other departures on the horizon for biden? >> president biden's first year has a low level of turnover. it's coming roaring back. people get tired and decide to pack up and leave. a new chief of staff is pretty common here in the second year. the second year turnover at the highest levels is high. one thing we're keeping a close eye on is the white house counsel's office, a lot of turnover there. that may be a symbol of people reshuffling ahead of house investigations from republicans. >> an important office in the year ahead. the white house response to those gop probes. publisher for "axios," nick johnson, thank you as always. >> thank you. >> and thanks to all of you for getting up "way too early" with us on this thursday morning. "morning joe" starts right now. ukrainians are fighting an age old battle against aggression and domination. it's a battle americans have fought proudly time and again, and it's a battle we're going to make sure the ukrainians are well equipped to fight as well. this is about freedom. freedom for ukraine.

freedom everywhere. it's about the kind of world we want to live in, and the world we want to leave to our children. >> president joe biden's remarks yesterday announcing that the u.s. will send several tanks to ukraine. we'll dig into this major policy reversal. and what impact the tanks could have on the war. plus, former president trump will soon have more places to post his social media rants. we'll tell you which platforms are reactivating his accounts. also ahead, republican congresswoman marjorie taylor greene's ambitious plan to get to the white house. we'll bring you that exclusive reporting from nbc news. good morning, and welcome to "morning joe." it is thursday, january 26th. joe is on assignment this morning. in a few minutes, we're going to explain what he's working on. and along with willie and me, we have the host of "way too early," white house bureau chief at "politico," jonathan lemire, and presidential historian, jon

meacham joins us. he's the author of the recent book entitled "and there was light, abraham lincoln and the american struggle", and this morning, willie, we start with major news for ukraine and the war. >> this is major news. eleven months after russia's full scale invasion of ukraine began, the united states announced it will reverse its long standing resistance and now supply tanks to ukraine. 31 american made m1 abrams tanks now are in the process of being sent there. they are the most sophisticated tanks in the world. the ukrainians receiving the training program needed to operate them. eight m8 recovery vehicles in the package, those will provide the ability to maintain the tanks. president biden spoke yesterday in the white house roosevelt room with secretary of state blinken and secretary of defense austin at his side.

>> today i'm announcing that the united states will be sending 31 abrams tanks to ukraine. the equivalent of one battalion. secretary austin has recommended the step because it will enhance ukraine's capacity to defend its territory and achieve its objectives. today's announcement builds on the hard work and commitment of countries around the world, led by the united states of america to help ukraine defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity. that's what this is about. helping ukraine defend and protect ukrainian land. it is not an offensive threat to russia. >> president biden referenced germany's cooperation in sending 14 leopard tanks of their own, but so far germany has not shown the level of cooperation that many other countries with less military resources have. the united kingdom has already pledged to send 14 of its challenger 2 tanks and poland has signalled it's prepared to

send 14 of its own leopard 2 tanks. in fact, before germany agreed to send anything, poland was gearing up to go around germany in order to get their tanks to ukraine. other countries have indicated that they could send tanks including portugal, norway, and france. "the new york times" reports a total of 105 western tanks have been committed to ukraine at this point. germany's pledge follows a week's long pressure campaign by many allies designed to try and get germany to cooperate. germany had tried to link the sending of its own tanks to whether or not the u.s. would provide tanks as well, willie. >> the decisions by the united states and germany being met with phrase from ukraine's president as you can imagine. on twitter yesterday, president zelenskyy thanking both countries writing quote the free world is united as never before for a common goal, liberation of ukraine. in washington, reaction was similar from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.

>> i was happy to learn yesterday and this morning that, indeed, both the white house and their counter parts in germany are finally moving forward with these overdue steps. as i have said repeatedly, time is of the essence. >> the bottom line is we need ukraine to win, not just for ukraine but by the global proposition by force you cannot take another country's territory. that's what's at stake, and i think these tanks will get ukraine to end the war. >> i think this is a turning point. there's been a decision made in berlin and washington that clearly signals to me that they understand now that the only solution is to help ukraine defeat russia inside of ukraine. >> a bipartisan agreement there on capitol hill. let's bring in nbc news national security and military

correspondent, courtney kube. first of all, how did the biden administration come to this decision? obviously president zelenskyy had been nudging him toward it for many many months, and also what difference are these 31 abrams tanks expected to make in the fight against russia. >> so it's fair to say that the decision that -- the reversal for not sending or resisting sending these tanks to deciding to send them was a very quick reversal. as recently as last week we had senior biden administration officials telling us that the tanks were not going, and they were not going to cave to any pressure from germany to send the abrams to open the flood gates for other countries like germany to send their versions like the leopard 2. but then that was friday. now our new reporting out this morning is that there was a meeting with secretary of defense lloyd austin, chairman of the joint chiefs, general mark millie and they approved the decision to send the 31 abrams tanks to ukraine. there's a couple of things we

need to point out here. these tanks are not going to arrive anytime soon. they are still in the procurement process meaning they have to be built or refurbished from other tanks, which will take months. the ukrainians have to be trained. you asked what kind of difference they can make. it's not the difference that the abrams can make. it's a recognition that ukraine needs tanks for the upcoming battle. if you look at what the situation on the ground right now, russia is running very low on precision guide munitions, artillery, some of the things they have been using for longer range fights. there's a natural progression that the next phase is more of a tank battle. the sides are dug in, particularly the russian defenses, and the way to breakthrough that is with armor and recognized units like the

bradleys and strikers. the abrams can't get there anytime fast. the leopards, the challengers, these more than 2,000 other variants of tanks that are already there in europe with some of these allies very close in some cases like poland to ukraine, they can get there much faster. they can be in place for a potential coming counter offensive as early as this spring, those are the ones that have the potential to make the difference here, and you just mentioned, ukraine has a hundred tanks that have been dedicated to them. there are assessments they would need somewhere between 250, 350 tanks for the coming offensive. they have some in their arsenal. they have picked up some russian ones off the battlefield they have been able to add to their arsenal, but right now because of this u.s. announcement there's this hope that these other countries are going to start flooding their challengers, their leopards in as well, and that's what could make the difference in the fight against the russians. the ultimate goal right now, give ukraine the momentum.

get the russians on their back heel, and hopefully move both sides towards a negotiated peace settlement. >> the sub text of everything you laid out and the sub text of the decisions from these countries is that this war is going to go on for a while, and this appears to be a concession by the biden administration, they are digging in for a long war with russia, and they don't expect vladimir putin to look for that off ramp we have been talking about for almost a year now. >> that's true but you could look at it another way, which this could be -- defense officials who i spoke with yesterday said this is a sign of their medium and longer range commitment to ukraine. you could actually make the argument that if everything goes the way u.s. officials and some western officials are hoping with this coming counter offensive and this goal that maybe russia would acknowledge some sort of victory domestically and go to the negotiating table. if that goes as planned, it's possible these abrams would

never see the fight in ukraine by the time they actually get there, but it is definitely signaling that the u.s., or the signal u.s. is hoping to send here is they are committed to the ukrainians for the long-term. this is not the only kind of equipment the u.s. is providing for that same sort of commitment they want to show to ukraine, and the commitment to ally asks nato. i could see us seeing more of these announcements in the coming weeks and months, these types of systems that take a long time to build, take a long time to get over there, that the ukrainians can use for years and decades to come. >> courtney kube covering the pentagon for us. thank you so much. so jonathan lemire, we can see the dominos falling. we had the british foreign secretary on the show last week. he was in washington to talk to secretary of state blinken, saying we're sending tanks, you should join us, and the germans come along with the leopard tanks and the biden administration announcing the

same with the abrams tanks. the president yesterday said this was coordinated, we did this in concert, but was there pressure from other allies to get in the game? >> no question, and this move is about allied maintenance, and this is about providing germany some cover. chancellor sholz was reluctance, and the president after meeting with secretary austin decided we'll send ours which will trigger germany to do the same. other countries can then do the same. it's about maintaining the allies. it's also, courtney, to your point, two different tracks, two different time frames. the leopards, the european tanks can get there in a couple of months and hopefully be helpful in the expected russian offensive in the spring. there also is the acknowledgment that the american tanks which won't get there for maybe a year or more, that's because this fight is going to go on far long

time. jon meacham, from a historical perspective, it's remarkable. there's tension on the edges of course but that the alliance has stayed together. this president has done a marvelous job of making that happen, even some of his critics say, but also to the point where german tanks are heading across europe. something unthinkable in the wake of the events of 80 years ago. >> yeah, think about the words we have been using this morning, european tank battle, germany, russia, it's my kind of day, as willie would say. everything old is new again in this, and i think that one of the reasons the alliance is together, president biden has done a terrific job with it, but nothing concentrates the mind like a common foe. and, willie, in a different context just talked about dominos. there is a fear in europe. if you are a european, your entire world view is shaped by territorial ambition on the part

of madmen, autocrats who believe that they can project power for ideological and nationalistic reasons. and you lose things, right? european politics is about shifting overtime, and i think what the lesson of world war ii is that, in fact, there have to be stands taken or appeasement doesn't work. and i think without aggrandizing what's unfolding, this is an incredibly important story, and sometimes we frame it in -- one of the phrases was biden concedes or shifts. i don't think any of that matters. i don't think this is a political story. i think this is a world historical story about will the oldest kind of appetite, somebody strong wants something somebody he thinks is weaker has, and you take it. all of history tells us when you do that, it just leads to larger and larger conflicts. >> so this is probably a good

time to talk about what joe is doing right now. on tomorrow's show, joe will be reporting live from the auschwitz concentration camp in honor of international holocaust remembrance day. amid the new war in europe, the russian atrocities being perpetrated against the innocent civilians of ukraine, and the rise of authoritarianism across the globe and the increase in anti-semitism around the world there's never been a more important time to never forget, to always remember, and as part of the coverage, he'll have an exclusive interview from poland with the second gentleman, douglas emhoff who is retracing his own family there. and jon meacham, if you could talk about the moment in history as ukrainians fight for the safety of the world but also the strength of our own democracy with, and let me be clear with my wording, fascist threats from

within. >> one of the great questions we face, in the period now like the 1850s where a dedicated minority of people who wanted power above all, in that case, a racial hierarchy, and they were willing to sacrifice the union itself for that hierarchy. is this that period? is it as you were just alluding to and what joe is working on, is it the 1920s and 30s, which was a period of modernity, where you had battles over home over education, what's going to be taught, state legislatures trying to determine school curriculum, a rise of a second clan, antiimmigrant sentiment, fears of socialism around the world. that socialism was going to come

here. the 1930s gave us the bloodiest century in world history, and what we have to do again is learn from that. what do we learn is that you have to stop these things early, and there's almost nothing harder than stopping something early because people can always say, oh, you're overreacting, right? oh, you know, you don't understand, this is just a difference of opinion. well, sometimes things are incredibly clear, and history does enable us to be able to identify threats and react to them. and anyone can say at any point, oh, this doesn't matter so much. you're overreacting in the way that i sometimes think of it this way. if the world somehow had come to us with lee harvey oswald november 21st, 1973, this man is going to change history. you would say, no, one guy with a gun can't do that, right, or,

you know, anything, james earl ray before april 3rd, 1968, with dr. king. things change rapidly, and so if you don't stand against the threat that a democracy is a fallible thing, then, in fact, it does fail. still ahead on "morning joe" we're going to continue this conversation. after a two-year ban, former president trump could soon be returning to facebook and instagram, what the move could mean for the 2024 race and the guardrails of democracy. plus, does far right republican congresswoman marjorie taylor greene have her sights set on being donald trump's vice presidential pick? what she's saying about that. and more questions swirling around republican congressman

george santos. he claims to have a new treasurer, but the guy says no. and the republican party is facing a new contentious leadership fight. nbc's vaughn hillyard joins us with more on that. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. back

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6:21 in the morning in washington. meta will reenstate donald trump to facebook and instagram two years after he was suspended from the platforms for incendiary posts about the january 6th capitol insurrection. meta's president of global affairs says the president's former accounts will be

reactivated in the coming weeks with guardrails in place to deter repeat offenses, after determining the risk has quote sufficiently recedes. the guardrails will include quote heightened penalties for repeated offenses, penalties that will apply to other public figures whose accounts are suspended, related to civil unrest in our updated protocol. klegg also spoke to nbc's hallie jackson yesterday. >> i'm not saying everything is pefrlt. no one is,. we're saying if you compare to the circumstances that led to the original suspension, we thinks risk to public safety has materially and significantly receded but that is also the reason why we are introducing those additional guardrails to discourage him from breaking our rules going forward. if he chooses to use facebook and instagram again. >> trump immediately responded to meta's decision inviting him back aboard by posting on his

own social media platform and mocking facebook for losing billions of dollars in value recently. joining us now, a member of the "new york times" editorial board mara gay, and attorney and contributing columnist for "the washington post" george conway. good morning to you both. appreciate nick clegg's confidence that the threat has receded. paul ryan saying, i can't imagine donald trump getting the nomination. most of us can imagine all of these things. >> i guess there's no threat to democracy. we can all go home now. the threat has passed. it's disturbing because it really makes you kind of wonder whether this approach was thoughtful or simply reactive, wanting to get back in the social media business of having someone who has relevance in american society posting on your platform, and this is really, you know, ultimately the social media platforms don't -- they're just not held to the same

standards that news organizations are, and that is the central conflict, the central tension. i don't think that's gone away. i continue to believe i have a lot of concerns about that, and, you know, look, donald trump's reaction was to mock them anyway, so the business decision here has to be questioned as well, but the threat hasn't gone away. the threats to democracy are real. donald trump has not been held accountable yet, and we continue to see political violence unfold. i think they're going to have their hands full, and we have to keep a close eye. >> george, it remains to be seen if the president will accept the invitation back. he was let back on twitter. has he been back on twitter at all? he hasn't posted on twitter at all. we'll see if he goes back there. we know now thanks to the reporting that's been done, all we have heard from the january 6th select committee, facebook in particular was a gathering place for people before the 6th and to foment all the ideas that led to that day.

>> and it's absolutely a mystifying decision on their part. they think, well, the fire is out, so even though this guy has a cache of matches and gasoline that he carries around with him, let's let him play with matches again. it's ridiculous. if you look at what he says day in, day out on his truth social web site, he's in a lot of ways worse than he was a couple of years ago. he's lost touch with reality. in a way that, you know, he's always had lost touch with reality, but he's worse today, the racist attacks on elaine chao. it's not going to work out well. >> jon meacham, facebook provides a strategic thing for him, this is where he raises money. if he's going through with the bid, facebook is going to be useful there. twitter was of course the venue

where he propagated most of his most dangerous ideas. he'll be back there soon enough, once he figures out what to do with truth social. how worried are you he has been given his platform again, the place where he called for supporters more or less to storm the united states capitol and try to upend our democracy. >> very. george, i admire his work, he says it's mystifying, i don't think it's all that mystifying that facebook needs money, trump needs relevance. i think it's a devil's bargain here, and i think that ultimately facebook will be making a deal with the devil and probably the check's going to bounce because it never actually works out. i think the marketplace of ideas has to adjudicate debate, do we want a trumpian autocracy or do we want a constitutional democracy that for all its imperfections has produced a country that most of us want to

defend. that is a debate that has to unfold in the country. the better angels of our nature have won two elections in a row, 2020 and 2022 which was supposed to be a terrible blow out against president biden. it wasn't. that said, if you're one of these companies, do you want to be the means by which an autocrat mounts an assault on the constitution itself. and that's -- i mean, maybe they do. >> they have already run that experiment. >> so the question, i think, it's a moral question. there are financial incentives. it's a moral question, do you want this constitutional democracy to unfold or do you want it to fall apart? and it's -- i hate it when people say it's just that simple. it's not simple but it's

straightforward, right? i mean, that's the question. and we don't have, as george says, there's no mystery here. he's done it all in front of us. on camera, right, i keep waiting for there to be something secret, you know, he said it. you know, you got to fight like hell. you know, he puts pressure on pence. let's remember, mike pence stood between us and the abyss. and i'm glad he did, but it's a reminder of how fragile this is. >> mara, you made an important point, some of this probably is reaction to criticism they received, trying to be balanced, while he's running for president, we have to give him another chance. we don't want to be attacked by conservatives as being anti-trump. clearly that factors into this as well. >> as though you can satisfy that part of the country or that

part of the electorate. that's a fool's errand as well. jon made a good point too, you don't want to, whether you're a company or an institution, you don't want to hand over the keys of democracy to have someone destroy that democracy, so do you want to be that institution that really helps take down the country? i mean, this is a business, so, yes, it's a little bit different than a public institution, but we should still be asking the moral question, i mean, if this was years ago, we would ask moral questions, do we want a chemical company, as a chemical company, should we be supporting weapons of war, i mean, these are questions that are not new in american history, but we should be asking them, and facebook may not have or meta may not have the same responsibility, you know, as a business. it has a responsibility to its shareholders, fine, but we can still ask those moral questions, and we should. >> and autocrats depend, history tells us, experience tells us, they depend on a short attention

span. there's a great line in tom sawyer where tom sawyer says an evangelist came to town that was so good that even huck finn was saved until tuesday, right. so we were all kind of saved until tuesday, but now it's wednesday. and the idea that there's no change and there's the mechanics of populism, when the republicans talk about big tech, when the magaism talks about, that's what they're talking about. they're talking about censorship, we're we are yet again talking about him. >> marjorie taylor greene is openly campaigning to be his vice presidential running mate. jon, i know you have an important diplomatic mission you're heading for. please give our best to wherever it is you're going. >> i appreciate that. donald trump, as willie

pointed out, 2024 presidential campaign is still in its early stages but one of his top allies in congress is already reportedly angling to be his running mate. congresswoman marjorie taylor greene is set to have her sights set on being trump's pick for vice president. former trump adviser steve bannon told nbc news greene sees herself on the short list for trump's vp. a second source who has advised greene said her quote whole vision is to be vice president. the source cited that greene's vp ambitions are at the heart of an effort to rebrand herself as a politician who can work with republican hard liners, and its establishment wing. this could explain why she was so heavily involved in the push to get kevin mccarthy elected as speaker of the house. bannon said her support of mccarthy was a power move with the long-term goal of being a

player. greene's spokesperson responded to the report saying the congresswoman is laser focused on serving the people of northwest georgia, adding that her committee work is a top priority, and 2024 rumors. george conway, you know what, anything is possible in the age of trump and in the age to kind of reference back to our previous conversation, where these social media companies have absolutely no accountability, compared to other publishers, and nick clegg can decide whether or not our democracy is safe from criminals who want to rise to power, and abuse our constitution and our democracy and promote insurrections and riots. i mean, that's kind of where we are, and marjorie taylor greene, i will just put my marker down right here and say this is a potential reality unless people get their heads on straight. >> yeah, oh, yeah. i mean, in a way she's perfect. trump/greene, '24, a crack in

every pot. this will be the sociopath party ticket. she absolutely would play to his worst instincts and play to the worst elements of the republican base. i think it would turn off the center of the elect rate, but at the same time, i don't think it's going to be serious that she would get this because trump cannot take someone as a vice president who's going to potentially upstage him. that's why mike pence was so perfect for him. pence was, you know, so much of a cipher. he drank water when president trump drank water at a meeting. he would basically nod and agree with what trump said up until that day on january 6th which could have been prevented if we had a vice president with a spine who had conceded the election as it should have been

conceded long before then. so i don't think it's a realistic possibility, but the fact that we're even talking about it is horrific. >> who knows if this will happen but as mika and george both say, would you put it past donald trump? he likes her a lot. he likes what she says about him anyway. let's look at this from the other side, if you're the biden campaign, we like this ticket. if the idea is to broaden the electorate and win back some of the suburban women you lost in 2022 and 2020, i'm not sure this is the way to do it. >> when marjorie taylor greene was appointed to some of the top committees in the house, west wing aides were high fiving each other. they know she can be painted as the symbol of the republican congress, a 9/11 truther on the homeland security committee. that would just be quadrupled if she were put on donald trump's ticket as his vice president.

it's mission accomplished for her. the more she has talked about, the more of a celebrity she becomes on the political right. she's already a force in the republican party. the biden white house doesn't have to do that. she's there as someone who is going to have some weight. it would certainly seem unlikely that she would be a vp pick, even though georgia of course looms large on the electoral college map in 2024. i'm amused by how marjorie taylor greene's and allies are putting out this idea that she can be the bridge between the radical right and mainstream republicans. she, who believes in jewish space lasers can be any part of the mainstream republican party. >> i would not do any high five, anybody in the democratic party and the white house just keep your head down. these people are dangerous. the republican national committee has kicked off its three day winter meeting in southern california with a vote set to take place tomorrow to select its leader. third term chairwoman ronna

mcdaniel who was hand picked by then donald trump is seeking another two-year term. she's got competition following the gop's let's just say lackluster performance in last year's midterms, but they lost a lot. joining us with more from dana point, california, nbc news correspondent vaughn hillyard. what's going on? >> good morning, mika, we're talking about the direction o. republican party, and all of that playing out in realtime here. to give you an idea, we're talking about a body of, you know, super activists turned party leaders that are going to have a vote here tomorrow to determine who the next rnc chair is. ronna mcdaniel is going for a fourth term. and nobody would suggest that she has been anything short of loyal to the likes of donald trump, but she is being challenged by hermie dillon. she is not a moderating force who is looking to go in a different direction of the old republican party, she has been

propped up by the likes of tucker carlson. last night, she was in the lobby of where this rnc winter meeting is at, standing alongside kari lake, and i had the chance to ask dillon some questions, and kari lake some questions suggest that she should be governor. her point is ronna mcdaniel has not fought for election integrity, and the republican party needs to, you know, go and fight on the legal front, more on behalf of candidates like kari lake who have called into question the election. now, there is one-third person who is also in this race, yet is having trouble gathering enough support, and that would be mike lindell, the my pillow ceo, he is here as well, but this is ultimately going to be the decision of these rnc committee men and women. there are three from each state,

and you have seen exceedingly over the years, those individuals transformed from sort of the romney side of the republican party, the mccain side of the republican party to being trump loyalists, and that is why yesterday, one other interesting person hanging around the meeting is the likes of now former governor, asa hutchinson, who is openly mulling a run for the presidency, and i asked him why he was there, here for the rnc meeting, and he said he's making the case directly to these members, looking ahead toward their primary process and pleading with them to make the presidential primary process a fair one. that includes debates. that includes the delegate selection process here. and so we are talking about a realtime happening right now the republicans crafting what their presidential primary process will look like and whether, in the records of asa hutchinson, they're open to having a course correction. >> it's amazing just sitting here, we have had to with a straight face talk about the space laser congresswoman being

vice president and the my pillow infomercial guy being the head of the rnc, these are real things out there. is there a sense there, a learning from what happened in 2022. we're hearing about kari lake, she still claims she won an election that she lost. is there any learning, any looking in the mirror saying we've got to do something different if we want things to change in our party, or are they still tethered to donald trump the way they have been the last few years? >> you're not seeing the likes of ronna mcdaniel or anybody stepping away from donald trump to be clear. in the case of hermie dillon, did she feel like the losses were because of the ideological positions of the republican candidates who were running or because of the way in which the rnc was structured and the way that it went about its business as a political party backing its candidates and she said it was the latter, that ultimately the party was not using its money

enough to go and support those republican candidates, and that is why, again, she was standing next to kari lake as kari lake was making the case that there was an injection of 325,000 ballots that swayed the election against her here. there's not an acknowledgment that the party needs to shift more toward a moderate base here. that is not where we are at. mike lindell is somebody who was openly invited here to the rnc meeting. instead, this is one where we're talking to members who believe that, you know, donald trump was a winning figure in this republican party, that he was able to galvanize a whole new base of support around the country, and still, despite these recent losses, they're not willing to alienate, and when you look at republican primary voters, republican primary voters have yet to display that they're looking for something otherwise. does that mean the general election is different?

sure. but in terms of where this republican activism is here, it is still very much around the likes of a donald trump, and now the question here is will that presidential primary process really be open to the likes of other individuals like ron desantis, like, you know, an asa hutchinson, those are the questions we're looking at over the next 24 hours. >> nbc's vaughn hillyard covering the rnc meeting. thank you very much. george conway, you think there might be some learning given what happened in 2020, what happened just two months ago on election day in 2022 when they expected a red wave and actually lost a seat in the senate and just barely eked out the house in losing some important governor's races as well. do you see any force within your party, your former party, i can't remember if you're still in it. >> for the moment. >> of swinging back, of the pendulum coming back and saying we need to move away from some of this stuff and start winning again? >> no, it's all about the

internal politics of the party, and that's what you're seeing with the challenge from the right. it's all about appealing to the right piece, the right-hand side of the republican party, which for example, ron desantis, if he ever runs for president, i don't think he will run for president this year or next year, he's going to attack trump from the right, if he runs against trump, and it's all about the internal politics and about control of the institutions of the republican party, and it's without regard to whether or not the republican party becomes a successful governing party. most of the people who are the activists of the republican party don't care about governance. >> george conway, thank you very much for being on this morning. and coming up on "morning joe," there are new details this morning surrounding the shooting of a virginia schoolteacher by her 6-year-old student. we'll explain why an attorney for the teacher says school officials could have prevented

the tragedy. plus, if the baby boom created modern america, where will power, wealth, and politics shift when it ends? that conversation is straight ahead on "morning joe." on "morn.

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. 48 past the hour. there are new details emerging about the virginia teacher who was shot by her 6-year-old student. a lawyer for the teacher now says there were multiple warnings and that the school should have acted. nbc news correspondent yamiche alcindor reports. >> this tragedy was entirely preventable if the school administrators responsible for school safety had done their part and taken action. >> the lawyer for abigail zwerner, the 1st grade teacher shot by a student. >> they failed to act, and abby was shot. >> reporter: late morning, zwerner went to school administrators saying the boy threatened to boat up another student. warned an adminis did administrators lock - he wa >> reporter: the school district citing an ongoing investigation declined to comment amid statements from zwerner's attorney, but confirmed the assistant principal has resigned earlier this month, superintendent george parker acknowledged school officials were warned. >> they were notified of a possible weapon in the time line we're dealing with. >> reporter: and parker is out of a job. at a special school board meeting officials voted to remove him and appointed interim superintendent. meanwhile students are scheduled to return to classes on monday. nbc news has learned the teacher texted a loved one before she was wounded that the boy was armed and school officials were failing to act, according to a source close to the situation. the source said abigail zwerner sent the text about an hour before she was shot saying the student said he had a gun in his

backpack and administrators at the school weren't helping. the text quote showed her frustration, and willie, i mean, this is beyond belief on so many levels and i think that might be the only excuse for all of these warnings to go unanswered is that it might be hard to even conceive of a 6-year-old bringing a gun to school and shooting their teacher. >> maybe once, but if you hear it three times, you certainly check it out, especially if a kid saw the gun on the playground, was threatened by it. the kid does the right thing in tears, that kid has a gun and threatened me, and you still don't find it. something's -- we're missing something here, mara. the school needs to come out and say whether this is true, because once is bad enough. you're warned three times, and you have the teacher an hour before she was shot texting a friend and saying there's a gun in the school, and the school's not doing anything about it. this is unconscionable. >> there are a lot of things

that are disturbing about the situation. the first and obvious piece is we are living in a country in which 6-year-olds have access to guns. we should start there. it shouldn't be something, oh, i brought something for show and tell, and it happens to be a gun. that should not be happening. beyond that, this school owes the community some answers. and i think it's really important that the pressure is kept up on them as it was on the uvalde officials. when you look at any school, the way they respond to this. obviously at some point, the police should be called. if there is a student who is afraid of another student who has a gun, i mean, there are a lot of questions about what went wrong here, and we're not getting answers. i think, you know, it's kind of you pull a string, and you get some piecemeal answers. that's not acceptable. they should be standing in a press conference before the entire community and taking rapid fire questions at this point.

you know, somebody has been shot. i mean, this is extraordinary. >> john, it's literally almost impossible to believe in this day and age that a teacher and administrator, in any day and age, but particularly now given school shootings, would receive a warning and not do anything about it. what we know about teachers, how great they are, and principals how great they are that they wouldn't look out for the other kids in the class, we need more information here. >> this is a week that america has been defined by guns, sadly, the mass shootings in california, the more we learn about this story. it's hard to imagine that a 6-year-old can have this weapon and bring it to class, the inaction by the school, it's unfathomable, school officials, local officials, town officials need to say, here's what we know, here's what went wrong. >> we're so lucky the teacher is alive, but a group of 6-year-olds watched their teacher get shot. we'll have more as we get new information.

still ahead this morning, a look at stories making front pages of newspapers across the country and at the top of the hour, we will be joined by national security adviser in the biden administration for more insight on the major decision now to send american tanks to ukraine. "morning joe" is coming right back. ukraine "morning joe" is coming right back

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just before the top of the hour on a thursday morning in washington, the baby boom generation changed the landscape of america, of course, with a huge influx of new people influencing everything from pop culture to national politics, but what would be the impact as baby boomers now move into retirement age. joining us now, national columnist for "the washington

post," phillip bump, author of the new book "the after math, the last days of the baby boom and the future of power in america," phil, good morning, congratulations on the book. i was just reading up on it, and it looks like you've spent ten years researching this idea, this concept, gathering sort of your thesis. tell us why you think this is an important thing to study right now, and what the impacts of baby boomers moving into retirement will be. >> i think americans don't recognize the scale of the baby boom. 76 more million babies born, it broke everything in america, you had to reshape your entire society around them, and that's happened, you know, as they got older, they had to build schools, get jobs, and now we're reaching the point where they're starting to retire. we have this massive population of older americans who have long been a dominant force in american culture and are now competing against another large generation, the millennials, we are seeing the tensions playing out. >> what's the practical impact?

what are areas you looked at specifically how this is going to reshape the country. >> i look at three ways power manifests, cultural, political and economic. political, is one people like to talk about, older generation, heavier republican, what does it mean as they get older and power shifts younger? does it mean the younger generation will continue to vote democratic? what does it mean that there's a huge racial disparity. the older generation is more white than younger americans, and things like housing, what happens to houses? baby boomers own a lot of houses, does that mean a glut in the housing market? there's a lot of aspects that we're starting to think about. >> what about health care, obviously huge implications as medical needs progress along with the baby boom generation. >> the expectation from one firm i spoke with, it's going to be over $50 trillion of assets transferred away from the baby boom over the course of the next several decades. it's not clear it's going to the kids. people are living longer, they

have higher medical bills. spending on senior housing, this is our moment, it's finally arrived, you know, but there's a lot of ways in which those assets are going to move to things besides just inheritances. >> there has been criticism of baby boomers. they seemed reluctant to turn over power to the next generation. talk about how that is manifesting and how this could change as they age out. two political parties, how could they change with them. >> the idea that the baby boomers have this aggregated power they're sort of holding. it's important to recognize the baby boom is a huge and varied generation. it's not even necessarily much more strongly republican than it is democratic. you have a lot of individuals who own homes who are making individual choices about protecting their own home values, seeing that as a storehouse for retirement, and those in the aggregate mean it's harder to build new housing and people are making decisions about building new housing. those things trickle up from the

scale of the generation. what does it mean over the long-term? i think this idea that network necessarily people get more conservative as they get older, i think that isn't well rooted in evidence but it also kind of breaks given how different older americans are today than younger americans. >> can you talk to us about how the baby boomers did overall as they're reaching retirement in terms of wealth generation? i think there's a sense they may be the last american generation to maybe do better than their parents did overall, and obviously that doesn't break down necessarily evenly by race. >> that's exactly right. there's a chart in the book that shows how over time it used to be the case that children did better than their parents. when you get into the later birth years, that's not true anymore. first of all, you're right, the baby boom collectively has a lot of wealth. on an individual basis they're not particularly wealthy. it's not that boomers are wealthier than millennials. there are huge racial disparities, and the fact that the younger generations are

heavily black, hispanic and asian american than the older generations, we're wait to go see how it turns out. >> you have an excerpt in the book that you have published talking about florida being the perfect encapsulation of the baby boom generation as people retire obviously they move down there, reshaping the politics a little bit. what else do you see in that state that tells the story of this book? >> it's fascinating, the census bureau does projections for what americans are going to look like. 2060, race and age break downs nationally, what it's expected to be in 1960, almost looks exactly like where florida is now. does that mean national politics are going to look like ron desantis being president forever? not really, there's obviously characteristics of florida's population, including that the older population in florida now is more heavily white than the older population in 2060. there's a lot of caveats.

>> the new book is "the after math, the last days of the baby boom and the future of power in america," phillip bump, congratulations. thanks for being here. mara gay, thank you as always. mika. it's one minute past the top of the second hour of "morning joe." our top story this morning, the u.s. and germany will send dozens of tangs to ukraine to aid in its defense against russia. this after months of negotiations over who should send the tanks. nbc news chief white house correspondent kristen welker has more. >> reporter: in a major reversal, president biden announcing he's sending 31 powerful american abrams tanks to ukraine, a move the pentagon had resisted for months. >> secretary austin has recommended this step because it will enhance ukraine's capacity to defend its territory. >> reporter: the president making the move in concert with olaf scholz who revealed germany

will send 14 leopard tanks to ukraine. it follows a dispute between allies. germany earlier suggesting it would not send any tanks unless the u.s. did the same. some u.s. officials argued abrams tanks were too difficult to maintain and operate and worried russia could view it as an escalation. the president was asked if he was forced into the decision. >> did germany force you to change your mind on sending tanks? >> germany didn't force me to change my mind. >> reporter: we pressed the white house about the new shift. what changed? >> what's changed are the conditions on the ground, and the kinds of fighting that the russians are doing right now. >> reporter: the white house acknowledging it could be many months before the tanks arrive. still, the move receiving bipartisan support. >> what happened is a big frig friggin deal, you have the germans and the united states making a decision that's been long overdue.

>> reporter: meanwhile, looming over the announcement, president biden again ignoring questions about the fire storm over his handling of classified documents. >> sir, are the searches of your homes completed? >> reporter: all while "the washington post" reports cites the national archives is asking former presidents and vice presidents to search for classified material. let's bring in principal deputy national security adviser john finer, and former u.s. senator and now an msnbc news political analyst, claire mccaskill. she was a member of the senate armed services committee. john finer, i will start with you, what was behind the decision and what can be done in the meantime, given these tanks won't be processed and prepared and shipped for a long time? >> it's a good question. there are two main factors behind the decision to provide the abrams tanks alongside our german partners, and they really

are the two overriding motivations that the united states and president biden have had throughout the conflict. one is to get the ukrainians what we think they need to be able to defend their territory. we have done that at every phase of the war, starting with the initial phase when we got them antiaircraft weapons. got them artillery for the next phase of the war, the standoff in the eastern part of the country. now the focus is on the armored vehicles. the second part of the decision is maintaining allied unity, and we have been able to announce the deployment of these tanks in conjunction with our key partners, the germans who will be providing leopard tanks in the immediate term with the abrams to follow as soon as the ukrainians are able to maintain them and provide the logistical support. >> how do the tanks change the battle strategy, and how will it look different than it did before, and was the fact that you can cross into enemy territory or something else holding back on this decision a

little bit? >> the president has been clear, this is not a capability that would allow them to go on the offensive into russia or against russian territory. this is about defending ukrainian territory and allowing ukrainians to take back territory of theirs that has been occupied by the russians. this phase of the conflict, we have been providing the ukrainians with hundreds of armored vehicles. armored vehicles will allow them to do the types of maneuvered warfare that they believe will enable them to start to retake parts of their territory that have been occupied for some time. that is the focus of the next several months of the conflict with the ukrainians. that is the focus of our security assistance in the near term, and that is the focus of some of the training that we are doing so that they know how to use this equipment to fight in a way that can allow them to take some of their territory back. >> claire mccaskill, you know, obviously there's a procurement process, training and shipping. i mean, these tanks are not for the current fight, but it's also recognition that nato, america and its allies, we're in it for

the long game. this is for the long fight, and i'm just wondering, you can take a question to jon finer if you would like, but from your perspective, do you think the american people truly understand what's at stake here, and is it a problem if the answer is no? >> i think the majority of americans get it. i do see new splits in the republican party. you know, the republican party i served with in congress was united in support of americans' foreign policy. not so much anymore. there's a lot of republicans that do not want to give one more dime to ukraine, so what really this decision reflects is the ability of biden and other leaders of democratic nations keeping it together. i don't care if germany was leveraging to try to make sure the u.s. followed with tanks or not. what i care about is we manage to get everybody on the same page again, and we're not the

only country that's beginning to have these cracks in support for ukraine. this is going on all over europe. so as long as we can keep this knitted up as jon said, in unity, that's the best chance ukraine has to ultimately prevail. they have done way better than anyone expected. now it's going to be the republican party that may have this fall apart if they use defense funding as part of their agenda for trying to cut spending. >> so, john, as you look at this war now, a lot of people viewed the move with abrams tanks, in conjunction with germany, as a commitment to something longer term in ukraine against the russian army. have you sort of conceded at this point, are you facing the reality that this is going to go on for a while as much as you would like to see it end overnight with some kind of a deal and putin leaving, this is going to go on for many many months, perhaps into years.

>> so i think there are two important points here, one is to echo what senator mccaskill just said, the degree of unity we have been able to maintain internationally, between the united states and our european partners, but also beyond europe, to other countries in the world that are supporting ukraine, i think is above and beyond what anyone would have expected at the beginning of the conflict. it's key to getting the ukrainians what they need now and over the long-term. the second is the point that you just made, which is the tanks are emblematic of what the president has said is a long-term u.s. commitment, a commitment to stick with the ukrainians for as long as it takes. that's an important signal to the ukrainians that we are with them in this fight, and will be with them in this fight, but a very important signal to the russians, they can't just wait us out, expect unity to fray or tension to shift. these tanks will be delivered when they're ready, not immediately but at the next phase of the conflict perhaps, and over the long haul, the united states is going to continue to do this with the ukrainians as long as their

territory need to be defended. >> jon, good morning, jonathan lemire, at each phase of the war, ukraine's asks for weapons and equipment has changed as the conflict has changed, and understandably president zelenskyy is looking to get everything he can to try to push russia out of every inch of their country. no sooner did the tanks get committed yesterday, and kyiv welcomed them with a thank you, the asks have started for fighter jets, that's what ukraine thinks they need next. is that something the united states is willing to consider? >> we don't make these decisions on our own. we make the decisions in close consultation with our allies, and the ukrainians who are the ones actually doing the fighting. that's why for the most part we have not ruled in or out any specific systems. we have tried to taylor our assistance to the fight the ukrainians are n. i don't have an answer, we will be discussing this carefully as we do all assistance decisions with the ukrainians and we'll be

tailoring our assistance to what we believe they need for the phase of the fight they're in. principal deputy national security adviser jon finer, thank you very much for coming on this morning. social media giant meta has announced it will reinstate former president donald trump's facebook and instagram accounts a little more than two years after he was suspended from the platforms for incendiary posts about the january 6th capitol insurrection. meta's president of global affairs, nick clegg, says the former president's accounts will be reactivated in the coming weeks, with new guardrails in place to deter repeat offenses, after determining the risk has quote sufficiently receded. clegg released a statement on the company's web site, the guardrails will have heightened penalties for repeat offenses, pents that apply to other public

figures. clegg also spoke to nbc's hallie jackson yesterday. >> so i'm not saying everything is perfect. no one is, but we're saying if you compare it to the circumstances which led to his original suspension, we think the risk to public safety has materially and significantly receded, but that is also the reason why we are introducing those additional guardrails to discourage him from breaking our rules going forward if he chooses to use facebook and instagram again. >> claire mccaskill, why does he know? how does he know the risk? i don't see any sign the risk has gone down, in fact, some of his posts on truth social are disgusting. racist. there's no change. so this is just about money. and also the fact that there's no accountability. >> yeah, i think they're papering over the risk, no

question. >> really? >> let me do a very very slight silver lining to this gray cloud. >> okay. >> the slight silver lining is when you chase extreme people off mainstream social media, they go to a corner of the online community where it's just an echo chamber. the only thing they ever see or hear is the ridiculous, untrue, disinformation that trump specializes in. the only ray of sunshine that we can find in this decision, which i disagree with the decision is that all of these people are going to now be on a platform where they can be exposed to other views. where they can actually see people that are saying, hey, this is bs what you're putting on your page. this isn't true. there is an opportunity for more points of view to have the same platform which in the long run than everybody going to their

respective corners and listening to each other, and amplifying each other and going on and on until you get to the point where you have a woman in congress who actually thinks vaccines are the work of the devil. >> and meta has suggested that the former president will have a shorter leash this time. we'll see what that means. guardrails have never stopped him before. meanwhile, a judge in san francisco has granted a motion to release police body camera footage of the attack on paul pelosi, the husband of former speaker nancy pelosi. audio and visual evidence was played during the accused attacker david depape's hearing but was not released publicly. news organizations filed a motion for wider access to evidence from the attack. the evidence consists of body cam video from an officer who responded to pelosi's home last october, as well as a 911 call paul pelosi made to police. parts of a police interview with depape also, and security video recorded during the break-in by

u.s. capitol police in washington. prosecutors have refused to release the evidence to the media. the judge says all files in the case will be made public as early as today. so john, we're going to see some of this body cam footage, nbc and other organizations sued to get it out there. we're going to see what happened that night from a body cam on a police officer. >> yeah, and certainly it will be difficult to see what happened to paul pelosi, but i think a silver lining here might be it should eliminate some of the conspiracy theories that we recall floated around the incident right afterwards, where some on the right suggested there was other encounters or other things were happening there, that even paul pelosi knew his attacker and there was something untoward going on, when really what happened is this man came in and tried to commit an act of political violence, looking for speaker pelosi and instead attacking her husband. it should hopefully clear up some of those questions. we can see how resilient the white wing conspiracy theories are. >> evidence has never punctured

those conspiracy theories before. at least we'll get a look at some of the footage today. here are some of the other news making headlines this morning. vice president kamala harris visited monterey park, california, yesterday, the site of the mass shooting over the weekend. she attended a memorial for those killed in the tragedy at the star ballroom dance studio, and met with the families of six of the eleven victims. harris placed flowers at the vigil outside the scene of the shooting, paying tribute to the lives lost. meanwhile, the man accused of killing his coworkers at two northern california mushroom farms faces seven charges of murder and one of attempted murder. the suspect has not yet entered a plea. he was set to make his first court appearance yesterday but it was postponed until next month. prosecutors say he shot and killed seven people on monday in half moon bay. we're also following e-cigarette manufacturer juul reportedly in early stage talks with three tobacco giants.

people familiar with the discussions tell the "wall street journal" the company is seeking a potential sale or investment and partnership, juul which is responsible for more than a quarter of all e cigarette sales in the u.s. was value at $1 billion in october. this comes as the biden administration targets big tobacco with plans to reduce nicotine levels and ban menthol cigarettes. we'll be following that. and still ahead on "morning joe," we'll be joined by leaders of the problem solvers caucus, amid the ongoing fight over the debt ceiling. plus, america's opioid crisis hit a deadly peak last year, driven largely by the spread of fentanyl. now the fbi is investigating what kind of role snapchat might have played in that. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. hat. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back.

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it will be remembered that all the enemy machines and violence, which are shot down over our island or over the seas surrounded are either destroyed or captured, whereas a considerable proportion of our machines and also of our pilots are saved and soon again in many cases, going to action. the gratitude of every home in our island, in our empire, and indeed throughout the world, except in the abodes of the guilty go to the british airmen who undaunted by odds and weary in their constant challenge and mortal danger are turning the tide of the world war by their prowess and by their devotion. never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so

many to so few. >> wartime leader winston churchill's famous speech known as the few, in which he thanked his royal air force in their efforts to fight off the germans in the skies above england in that summer's battle. he used the speech to give confidence, citing their superiority, and weaponry, intelligence, and numerical strength. joining us now, the president on the council on foreign relations, richard haass, we are continuing our week long discussion on his new book entitled "the bill of obligations the ten good habits of good citizens" and also with us for this conversation is democratic senator chris coons of delaware, a member of the foreign relations and judiciary committees. we thank you, senator coons, for joining us this morning.

richard, you say that national service is a big component of being a good citizen, writing, why should we want young americans to perform one or tw years of government service, one reason is that a common experience would help break down some of the barriers that have arisen, owing to geography, class, race, religion, education, language, and more. world war ii did precisely this for millions of americans. today, however, there is simply too little common experience in this society, and too much that reinforces differences and divisions. as a result, trust, essential with people in a society are to work together constructively is in short supply. national service would also expose young people to government breaking down the perception of government as alien from the people. i couldn't agree more, richard. but what would that look like? >> what i would imagine, mika, is a program of one or two years, could be after high school, after college, i think

it should be voluntary rather than mandatory, though i would love to see it universal. if we made it mandatory, that would become a debate or distraction, and we would never get there. i could imagine employers rewarding people, say, for working in such things, colleges might advantage certain people trying to get in. it could be all sorts of programs, it could be on infrastructure. it could be on teaching in inner city schools. it could be on overseas development in the peace corps. they would pick up skills, and it would get rid of some of the differences in our society. yesterday in the "new york times," mika, there was an article that used words i had never seen before. it talked about rural, urban, apartheid in this country. we have so few common experiences. it talked about the calcification of these differences in our society. we're increasingly siloed, so, yeah, i mean, the fact that we can't come together as a

democracy, i actually think this is one of the fundamental reasons, national service would be one of the ways of dealing with this. >> it would be positive in a multitude of ways. senator coons, i know you're a strong believer in national service. when we're at a moment in our history when we can't agree on what books are in our schools, exactly how could we get to a point where we could do something like this as a country? >> mika, first, i have to agree with richard that he's got a powerful insight. my own father served in the first infantry in germany, and it changed his understanding of what it meant to be an american. as a bostonian, it was his first exposure to americans with all backgrounds and regions, and left him with a sense of patriotism. i helped run one of the first national direct americorps programs 30 years ago with the itch a dream foundation, and we had 150 young americans in ten

cities helping mentor and tutor children in under resourced schools. that americorps program serving 40,000 different communities, still existing today. there's 270,000 americans in americorps. it helps them earn money towards their college education. they are in every state and territory in our country. they're working in homeless shelters, food banks, veterans organizations and three of the key habits that richard is suggesting, critical to good citizenship of being informed, and being civil and being involved are central to this idea. we have a bill in congress to expand national service, to increase its funding. we have a bipartisan caucus for national service, and richard, we're grateful for your calling out this particularly important investment for our country at this challenging time. >> richard, let's talk about what's happening practically,

americorps is an amazing program and a great way to go about this. you graduate high school, and you go out into the world and you do what, because as you say, we don't have shared experiences. we're disconnected more than ever, even though we're connected more than ever on social media, you're in your bubble, talking to the same people all the time. you don't get out into the world to say, people in that part of the country aren't as different as i am. that breaks through preconceived notions about people who live here. you walk off your high school graduation into what. >> a whole menu, education around the country, infrastructure building, it could be climate related projects. it could be overseas aspects, joining the military, joining the peace corps, you would have a menu of possibilities. certain financial incentives, loan forgiveness. afterwards you would be more employable.

you would be trained up, and then you would actually go out in the field and do these things. it would be essentially work. but it would be something that was voluntary, and you would be compensated for it. >> claire, what do you think? >> well, you know, chris, let me take a question to my dear friend chris coons. have you guys thought about any kind of federal legislation that would tie federal money to education to a requirement to teach civics? i know on richard's list is civics education, and i think that's one of the big problems we have out there. that's something that i'm curious if you have considered, and secondly, have you thought about what this would do for rural america as a voluntary program in terms of the lack of services out there for people who live in rural areas? they have a very difficult time even finding a domestic violence shelter or finding drug treatment or getting a ride to veterans care.

this is the kind of answer that is attractive to rural americans, which is what we need to get on the same page. >> we did have a bill in the last congress. rosa delauro, congresswoman from connecticut. republican senator from texas worked with me on a bill to expand civics education and we were successful in in quadrupling the modest amount of money invested by the federal department of education in supporting k 12 civics education. i think there's more we need to do. helping from everything with access to veterans services, to helping with public health. one of the more, i think, promising americorps programs is part of the u.s. health service. it gives young americans the chance to get the skills and experience of working in a public health agency in a rural

part of our country or urban part of our country, and those that enjoy it, that do well at it, it gets them on the latter towards a career. same thing with fema, same thing with the department of agriculture. they have national service cores associated with those agencies. >> while we have you, we want to ask you about yesterday's news, the united states and germany sending tanks to ukraine. i know you just met with chancellor scholz just a few days ago. this was part of the topic of conversation. tell us a little bit about that. i know there has been reluctance to send the artillery in the front. what this means in the short-term, but also a long-term commitment. the abrams tanks may not be ready for a year. >> my brother was an abrams tank commander, talking with him and other military leaders, it's clear that the abrams platform

is complex, and has a jet engine. the supply and maintenance for abrams will be far more challenging than leopards, we wanted to move forward in lock step with germany, and our other nato countries, like poland, nato applicants like finland who are going to provide more of the leopard tanks. the leopards can make a difference in the short-term. they can be a part of ukraine pushing back on a russian spring offensive, and they are critical in allowing the armored personnel carriers and vehicles, the bradleys and strikers that president biden has released that are on their way to ukraine to make it possible for a combined arms assault on dug in russian positions in eastern ukraine. i think this is a critical next step in providing brave ukrainians with the resources, the material they need to push back on russia's brutal aggression in eastern ukraine. >> all right. senator chris coons, always good to see you, thank you very much

for being on the show this morning. and richard haass, thank you as well. the new book is "the bill of obligations, the ten habits of good citizens", and we will conclude your "morning joe" book residency tomorrow. thank you so much. and coming up, house speaker kevin mccarthy made good on his promise to remove democratic congressman adam schiff from the house intelligence committee, but is it a move that he could come to regret? we're going to dig into that just ahead. and congressional reporters have been camped out outside the office of george santos, hoping for answers to many questions surrounding his campaign, his life, his lies. we'll show you how he's trying to keep them at bay. "morning joe" is coming right back. joe" is coming right back ♪ today my friend you did it, you did it, you did it... ♪ good news! a new clinical study showed that centrum silver supports cognitive health in older adults. it's one more step towards taking charge of your health. so every day, you can say... ♪ youuu did it! ♪

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a live look at the white house at 37 past the hour. looks like a beautiful, crisp

day in washington. yesterday on "morning joe," we told you about congressman adam schiff and eric swalwell getting bumped off the house intel committee, perhaps retribution for being trump impeachment managers. well, the editorial board of the "washington post" is out with a new piece entitled mccarthy may regret kicking schiff off the house intelligence committee. the board writes in part, we suspect the real reason republicans are going after mr. schiff is he has been so effective. then speaker nancy pelosi had such confidence in mr. schiff that she made him not the chairman of the judiciary committee, the point person on the first of mr. trump's impeachments. he also performed valuable service as a member of the select committee that investigated the insurrection. if senator dianne feinstein retires as many expect in 2024, mr. schiff appears likely to run for senate. it is possible that mr. mccarthy's pettiness could

rebound to the political benefit of his fellow californian. he might have laid the ground work for mr. schiff to succeed ms. feinstein not only as a senator but also in a leading role on the senate intelligence committee. and, claire, i mean, it's a tradition to have bipartisan representation. i mean, this could also sort of clap back when the democrats get control. they could start kicking republicans off and not looking for balance as well. >> well, that's of course the rationale that republicans are using right now that nancy pelosi refused to seat some of the whackobirds on the january 6th select committee, but i do think this is a gift to adam schiff. he is going to be in a very large field of primary folks trying to get the top two spots for the general election for dianne feinstein's seat.

i think that's all but a fore gone conclusion. i think you're going to have some big names in that race. i think you're going to have multiple big names in that race. everything that mccarthy does to elevate him is like money in the bank for adam schiff, so i'm sure while he would much prefer to serve on the intelligence committee and continue to do the good work he's done, this is certainly in a back handed way a blessing to him for his obvious desire to maybe go to the united states senate. >> that's an interesting way to look at it. katie porter is in already, adam schiff and a long list of others who likely are going to. claire, you're so patient. you're 40 minutes into your appearance, and we have not talked about the kansas city chiefs, despite what you're clearly signaling that's what's on your mind, with your pin, and all of it. the bengals on the role are at least even a slight favorite in some places. how are you feeling about the game? >> the line has moved significantly, started out with chiefs minus one and got as high

as i think the bengals minus 2 1/2, minus three, they are the favorite. they are coming into air head cocky, sure of themselves, we are the underdog in arrowhead, i love it that they were dumb enough to call it burrow head, that is ricochetting around the state in chiefs kingdom. it's going to be cold. i'll be there. it's going to be very very cold, but that's okay, we feel pretty good about the fact that we're the underdog at home. >> the bengals have beaten the chiefs three times in a row. >> they have. by three point. >> all very very close games. the biggest question is patrick mahomes health, how is he doing, he got injured last game, he had to miss a quarter. came back, limping around, how does he look this week. >> he was on the practice field yesterday running. got to the podium to talk at a news brief, and didn't limp. didn't favor the leg. >> no walking boot? >> no walking boot.

so we feel like he is going to be good to go. now, that will obviously change andy reid's play calling. he's not going to be able to move around the pocket like he's so famous for. there may not be some of the razzle-dazzle no look side shuffles that mahomes is famous for but in the pocket he's a daunting force to deal with, and i think our offensive line is pretty fired up because of the cockiness of the defense in cincinnati and how they think they can control the field. so we feel pretty good, and then mahomes if we win, mahomes has two weeks to recover from a high ankle sprain which is totally reasonable that he could actually maybe do a little bit of damage on sunday to his recovery, but still be around on that all important date two weeks in the future. >> he has eight days to recover from this one, they play saturday, sunday evening. he'll have time to get the ankle ready. last year, the afc championship

game, chiefs were up 23-3, and lost the heartbreaker. i put that out there to say they will be hungry to not let that happen again, especially from a team calling arrowhead stadium burrow head now. >> we have lost to them, i don't think mahomes has ever beat burrow, so this is a big deal to that team, and i'm feeling pretty good about it. we don't want to remember last year. i was there and it was incredibly painful. >> and good of you to frame them as the underdog. get that stuff on the bulletin board. >> we are scared of cincinnati coming into burrow head, scared to death. >> much more on the chiefs throughout the show because claire is here. we'll get a live report from ukraine as president biden commits to sending a fleet of american tanks to the country. plus congressman ritchie torres has a new plan to keep classified documents where they belong. the new york democrat will join us to explain when "morning joe" comes right back. o explain when" comes right back

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everyone should have it and now a lot more people can. so let's go. the digital age is waiting. the justice department yesterday announced a new investigation into the growing problem of drug dealers using social media sites to sell deadly pills containing fentanyl, nbc news senior national correspondent kate snow reports. >> reporter: this morning, unprecedented action by the justice department in the fight against fake pills containing fentanyl. the fbi now interviewing parents of children who connected with dealers on snapchat and died after taking pills with a deadly dose of fentanyl. that's according to a person directly familiar with the matter. the justice department would officially neither confirm nor deny the existence of a criminal

investigation. the potential criminal investigation comes alongside a civil lawsuit filed on behalf of families of victims. that suit slams the app as the quote snap drug cartel which facilitates and profits from selling lethal drugs to young users. >> something has to be done. >> reporter: one of the plaintiffs amy neville testified on capitol hill wednesday about the fentanyl crisis. her 14-year-old son alexander died after she says he unknowingly took pills he got on snapchat. >> families like mine wake up every morning finding their kids dead, and they're gone because apps like snapchat make these accessible to our kids. >> reporter: snapchat refuses to cooperate in these investigations. >> we have cases where snapchat was aware of the specific dealer dealing fentanyl laced drugs and did not suspend his privileges, did not do anything to keep him from selling drugs.

>> reporter: in a statement, snapchat told us it works closely with law enforcement, and uses cutting edge technology to find and shut doubt drug dealers accounts block search results for drug related terms and redirect snapchaters to resources about the dangers of fentanyl. >> fentanyl is cheap, it's potent, and it's profitable. >> reporter: the company also launched this psa last fall about the danger, but critics say until there's third party oversight of snapchat safety measures, nothing will change. >> whatever it is they say they're doing, it is not enough, and they need to do more. >> nbc's kate snow with that report. all right, time now to take a look at the morning papers making news across the country. we'll begin in north carolina where the charlotte on a lawsui challenging the state's abortion pill restrictions. doctors in the state can only provide abortion pills in person at certified facilities after a 72-hour waiting period. a doctor filed the lawsuit

saying the restrictions impose significant costs and burdens. in florida the tampa bay times says that governor desantis is proposing a change to the death penalty law. juries have to have unanimous agreement on death penalties. this week he said one juror shouldn't be allowed to veto the verdicts. he said maybe 8 out of 12 have to agree or something. in kentucky the louisville courier journal is reporting on improving school safety. students put out a list of recommendations which doesn't include metal detectors and police. students call for intervention rates, more training for first responders and support of gun safety legislation.

in ohio the cincinnati enquirer is reporting on a new robotic dog at an airport. the new technology is meant to help automate jobs, increase security and help customers have a more seamless flight. all right. still ahead, ukraine is expecting dozens of tank deliveries from the western allies. the british ambassador to the united states will talk about the military aid. a key economic report is out due next hour and could have clues about the state of the u.s. economy and the outlook in the future. we'll break down the data with stephanie ruhle and andrew ross sorkin. "morning joe" will be right back.

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we are getting comments about washings of a teacher. now the teacher is set to file a lawsuit. stephanie gosk has the latest. >> reporter: this morning the superintendent for virginia's newport schools district lost his job after a teacher was shot by the first grade student. >> dr. parker will be relieved of his duties. >> reporter: this follows the resignation of the elementary school assistant principal. an attorney for abigail zwerner said her client will file a lawsuit saying the school ignored multiple warnings the day of the shooting that the student had a gun. >> did administrators call the police? no. did administrators lock down the school?

no. did the administrators evacuate the building? no. did they confront the student? no. >> reporter: her attorney laying out a timeline of the day. just after 11:00, she told an administrator the first grader threatened to beat up the student. at 12:30 according to the attorney another teacher reported she searched the boy's book bag looking for a gun and believed he may have put it in the pocket to recess. >> down played the report from the teacher and the possibility of a gun saying and i quote well he has little pockets. >> reporter: shortly after 1:00 the attorney said a teacher reported a student said the 6-year-old showed him the gun and threatened to use it. a fourth employee asked to search the boy. she was shot roughly an hour later. but still managed to escort

about 20 students to safety. the superintendent did acknowledge at least one administrator was notified of a possible weapon. >> we have been talking that something doesn't add up here. think about the poor teacher. thank god she survived being shot. the first graders that watched the teacher get shot. can it be true especially in this day and age when the antenna are up about school shootings that there's multiple warnings that a kid had a gun in the school, flashed it to another kid, the kid reports it to the teachers and no one did anything about this? >> there's so many questions here. obviously the administration of the school district is reeling from the reality of what happened. i think what was foremost if i had to guess or die was there's

no way a 6-year-old has a gun and that's the reality that we have in this country right now that's probably the scareiest of all of the things we learn about this. everything is bad about it. what they didn't do. that there wasn't a more aggressive approach. everybody in denial that we could get to the point that 6-year-olds have weapons in school. that's -- we worship at the altar of guns in the united states of america and we can do something about it if we want to. we have mass shootings and it's another five or six killed somewhere. all of this stuff we can do something about it with the political will to do it. so far the voters of this country did not say enough. let's hope that day is coming. >> there's that question on the front end how did the 6-year-old

get a gun? on the other end that could be true first time. no way a 6-year-old has a gun. but a teacher texting a friend. was that teacher right? >> yeah. conversation earlier this week on the show about how more and more disputes are being solved by guns. people don't fight with fists anymore. the prevalence of guns in the country is out of control. it is an epidemic. it is the top of the hour of third hour of "morning joe." joe is on work assignment. the u.s. will send a fleet of tanks to ukraine. meanwhile russia is unleashing a new round of attacks on ukraine

today including missile strikes on kyiv. raf sanchez has the latest. >> reporter: this morning vladimir putin sending a message with a wave of strikes across ukraine. russian missiles and drones. at least one person killed in the capital. the attack hours after president biden reversed course and announced to give 31 abrams tanks to ukraine. >> enhance ukraine's capacity to defend the territory achieving the objectives. the tanks are the most capable in the world. >> reporter: the kremlin responding these tanks will burn down just like the other ones. armed with 120 millimeter cannon it is the iron fist of the u.s. military but difficult to maintain and could be months

before it reaches the battlefield. president zelenskyy saying a sense of relief after the weapons are being used by the army. he met with the u.n. top official for refugees. we caught up with him. >> every time is as painful and frustrating and as horrible as the first time. >> reporter: nearly a year into the war 8 million ukrainians are refugees outside the country. among them inside is irina who depends on aid to care for her son. the 9-month-old born just after the war. it's impossible to buy anything here she says.

people left with almost nothing share in what little they have. >> joining us now the british ambassador to the united states. karen pierce. thank you so much for being with us. >> thank you. >> looking at the uk and led in the shift in military support from western allies, can you share what is at stake in making a decision like this? what had to be considered? >> thank you. good morning. it is an important decision. it is obviously a very serious one as you say and we heard the president yesterday saying this was important for strategic objectives. standing shoulder to shoulder with ukraine. we endorse that. i'm sure that germany and other allies do. the war in ukraine reached a certain stage where ukraine needs more military capability

in order to push the russians back and defend the ukrainian people and ukrainian territory. we saw the awful pictures. you can see how indiscriminately president putin's forces attack citizens and infrastructure. excuse me. and so we all came to the conclusion and ukraine asked that sending tanks was a proportionate and a calibrated response to that indiscriminate aggression from the russians. >> that aggression is happening now, like right at this moment. i know the tanks will take months. so what about during this gap? >> we are continuing to supply ukraine with ammunition, with western ammunition. we are continuing to train ukrainian forces. some tanks will get there

relatively quickly. we continue to help with support. fundamentally this is about building up ukrainian capability. but i would just like to pause on what you said. these attacks from the russians, they could be war crimes. attacks on civilians and infrastructure indiscriminately can amount to war crimes. we want to pursue that issue and every russian commander taking part in them will at some point be held accountable. i want to stress that. >> ambassador, we are obviously in awe of what the european community has done to welcome ukrainians who fled from the war zone but we're beginning to see cracks in the support for ukraine among one of the political parties, namely the republican party. are you seeing the same

political reality in the uk with some people wanting us to pull back from the very important commitment? >> support for ukraine in the uk is absolutely solid. it is a bipartisan issue. british people welcomed the refugees into the homes. there's a lot of support of sending the challenger tanks. support for the government to stand shoulder to shoulder with ukraine. i think here in america what i see is the vast majority of members of both parties including on the hill want to continue to support ukraine, want to help ukrainian defend herself, defend her people and start pushing the russians out. >> good morning. jonathan lemire. we heard about the importance to keep europe and the alliance

united but there was some tension over the tanks. poland suggested they would act on their own and send some. that could have been a flashpoint. we have been talking about how it's a long haul commitment in the war. what is the level of concern keeping europe together united as the economic toll of the conflict increases? >> i think one of the remarkable things about the ukraine conflict is how united the nato alliance and europe have been. in the face of some pro case and taunts from president putin. each ally has a decision making procedures. also no surprise in democracies that some of that is conducted in full view of the press and the public. you have seen the decisions that

we have taken recently the alliance is absolutely solid behind ukraine. we are not going to give up. we are as president biden said yesterday carry on standing shoulder to shoulder with ukraine as long as it takes. >> british ambassador to the united states, karen pierce, thank you. on tomorrow's show joe will be reporting live from the auschwitz concentration camp in honor of international holocaust remembrance day. the rise of authoritarianism across the globe and the increase in anti-semitism around the world there's never been a more important time to never forget. as part of the coverage he'll have an exclusive interview with second gentleman douglas emhoff who is retracing the family

roots there. full report live from auschwitz tomorrow with joe. willie? >> looking forward to that. this morning following the revelations that president biden and mike pence storing classified documents at the home and donald trump at the beach club there's questions if others took sensitive information. according to two people familiar with the matter "the washington post" is reporting that the national archives is asking them to review. they take and reviews the millions of papers when the president leaves the office. following the news about pence's dockmenteds the week the offices of former presidents george w. bush, bill clinton and barack

obama reported on their compliance. joining us is congressman torres of new york. you are announcing new legislation to introduce about defending classified secrets. it is the law to hand over the documents. what does your legislation do to strengthen that? >> it is an honor to be with you. the problem of mishandling information is clearly more common than we think. as a rank and file authority you have to manage the information because you could face severe consequences like termination or criminal prosecution. as a senior official, there is no comparable incentive to handle the classified information. it is a dynamic to change within

the federal government and introducing an act to require federal officials with security clearance to certify that there are no classified documents in their possession creating an obligation to tell the truth under oath creates an incentive. >> this is a reaction to the last couple of weeks including from president biden. most people say it's the law that the president or vice president has to not leave and take documents home with them. why did you see a need to certify that? >> the media coverage has largely been focused on individuals but there's a need to examine the system for

classifying documents. we should examine to what extent have documents been over-classified? the more we classify documents the greater the risk of misclassification. i'm concerned that the system has morphed into a monstrosity that continues to lead to the mishandling of classified information. >> this is a point you have been making that this is all important stuff and not take it home to the garage next to the corvette but the idea of classification might be a problem. >> yeah. there's no question that the congressman is hitting on something that i know to be true. there's overclassification. i can't tell you how many timings i had to give up the apple watch, phone, walk into a skiff to look at a document and go i read this in the paper yesterday. so i do think he's tackling this

problem in the right way to look at the whole system. are they overclassifying to be on the safe side. what can you do to declassify quickly? of course the schedules of the president are classified before the trip. after the strip over everybody knows where they've been. why would that remain classified? the congressman is on the right track. i would love to ask you a question about your colleague. i know i'm jumping a segment. george santos. you have been outspoken and like you to comment on the fact that he gets a vote as to who -- he is a guy and talking about classified information that he could be privy to. he gets a vote on whether or not a member of congress gets to sit on a committee?

could you expound on that and talk about what level of buffoonery is this? >> i wish i could explain it to you. it's height of hypocrisy for kevin mccarthy to remove adam schiff and congressman swalwell while appointing a fraud like george santos. on a committee. it's a perversion of the institution and george santos is going to sit on the small business committee which happens to oversee the ppp program. and a fraud like santos cannot be trusted to root out fraud in the ppp business. he has no business being in congress let alone sitting on a committee. >> there are new questions this morning about financial records for republican congressman santos. the campaign and several

committees filing statements saying that the treasurer was changing. the documents list thomas detwiler as the replacement. the problem? a lawyer for detwiler said he did not agree to the changes. meanwhile congressman santos continues to delay answering questions about the many accusations against him. a gaggle of journalists outside his office and santos has taken to buying food for them like in this tweet showing a chik-fil-a. despite the frequent meetings with reporters he did not provide an update including on the claim to be a target of an assassination attempt. >> no remarks for you guys right now. as i said earlier. when there are remarks to be

made regarding anything you want we will make the remarks. i hope you patiently wait and in the interim we will be in touch. >> regarding the assassination remarks, did you file any police report? >> that's up to you guys to investigate. you do a good job to investigate everything. >> i don't even -- congressman? this is really -- this is hard to comprehend that this guy has a vote in congress and a sitting seat in congress. is there any up date on your ethics conversation? any way to get him out of there? >> we keep discovering that the lying of george santos has no

limit. there is a fraud leapt signature of a treasurer. he admitted that the loan to the campaign came from a third party which is a blatant violation of campaign finance law. all but admitted to breaking campaign finance law and the oversight chairman said if he broke campaign finance law he should be removed. house republicans insist on protecting him. >> good morning. jonathan lemire. in recent days a number of shall we say radical members of the republican party elevated to prominent posts on committees. marjory taylor greens of the world got new power in this congress and advocated playing politics with the debt ceiling.

treasury bought the congress sometime. we know what the consequences will be catastrophic. what is your level of concern? >> look. i have real concerns that the far right of the republican party with arsons intent to burn down the full faith of the united states. fiscal conservatism is honoring the obligations. it would be profoundly unpatriotic and un-american to do damage to the full faith and credit of the united states. why would we want to do harm to our own country? >> democratic congressman torres, thank you. how concerned should we be about the debt ceiling right now?

will it figure it out before june? >> i would never really worried when i served because there were adults in the room. but things have changed. you began to get a sense of who is really in control. and you look at how they are dominating the republican committee on important committees, the extreme faction. it sounds like when you say raise the debt ceiling you are like raising the level of credit on the credit card to spend more. this is just like if you are a car payment and you have made payments for three years and skip the third year and don't make the payment. this debt was run up in trump's administration and the things that they voted for. i talked to enough people on capitol hill. there's worry about the pain

america will feel here and the international standing if these guys have their way. >> close to the cliff could rattle the economy and the market. talking about going over into defaulting. when president biden was vice president and avoid the default and he and the senior staff said it's different not sure to bargain and deal with the republicans on the other side. there's a sense as clandestine as that was that it will be a point that's less certain and why already four and a half, five months from the deadline they push forward to talk to mainstream republicans in congress to say we need to avoid this. >> here's the problem. if they want to cut spending as part of this deal then why aren't they putting out what

they want to cut? this feels like repeal and replace. replace is hiding in the closet some place. they still haven't found replace. this feels the same. if the guys are serious about this and want it to be leverages to reduce spending show us what you want to reduce. >> the debt and deficit hawks found the hawkish again. you have to get mentally prepared for the game on sunday. >> it's a three-day process. >> good luck. >> we'll find out. >> thank you. good to see you. good luck on sunday. this morning following the murder trial for a prominent south carolina attorney which is now under way with the prosecution and defense delivering opening statements yesterday. murdaugh is accusing of killing

his wife and son in 2021. >> now proceed to opening statements. >> reporter: the legal show down in the murder trial -- >> pow pow. two shots. abdomen and the leg and took her down. >> reporter: arguing two very different versions of the same story. >> he didn't do it. he didn't kill and butcher his wife and son. >> reporter: opening statements to a jury of eight women and four men to spend weeks following the evidence. >> shot close rake and didn't have defensive rounds. >> reporter: they say it proves murdaugh's guilt. maggie killed by a weapon owned by the family and a video captured at the murder scene puts alex at the scene

contradicting the alibi. >> he was there minutes before with maggie and paul minutes before their cell phones go silent forever and ever. >> reporter: but the defense argues there's no forensic evidence to tie murdaugh to the murders. >> you would be covered in blood from head to foot. >> reporter: the defense argues a video taken in the evening shows paul and alex enjoying time together and that police pinned alex as a suspect before investigating, suggesting the crime may have been the work of two people because two different weapons have been used. >> they have ignored some witnesses. >> nbc's catie beck with a

report. still ahead on "morning joe," a look at facebook's rational for inviting former president trump back on the platform despite the lack of remoirs over the january 6 capitol attack. the creator of "friday night lights" has a new docuseries. peter berg joins us for his new series. you're watching "morning joe." the virus that causes shingles is sleeping... in 99% of people over 50. it's lying dormant, waiting... and could reactivate. shingles strikes as a painful, blistering rash that can last for weeks.

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suspended if the platforms for posts about the january 6 insurrection. meta says the accounts will be reactivated with new guardrails in place after determining the risk sufficiently receded. there's a statement stating that the guardrails are heightened penalties for repeated offenses. he also spoke to nbc's hallie jackson yesterday. >> so i'm not saying everything is perfect. no one is. if you compare it to the circumstances which led to the original suspension we think the risk to public safety has materially and significantly receded. but that is also the reason why we are introducing those

additional guardrails to discourage him from breaking the rules going forward if he chooses to use facebook and instagram again. >> trump responded to the decision by posting on his own social media platform and mocking facebook for losing value recently. joining us is mara gay and george con way. good morning to you both. mara, appreciate the confidence that the threat receded. there's not a lot of evidence of that. >> i guess there's no threat to democracy. we can go home now. yeah. the threat has passed. it's disturbing because it really makes you kind of wonder whether there this approach was thoughtful or simply reactive

wanting to get back in the social media business of someone with relevance in american society posting on the platform and ultimately the social media platforms are not held to the same standards that news organizations are and that's the central conflict and tension. i don't think that has gone away. i continue to believe -- i have concerns about that. donald trump's reaction is to mock them. the threat hasn't gone away. donald trump has not been held accountable yet. we continue to see political violence unfold so i think they have the hands full. >> it remains to be seen if the president will accept the invitation back. he's been invited back to

twitter. of course we know now thanks to the reporting that facebook in particular was a gathering place before the 6th. >> yeah. it is absolutely mystifying decision on their part. i think they think the fire is out. with matches and gasoline with him let's just let him play with matches again. it is ridiculous. if you look at what he says day in, day out on his truth social website he is worse than he was. he's lost touch with reality. he always had little touch. he is worse today. he is just -- not going to work out very well. an election denier georgia

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welcome back. donald trump's 2024 presidential campaign is still in its early stages but one of the top allies in congress is already reportedly angling to be his running mate. congresswoman marjory taylor greene said to have the sights set on becoming trump's pick for vice president. former trump adviser steve bannon said greene sees herself on the short list for trump's vp. a second source said the vision is to be vice president. the source added that the ambitions are at the heart of an effort to rebrand herself as a

politician to work with republican hardliners and the establishment wing. could explain why she was so heavily involved in the push to get kevin mccarthy to be speaker of the house. greene's spokesperson said the congresswoman is laser focused on serving the people of the northwest virginia a ten committee work is a top priority and not 2024 rumors. you know what? anything is possible in the age of trump and to kind of reference back to the previous conversation where the social media companies have no accountability and nick clegg can decide whether or not the democracy is safe from criminals to rise to power and then abuse

the constitution and the democracy and promote insurrections and riots. that's where we are and greene i will put the marker down and say this is a potential reality unless people get the heads on straight. >> yeah. in a way she is perfect. trump-greene '24. every crack in every pot. the sociopath party. she absolutely would play to his worst instincts and play to the worst elements of the republican base. i think that will turn off the center of the electorate but i don't think she -- it is serious to get this because trump cannot take someone as a vice president who's going to potentially upstage him. mike pence was perfect for him.

such of a cipher. he would basically nod and do whatever trump -- agree with whatever trump said until one day on january 6 and could have been prevented if we had a vice president with a spine that conceded the election long before then. i don't think it's a realistic possibility but the fact to talk about it is horrific. >> who knows if this will happen? would you put it past donald trump? let's look at this from the other side. as the biden campaign you say we like this ticket. this would be great. to broaden the electorate and win back the suburban women i don't know that this is the way to do it. >> appointed to the top

committees in the house they were high fiving each other because she can be painted as the congress that's radical, out there. that would be quadrupled put on donald trump's ticket as the vice president. it is mission accomplished for her. the more she is talked about the more celebrity she is and the more fund raising she can do. she is there as someone with weight and seems unlikely to be a vp pick but georgia looms large on the electoral college map in 2024. i'm amused on how the aids put out the idea that she can be the bridge. coming up, ibm is latest

company to announce sweeping job cuts amid worries of an economic downturn. we'll check in with suze orman for best advice how to weather challenging times. that is next on "morning joe."

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is the u.s. headed for a recession? it is the top question on many americans' minds. our next guest says we have reason to be concerned but there are several smart money moves we can be making now to set ourselves up for financial success and shield us for whatever the economy has in store. joining us is personal finance expert suze orman, host of

"women and money" in addition to "the ultimate retirement guide for 50 plus" and joining us is editor of force women maggie mcgrath and huma abadeen. i learned from you. with your straight talk and the example of what success looks like for women over 50. you didn't get the first tv show until your 50s. still working decades later and a most influential financial adviser in the country. did you ever imagine your career over 50 when you were in your 20s? did you imagine it flourishing so? >> no. you have to remember i was a waitress at the buttercup bakery in california for seven years from 23 to 30 making $400 a

month. >> wow. >> so what's really important for everybody to understand is that the only thing that limits you -- this is what i believe in life -- is your own vision of just thinking you can't do it. it will never happen to you. i took one step at a time and look at what stepped into. something absolutely amazing. >> i love the story and the coverage. i think you have seen the study but force women covered in november finding 68% expect a recession this year. afraid of a recession. the respondents are saving money, paying down debt. what are the other things women and particularly women over 50 can do to prepare for a looming recession? >> it is not just a recession. it is really now over 50,

getting older. will you continue to work into the 70s? what is the plan? given the state of the economy truthfully for money that you want safe and sound why not simply buy 3-month or 6-month treasury bills? paying 4.8%. i would not go out further because i do think interest rates will continue to go up. but why not just do something that simple? if you don't want to risk money in the stock market, i would be careful especially if a recession is coming. t-bills i think are the answers. >> suze, we have talked a lot about women over 50 but huma ab. we've talked about women over 50, but what about younger women who may not have a lot saved up? how do they prepare or plan for their future, especially if they are facing a potential recession? >> sometimes i want's easy to say what you should do, but sometimes it's even better to

say what you should not do. so for those who are younger, if you need money, do not take loans from your 401(k). if you happen to have equity in your home, which most people do, this is not the time to take out a home equity line of credit. if i were younger and i was thinking about buying a home, unless i had a serious down payment and a secure job, i probably would wait for a little bit before i purchased a home. and of course you always want an 8 to 12 month emergency savings plan and you don't want credit card debt. so it's really important. but what's also important is continue to invest in your retirement accounts, and i am a total advocate of a roth 401(k), a roth 403(b), a roth i.r.a. if you have the ability to do to a roth, do it. ten times over a tax-deductible

retirement account. >> suzy orman has advice for all generations. speaking of, we'll be bringing together generations of women at the forbes and know your value 50 over 50 lists and the forbes 30 under 30 list are all coming to our 30/50 summit in aboo da bee where we'll hear from hillary clinton, gloria steinem, malala, aisha curry and many more. maggie, talk about this cross generational conversation, why it's so important. >> better ideas come from intergenerational conversations. more innovative solutions come from intergeneintergenerational. i've found this. firms that take women from gen-z, gen-x, their investments are stronger, their ideas are better. that's one firm i found.

imagine what we can see across hundreds of women at this summit. >> huma, you have news. we already have a ridiculously remarkable lineup. great headliners. but we've got more speakers to be announced. who's coming? >> well, today we're excited to announce a local young woman, a 22-year-old, amna al qubaisi. she is the first arab woman to participate internationally in a race. she was the first arab woman to participate in an fe electric car race in saudi arabia, frankly just months after the ban on women driving was lifted. >> wow. >> mika, i grew up in that part of the world. here is this young woman who's gone into an industry that is a highly dominated male industry, and she's done it with real grit and tenacity and a sense of both, you know, family support, her community support, but i think she is a young woman who

we have a lot to learn from and hear from, and i think she's going do a lot of incredible things in the future as well. >> huma, maggie, and suzy, the 30/50 summit is six weeks away. we can't wait to create these cross generational, cross-cultural alliances and give guidance and insight to women at every stage of their career. we're also offering diverse perspectives and also rich cultural immersion. to register today and take part in this life-changing experience, head over to forbes.com and knowyourvalue.com. huma and maggie, you know who i want to invite? suzy orman. suzy, we're calling you. >> i can come next year. let's do it again next year. >> you promise? we have one next year. done. >> if you have one next year, health permitting, i will be there. >> it's every year international women's day in abu dhabi.

checking off our first booking for next year. thank you very much. coming up, american tanks are heading to ukraine. nbc's richard engel has been covering the conflict from the start and joins us to break down this major development in that country's war with russia.

welcome back to "morning joe." it's a little before 6:00 a.m. on the west coast. time to wake up, everybody. 9:00 a.m. on the east coast. we've already got hours under our belts. we've got a lot to get to this hour, including breaking economic news that the u.s., gross domestic product rose at a slightly higher rate than economists had expected. cnbc's andrew ross sorkin and msnbc's stephanie ruhle will

join us in a moment to break down the latest number and what it means for the economy. also ahead, we'll have the latest on the five memphis police officers who were fired accused of violating department policies in a traffic stop that led to the death of tyre nicholls. and later this hour, acclaimed "friday night lights" director peter berg joins us to discuss his new project, "boys in blue." we start in ukraine, where missile strikes have been reported in multiple locations. ukraine's commander in chief says russia has launched 55 air and sea-based missiles into ukraine in a massive attack, striking close to the central city and near the port city of odesa, taking out two critical energy infrastructure facilities. meanwhile, one missile struck a suburb of kyiv. the city's mayor, vitali

klitschko, posting on social media that the strike killed one person and injured two others. this barrage comes less than a day after both germany and the u.s. announced they will each be sending tanks to ukraine for the country to use in its defense against russia's invasion. willie? >> joining us for more, nbc news chief foreign correspondent richard engel and former u.s. ambassador to russia, michael mcfaul, director of the institute for international studies at stanford and an nbc news international affairs analyst. good morning to the you both, guys. ambassador, i'll start with you. what is the significance of this move, 31 abrams tanks coming from the united states? it will take time for them to get there, but symbolically first and practically when they get on the ground. >> well, i've been advocating for tanks for ukraine for several months, so i think it's a great decision. i applaud the decision. of course it should have been made earlier and of course there should be more tanks announced than was done, but it's a major turning point not so much for

the abrams, the tanks the united states will send, it will take a long time for them to get there, but that this now opens the doors for european countries first and foremost the germans to send their leopard tanks that they make and hopefully many, many other countries will now send the leopard tanks in time for them to be used in a spring counteroffensive that the ukrainians are planning. >> so, richard, you've been on the ground for almost a year now covering this war in ukraine. how big a deal is this for these tanks to come in not just from the united states but as the ambassador said, germany and the uk as well? >>. >> reporter: from a military point of view it's a big deal because it will give the ukrainians much more mobility in this fight, which is something they need. they've gotten locked into this world war i-style trench warfare with the ukrainians firing fixed artillery and the russians firing fixed artillery.

and like in world what 1, you can see the battles, you can see the battlefields. there's a tremendous amount of damage. there are a large number of casualties. but they don't advance very often. you go to the front line, the front line, you go a week later, it's often pretty much in the same place. so, having more tanks, which are more or less artillery on wheels, the ukrainians will be able to find new places to launch offenses, come around the russians, and have a lot more tactical mobility. it also gives the ukrainian people a huge moral boost, because for the last several months, as the war has kind of locked into a stalemate, which the ukrainians hope to break with this new influx of mobile weapons, the ukrainians have been watching what's happening in europe, watching what's been happening in germany, and from ukraine's perspective, it seemed like the west, particularly far away from the border, is losing interest in the war and that

over time that russia could have an advantage if people in germany and other western european countries start to shrug their shoulders and say, who needs to have this fight, let's just allow vladimir putin to take a piece or even all of ukraine. so this gives them a lot of encouragement as well that the west is still in it and is putting more skin in the game. >> ambassador mcfaul, jonathan lemire. you noted the leopard tanks could be decisive, certainly important in the expected spring offensive, which russia anticipates mounting in the weeks ahead. but the many abrams, which might be many months or a year before being deployed on the battlefield, it's sort of a nod u.s. officials told me yesterday this war has no end in sight. this will be with us for a long time. how do you see the course of this going forward? do you share the concerns just voiced that other countries in the west will start to lose

interest? is there anything that you think could bring these two sides to the negotiating table? or do you think president zelenskyy sticks with his stated goal of pushing russia out from every inch of his country, maybe even crimea? >> i'd say two things. the abrams were given so that the german tanks and everybody else could get their leopards. that's very clear. it will take a long time to get there. jet fuel, maintenance issues we've been talking about for weeks and weeks, those are all true. but i also think if it's going to be a long war -- and remember, after the war, ukraine still needs to deter russia from future wars, so i think this is a positive sign that they're finally flipping over to get on an american platform, the abrams, instead of their old soviet-made tanks. and i think that about aircraft too. i think we're going to have a debate about f-16s soon, and my idea is always do it faster because it's going to take a long time to deploy it, better

take that first step now. second, jonathan, to your point, i don't know the answer to your question, and i don't believe anybody that pretends that they know the answer to that question. it feels like a stalemate. it feels like we could be here for a year from now saying the same things, as richard just said, but that's exactly what we were saying six months ago before the incredibly successful counteroffensives that ukraine did. remember to 2022, the ukrainians have taken back over 50% of the territory that the russians once captured. so i'm not prepared to say there's no chance and there will be a stalemate. that said, it's not about what zelenskyy is going to do. i think if there was a deal to be done, he's ready to negotiate. the problem is putin. putin thinks that if he guts it out, if he waits, we'll lose interest, "morning joe" will stop talking about ukraine, we'll start talking more about

our 2024 presidential elections, and then when we lose interest and stop supporting the ukrainians, time will be on his side. if he begins to lose, however, that's when i think there could be a negotiated settlement. if he thinks he'll lose crimea, for instance, that's when he starts calling european prime ministers and presidents and saying we have to do a deal. the main character here, though, is putin, whether there's going on a negotiation, not zelenskyy. >> so, richard engle, this is the first time the ambassador actually -- the first time i've heard the name putin in this entire coverage of the tank story, because it seems that while the, you know, nato allies and countries are coming together on delivering the tanks to ukraine, there doesn't seem to be as much concern, i don't know if i'm overstating it, about putin's response. have we heard what his response is to this news?

>> reporter: we've heard the russian response, and the russians have expressed outrage, expressed condemnation. they said that this is direct western military involvement in the war in ukraine. some officials have suggested that the united states is crossing a red line. and i do think we're very likely going to hear and potentially see some escalatory steps from russia. in the past, when putin has been particularly angry, what he's done is start to talk about nuclear weapons, he starts to rattle the nuclear sword. we will see if he does that again. it certainly gets the world's attention. it is something that the russians can do and can do cheaply. they have nuclear weapons. they just start talking about them or using inflammatory language. the russians were doing that for a while in the last several months. they've dialed that back in what seems to be a deliberate campaign according to a senior u.s. intelligence official.

they believe it was a deliberate start ji for vladimir putin to stop talking about his nuclear arsenal. we'll see if he ratchets that up again. going back to mr. mcfaul, vladimir putin had to call up reserves and had to use mercenary groups, the wagner group, and send them into combat. so drawing up reserves from the civilian population, a very, very unpopular move that saw lots of young men fleeing the country to other parts of europe where many of them are not receiving a very warm welcome, and then using mercenaries that are recited from the prisons to fight. so now if there are more tanks in the battle, and you have another roundup of reservists and widen the draft, that will put pressure on putin certainly. so we'll see how he reacts in public and if he starts to talk about nuclear weapons more and make some sort of threatening

gesture. >> richard engel and former u.s. ambassador to russia, michael mcfaul, thanks for being on this morning. by the way on tomorrow's show, joe will be reporting live if the site of what was the concentration camp auschwitz in honor of international holocaust remembrance day, which holds particular significance this year amid all the russian atrocities against the innocent civilians of ukraine. also the rise of authoritarianism across the globe and the increase of anti-semitism around the world. as part of the coverage, he'll have an exclusive interview from poland with the second gentleman, douglas emhoff, who's tracing his own roots there, and will be there for the remembrance. willie? >> one of the most profoundly moving places in the world. joe will be there for us tomorrow. >> yeah. speaking of russia, four spectators were kicked out of the australian open yesterday for displaying russian flags, which had been banned from melbourne park, also for

threatening security guards. tennis australia said the flags, including an image of vladimir putin, were being waved outside of djokovic's quarterfinals. the olympic committee said russian athletes should be allowed to compete at the 2024 games in paris next summer. in a statement following a meeting of its executive board, the organization said, "no athlete should be prevented from competing just because of their passport. a pathway for athletes' participation under strict conditions should be further explored." that comes one day after ukrainian president zelenskyy called for the exclusion of russian athletes at the paris olympics. back at home, a new economic report out just moments ago shows the u.s. economy finished 2022 in better shape than expected. the xers department reporting fourth quarter gdp rose at a

higher rate than economists had predicted. let's bring in the co-anchor of cnbc's "squawk box," andrew ross sorkin, and host of "the 11th hour" on msnbc, stephanie ruhle. andrew, 2.9% growth in the fourth quarter. put that in perspective for us. >> look, i think it's better than just about everybody expects, better than the cbo thought, a lot of it comes from the consumer. the consumer has remained remarkably strong. we also by the way saw some interesting job and jobless claims numbers this morning. what's very interesting about that is when you start to think about spending and the fact that the consumer is holding this up, what happens to unemployment over time? and one of the things we're hearing now from especially the bank ceos is a lot of folks have cash. the question is how long are they going to have that cash, especially those who have who lost their job. a lot of people in the white

collar space who lost their job are getting severance, and are they continuing to spend that severance. so things are looking strong, however, from the folks i've been talking to, folks think that come june, july, things are going to be more complicated. >> steph, we say better than expected. the expectation was 2.8%, and this was 2.9%, so a little better than expected but seeing growth. does this do anything for what you're hearing from people in business, people on wall street, projections for a possible recession this year, about where we're headed? >> all of those people are looking towards the fed. what has the federal reserve been doing over the last year? raising rates. and they're doing it because they want to slow the economy. but with the economy steadily growing the way it is, as andrew pointed out, the concern is if the next time the fed meets they raise rates again, they could potentially slide us closer to a recession because, as rates go

up, it becomes more expene ive to borrow, more expensive for businesses to operate. we're in a very good place thanks to the policies that have been put in place over the last year, so we're hoping for a soft landing. but if the fed keeps raising, we could end up with a hard landing, which would, in fact, send us into recession. it's a very difficult position that the fed is in. >> andrew, more numbers coming in to us. the tesla annual earnings. there's been so much talk about elon musk and twitter and what he's doing to bring down his other core businesses, yet tesla reporting record revenue last year. >> and it looks like things will continue apace. i listened during the conference call last night, and musk was uniquely positive. and there have been some tough calls that he's had before where they've been combative and other things like that. this was not that. this was somebody who seemed to be projecting some real

strength. the other piece of it is they lowered their prices, and they've been able to do that at a time, frankly, a lot of other competitors haven't. you argue that the margin will come down, and that is true, but it's allowed them to actually continue to sell a lot of cars. so, you know, there have been lots of questions long term about the valuation of the company and therefore what happens, by the way, to twitter and the like and everything else. but this has been a morning that a lot of folks in tesla land have been very happy about. >> so, stephanie, donald trump allowed back on meta platforms. it seems to me this is purely a business decision, except we heard that he feels the danger has subsided. your thoughts. >> i don't know. nick clay's message sort of sounded like, yep, we know donald trump is a big, fat liar, but he has a lot less influence than he used to, so we'll put him back on.

remember, when donald trump goes back on facebook, what does that do? it's an extraordinary fund-raising machine for him. that is how his campaign was so smartly able to use it and crank out so much dough for themselves. remember, if he wants to run in 2024, and facebook is looking for ways to get creative in their business, because be honest, as far as new users are going, they're getting their clocks cleaned by tiktok. so facebook is looking to say, yep, this is for democracy. we're going to put donald trump back on. it will drum up a lot of energy and focus and hopefully for them a lot of ad dollars. make no mistake talking about content moderation, maybe it's the right thing to do, the almighty dollar is why both sides have come to this. >> that is their moral compass. stephanie ruhle, thank you very much. we'll watch "the 11th hour" weeknights on msnbc. andrew ross sorkin, thank you. we appreciate you both. coming up on "morning joe,"

amid a divided government in the house and a near stalemate on the debt ceiling, how do lawmakers intend to reach common ground? we'll ask the co-chairs of the house problem solvers caucus about a possible path forward. also ahead, an asteroid close encounter. we'll tell you what nasa is saying about the rock that will fly by earth tonight. shingles. some describe it as an intense burning sensation or an unbearable itch. this painful, blistering rash can disrupt your life for weeks. it could make your workday feel impossible. the virus that causes shingles is likely already inside of you. if you're 50 years or older, ask your doctor or pharmacist about shingles. my mental health was much better,

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21 past the hour. footage of the attack on former house speaker nancy pelosi's husband, paul pelosi, could be released to the public as soon as today. a san francisco superior court judge yesterday denied a request by prosecutors to keep the video sealed and asked the clerk's office to distribute the video to the media. paul pelosi was at the couple's home in san francisco in october when police say a man broke in

and beat him with a hammer. ibm is joining several other big tech companies in laying off thousands of workers. the company is cutting 3,900 jobs. that's about 1.5% of its global workforce. ibm says the move is related to the recent spin-off and sale of two business units that will cost the company $300 million this quarter. microsoft, amazon, and google's parent company, alphabet, also recently announced layoffs. and an asteroid the size of a delivery truck will pass by earth tonight. nasa says this will be a near miss and that there's no chance the space rock will hit the planet. the asteroid will soar 2,200 miles above the southern tip of south america. that's ten times closer than the communications satellites circling in space. if the asteroid were to come closer, scientists say most of it would burn up in the

atmosphere. so we're okay, willie. >> most of it it would. this time we're okay. sleep well tonight, america. meanwhile, making special delivery on the college basketball court in pittsburgh interrupted last night's game between duquesne and loyola of chicago. check this out. >> loyola takeover ten minutes before we get a stoppage. we have an official's time-out. somebody came on the floor. on the far side. looking for an uber eats delivery? he's carrying mcdonald's. the man was ushered -- let's see if we can see this. >> there he is in the corner! >> who is he delivering it to? >> the ref. the ref said later, give it to me later, not now. >> i didn't think he needed a big mac for sustenance. >> that's an uber eats guy on the floor during a college basketball game. just two minutes into the second half, play was stopped when the

delivery driver wandered onto the court with a bag of food and drink from mcdonald's. according to the "pittsburgh post-gazette," somebody ordered the food. it made it to the intended recipient. the game continued with the home standing dukes of duquesne defeating loyola 72-58. john, the duquesne head coach said guy had a job to do, he did it well, tip your cap to him. some questions. >> many questions. >> so, the guy got into the arena with the mcdonald's without a ticket, i guess they let you in if you're delivering the food or something? i'm not saying it's not real but -- that close to the action. >> there are some questions being raised this morning. perhaps a little stunt. there are some arenas you can order uber from within the arena. >> inside. >> but usually you have to go get it. also, i'm surprised they would let him in the arena without a ticket. but this is a good moment to tell you i've ordered mcdonald's

for us. the guy is coming on set while we're live. >> same guy. he's going to wander in. big mac meal, number one? >> big mac, fries. >> that's what i would have done. >> sounds delicious. to capitol capitol hill, where they might need to order in because there is little movement on the debt ceiling. chuck schumer is telling house republicans to lay their cards on the table. >> speaker mccarthy, what about you? the house gop is threatening spending cuts. well, what are they? why the evasion? why is your conference hiding from the american people? house republicans, where are your cards? >> joining us now, co-chairs of the house problem solvers caucus, democratic congressman josh gottheimer of new jersey and republican congressman brian fitzpatrick of pennsylvania. i just -- i mean, brian, i'll start with you.

how do you solve this problem? >> yeah. well, thanks for having us. good to see you guys again. you know, obviously we have two simultaneous issues right now. one is the risk of default. we cannot let that happen under any circumstances. and second is, you know, the fact that our debt to gdp is exceeding 100%, which threatens to devalue our currency. both of those things are bad. so i think we ought to solve both of them. we have a lot of work to do. we're already starting on it. we have to take a look at the debt ceiling law itself, which i believe dates back to 1917, perhaps changing it from an absolute dollar amount to a debt to gdp ratio and having certain spending caps on discretionary spending. but this is all part of the negotiation. we just got sworn in and we're hard at work. we'll get there. we'll find a solution. >> so, i guess the same question for representative gottheimer, but, i mean, isn't the problem

not you? this sounds like a good start, but aren't there fairly extreme members of one party that are going to keep anything productive from happening to happen? >> well, i think our response, and we have a deep responsibility, is to not default, and to make sure that the full faith and credit of the united states is not held hostage by extremists and those who believe it's okay to literally take down america's credit in the world. so we know that that can't happen. we can't let that happen. it's why many of us are sitting down in the problem solvers caucus, which we co-chair, we're having negotiations. there are things, as you know, that are nonnonnegotiable. we're not going to default. no cuts to medicare and social security. there are lines. but at the end of the day, we should be having conversation, and it's okay to have those conversations, about the long-term fiscal health of our country. those are good discussions to

have, but we can't do them in the frame of we're going to default if we can't work things out. that is not an acceptable alternative. that is not reasonable. >> congressman fitzpatrick, good morning. what do you know about potential demands by members of your party in the house about what kind of deal they want to have in order to raise the debt limit? they want cults in spending. they're deficit debt hawks again. do you know any details about what they're asking for, what would satisfy them to get them to raise the debt limit? >> everybody's got different perspectives on this. one of the purposes of our bipartisan group that josh and i lead is this is what we're made for, right. when you have a tight margin and divided chambers, tight margins in both chambers, we are here to drive solutions up and overcome the extremes on the far right and the far left. you'll have a lot of different opinions. everything will go through regular order, through committee, including my committee, the ways and means,

and second, we have our voting cards, in a tight margin, four-vote margin in the house. and we'll make sure nothing extreme gets across the finish line. we're trying to offer an alternative, have one at the ready that's a bipartisan solution that we hope to offer up soon. >> congressman gottheimer, i know your group tries to emphasize bipartisan solutions. but there's a lot of partisanship on display in the house, particularly over committee assignments where we've had not just speaker mccarthy empower some fringe members of his caucus into positions of prominence but also tried to block democrats from sitting on committees, including representatives schiff and swalwell, the intelligence committee, congressman omar from another committee as well. your reaction to this. is this an appropriate step? >> well, to your first point, right, this idea of making sure that we can govern is critically important, right, meaning that we have to, especially as he said, enforce the majority. we have to work together to get

things done for the country. that's our responsibility. we can't let a few extremists block this. it can't be all investigations and screaming and yelling. we have to get work done. it's not healthy for the institution when we attack each other, throw people off committees for their views. that is not a great way forward. but at the end of the day, we try to sit down and say where can we get things done. if you look at the last congress of how much we got done with a four-seat margin, working on infrastructure and chips and standing up to china and improving domestic manufacturing, to veterans, commonsense gun legislation, all bipartisan and working together in a four-seat majority. so we'll keep doing the work and try to put aside all the screaming and yelling and the noise and do our jobs. >> congressman brian fitzpatrick, can you chime in on this? you sit on intelligence. what do you make of those two members being kicked off and sort of the tradition of having

bipartisan representation? >> the most important thing for all of us, have one consistent rule that applies equally to all members of congress from both parties. there was a precedent set last congress which i thought was very damaging. a lot of my democratic colleagues believed it was damaging as well. to start removing people from committees absent any kind of ruling from the ethics committee or any criminal prosecution. i just want to be consistent. i think we have to turn the page on all this divisiveness and just start working together, mika. you know, i'm on the house intelligence community. i hope josh gets there. we are getting briefed on the existential threat that the chinese communist party poses to our country every single day, and they love seeing this divisiveness. they love seeing it because they know it's time we're not focusing on them. that's what we want to focus on.

>> congressman brian fitzpatrick and congressman gottheimer, thank you very much for being on the show this morning. >> thank you, mika. >> thank you. >> good to see you. >> thank you. coming up, an update on the death of tyre nicholls, who died during a confrontation at a traffic stop. reverend al sharpton will deliver the eulogy. the eulogy

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36 past the hour. the preliminary findings of an independent autopsy of 29-year-old tyre nicholls confirms he suffered from, quote, extensive bleeding before his death at a memphis hospital. nicholls was involved in what police are calling a confrontation after a traffic stop earlier this month. the five officer who is arrested him were later fired after an internal investigation. the "usa today" reports, quote, his death sparked community protests and ongoing federal civil rights investigation and calls for the officers involved to be charged. the findings come a day after nichols' family watched footage of the incident. the family's civil rights attorney says the body camera

footage shows nicholls being kicked and described it as an unadulterated beating. we have not been able to reach the officers involved. a full autopsy has not been released but the family's lawyer says more details will be disclosed. president of the action network, al sharpton. you'll be delivering the eulogy next wednesday. what questions are still left wide open this morning? the biggest one is why? why? what did they do to this kid and why? >> the big question is certainly why and the other big why question is why they have not been arrested and charged. there's no way you can justify in my judgment a beating by five police officers involved with an unarmed citizen under any circumstances. i don't know what story they'll

tell, but none of it to me could justify this kind of brutality and this kind of beating. i again raise all five officers were black and the victim was black, so clearly we have the responsibility and obligation in the civil rights community to stand up against police brutality if the brutality police involved are black or white. in this case, i think it's more important to stand up to show that we are against police brutality, not just white police brutality. >> yeah. and, rev, the family did put out a picture of tyre in the hospital. we'll show it once briefly. they released this. but clearly from -- from -- you can take that down -- from -- that is -- wow. from what they saw, from what they saw on the body cam video,

as well as the fact that the police department fired the officers right away, raises questions as to why there isn't word out that they're looking at, considering, figuring out charges. no word on charges? >> no word on charges as of yet. we know the family also met with the u.s. attorney for the national action network, working with ben crump and the lawyers, has been talking with the families. when you look at that picture, i mean, how does anyone on a traffic stop end up in that condition? i mean, i don't understand if it were the opposite, if a civilian had attacked another civilian or a police officer and they were in the hospital in that condition, they would already be arrested. they would be arrested, charged, and arraigned. so, what is the holdup? that's one of the reasons i'm joining local activists in

memphis tuesday evening and wednesday morning during the funeral at mississippi boulevard baptist church. >> i understand why they released the picture. i mean, that's somebody's baby. that is inhuman, what happened. we'll be of course waiting to hear more on what happens as the case and the investigation moves forward. and also to your eulogy at the funeral, rev. stay with us, rev, if you could. still ahead, the director of "friday night lights" is back with another football feature. this time he takes us to north minneapolis for a docuseries on a teen who is coached by cops in the aftermath of george floyd's murder. peter berg is our guest next on "morning joe." was much better, but i struggled with uncontrollable movements called td, tardive dyskinesia. td can be caused by some mental health meds. and it's unlikely to improve without treatment. i felt like my movements were in the spotlight.

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get ready to say those five little words. we're talking about... rooty tooty fresh 'n fruity yep, it's back. for a limited time. the six dollar rooty tooty fresh 'n fruity combo. 2 eggs, 2 bacon strips, and 2 fruit topped pancakes. only from ihop. most of the community, they protect that football field. that's kind of like a sanctuary, because when football games are

going on, they want to be safe. you have people getting murdered at the field or around the corner or whatever, i mean, it would literally die because no fans would want to come to the game. so the community in some aspect aspects protects their own. >> people like me and rick, they probably don't look at them like they're fathers but they're fathers to these boys. he's saving them. he's saving them some way. they'll look at life different. >> a scene from the four-part docuseries "boys in blue," the showtime series following a high school football team in north minneapolis where mostly black student-athletes are coached and men toured by members of the minneapolis police department. the series was filmed in 2021. players come of age in the aftermath of the murder of george floyd. "boys in blue" shows how the officers and students find common ground on the field, establishing a safe harbor from the violence and civil unrest of

their community. showtime partnered with paramount global to donate $300,000 to the high school, establishing a multiyear scholarship program. joining us now, acclaimed director, producer, writer, and actor pete berg. he's the director, executive producer of this series, the finale of which airs tomorrow night at 8:00 p.m. on showtime. all episodes are available to stream. pete's thanks for being with us. this is an extraordinary story that most people watching this show certainly were not aware of until you shot this doc. tell us about the high school and how this partnership came to be. >> so, a long time ago i went to college in the twin cities in st. paul, the sister city to minneapolis, and i had very fond memories of my time spent living in the twin cities. and when george floyd was murdered, i was, you know, horrified and deeply saddened and shocked by what i saw.

and i was sort of extra confused that it happened in the twin cities, where i had much different memories of -- and i had memories of them being just a very friendly, inclusive place. i used to go see prince, who was just coming up, play these late-night shows at the club, first avenue, and they were just very, very fun, happy memories. and i was just very confused by the floyd murder, and i wanted to make some kind of creative response. i didn't know what to do. and i read an article in "the new york times" about a high school program in minneapolis, minneapolis, a very good high school program that was coached by minneapolis police officers, many of whom worked with derrick shav vin. and i read this article and it seemed to me something kind of special and unique was working in this community.

i wanted to see what was up. i went out there and started meeting everyone, and we filmed an entire season. >> so, pete, as you say, the coaches were already there coaching the team before the murder of george floyd. what was it like after his murder? how did the relationship between the players and these coaches change? did it strengthen? was there skepticism between them? what did that look like? >> you know, i don't know that it changed. i think it was really strong and very -- there was just so much love in that community. i think prior to the floyd killing. we experienced that, you know, intensely while we were there. you know, one of the things that we noticed was that this community was really more than anything else just trying to live, trying to coach, kids trying to go to school, parents trying to parent. you know, it was just so unique.

this community happened to be in ground zero in this kind of firestorm that happened globally after the floyd killing. we found families, teacher, coaches just trying to live, and that proved to be very challenging, you know, for many of those folks, including the quarterback at the high school who we filmed the season, deshaun hill, who was murdered about three weeks before we stopped filming. >> oh, my gosh. >> pete, this is al sharpton. i spent some time obviously around the floyd case in minnesota. one of the things that your documentary strikes me with is it dispels -- a lot of people think that young people, particularly in the black community, are just anti-police, and that's not true. i think that a lot of people just deal with life as they can deal with it and just don't wont

to be victimized by criminals or cops. did you find these young high school students did not have this perceived anti-police, anti-law enforcement feeling and were very receptive to being coached and trained by them? >> absolutely. i would also say they weren't naive. all of the young men and everyone in that community was very aware that, yes, there are problems of policing. we were just talking about one before i came on. these are real problems. but there are many examples of where law enforcement in the communities get along quite well and the system works quite well goes to it sounds cliched and simple, but community policing. what we observed in minneapolis north was community policing at its very best. these officers live in the community. they know the families.

they coach the kids. and everyone has a very healthy relationship. and we found very, very strong bonds between cops and these kids. that's just real. it was there. we saw it. we filmed it. and it's quite real. >> it's such a great series and it breaks through a lot of the cliches and narratives about the relationship between police in their communities and a special group of kids and coaches there. the finale of the "boys in blue" airs tomorrow night at 8:00 p.m. on showtime. the entire series is available to stream. well worth your time. pete berg, thank you for being with us. >> thank you very much. coming up next, a look at some of the stories making the front pages across the country this morning. including an update on the meltdown we saw from southwest airlineses at the height of holiday travel. "morning joe" is back in a moment. y travel "morning joe" is back in a montme shingles. some describe it as an intense burning sensation

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investigation into southwest airlines. officials are looking into whether the holiday meltdown that stranded millions of travelers was caused by overscheduling flights. southwest says its schedule was, quote, thoughtfully designed. the pioneer press leads with concerns that a drop in college enrollment will hurt minnesota's economy. the minnesota state chancellor is asking lawmakers for a boost in funding saying if fewer people are earning higher education degrees, there will be fewer qualified candidates to meet the demands of appellate courts. enrollment is projected to be down nearly 4% this school year. elko daily free press says two districts are considering moving to four-day school weeks. think about that. school days would be extended with no classes on fridays.

a survey found a majority of students, staff ask parents were in favor of the move. officials say the change could help with teacher recruitment. i don't know. they need five days. that does it for us this morning. jose diaz-balart picks up the coverage after of a short break. coverage after of a short break. . and, if i'm not posting on social media, i don't feel seen. oh my god mom, you gotta look... nope. keeping my eyes on the road is paying off with drivewise. bo-ring. get drivewise from allstate and save for avoiding mayhem like me. with unitedhealthcare my sister has a whole team to help her get the most out of her medicare plan. ♪wow, uh-huh♪ advantage: me! can't wait 'til i turn 65! take advantage with an aarp medicare advantage plan... only from unitedhealthcare.

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good morning. 10:00 a.m. eastern. i'm jose diaz-balart. this morning, blackouts in