you know, when we first did it in 1999 i think the country maybe wasn't ready for that. and now we are here two jewish people for the first time playing these roles professionally, and it feels really great to share this story with everyone. we did it at city center recently, and it feels received to beautifully and people were really moved by it. we're really excited. >> your outstanding performances resonate because it feels like it's of the moment. i'm wondering what it feels like for the both of you to have sort of the responsibility to carry and tell this story. >> it's definitely -- it definitely is a responsibility. that's well said. and there's a certain amount of pressure. but i think it's the good kind of pressure because i think we

both feel like, as actors, you want to tell the stories that you're the right person to tell, and we, in terms to have places we are in our lives agewise and the fact we are both jewish, and we feel like the people to administer these particular characters and what it would have been like to go through something like this. so i think our responsibility really falls to just making sure that every show lands as fully and as equally as the show before, you know, as we were discussing before. it's a lot of performances so it's about keeping it fresh for every audience. >> the trial of leo frank spurred the anti-defamation league. >> yeah. >> moving to broadway is a huge deal. and talk to us about your run so far. what's the response from the crowd been like to this story, which obviously impacts emotional stories? >> i have had a lot of people

come to me with different stories. one of my friends saw the show and leo sings at the end of the show and her mom and her used to sing that song before going to bed. that brought her just tears of joy and there's a lot of questions after the show of what does it mean to be an american. what it did it mean to be southern or jewish? why do we hide our jewishness? it brings up a lot of discussion about identity, about falling in love through trauma. it's a lot of hard questions. >> i feel like what makes the show so special, it's a resooifl. especially by the theater community, it's a beloved piece. jason robert brown, the composer, and the book writer, all jewish men. i think what they did so beautifully is to place this difficult and large story against the backdrop of an intimate and human marriage and

a love story. and the beautiful romance and scoring of that really curbs the blow of the more difficult elements of the show and it's a beautiful mixture. >> you have been such a prominent blofed figing it on broadway. there was concerns around the pandemic and broadway. i'm going to see a show tonight. does it feel to you, and this is another big step back that broadway is clawing its way back? >> absolutely. i certainly felt as everybody did such a fear we wouldn't get back to where we were. and i think there's just something so untouchable about live theater and that experience. so much has been changed by the pandemic. to have a feeling so preserved when you go back to the theater and get to experience that is an irreplaceable thing. it's really improved in many ways. there's a lot of important conversation around inclusion and the racial discussion. so many things have happened

that made the theater stronger. i'm excited to be part of the community again in this new light. >> we cannot wait to see the show. "parade" performances begin february 21st in new york city. thank you both. congratulations to broadway. great to see you. coming up next, a look at some of the stories making front pages across the country today include whag you need to know about tonight's massive mega millions lot are you drawing. "morning joe" is coming right back. first psoriasis, then psoriatic arthritis. even walking was tough. i had to do something. i started cosentyx®. cosentyx can help you move, look, and feel better... by treating the multiple symptoms of psoriatic arthritis. don't use if you're allergic to cosentyx. before starting...get checked for tuberculosis. an increased risk of infections some serious... and the lowered ability to fight them may occur. tell your doctor about an infection or symptoms...

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time for a look at the morng papers. the daily sentinel reports colorado's legislature is pak ing history. nearly two-thirds of the state's house members are women, and many of them are people of color. for the first time in state mystery, all three leadership positions in the house are held by women. colorado is also has the largest lgbtq caucus of any other legislature in the country. let's move to the dallas morning fuse now. reports new home construction in texas is on the decline. the end of 2022 marked the largest drop in north texas home start since the great

depression. analysts say only about 8,000 homes were being built in dallas-fort worth last quarter, that's down 38% from 2021. and finally the houston chronicle has a feature on the mega millions jackpot topping $1 billion. a single winner who chooses the cash option will walk away with $569 million. but the odds of winning about 1 in 303 million. the next drawing is tonight. good luck. that does it for us this morning. jose diaz-balart picks up the coverage after a quick final break. final break.

good morning. it's 10:00 a.m. eastern. 7:00 a.m. pacific i'm