give us a snapshot on where things stand, and what does desantis need to do in iowa to, frankly, make it to new hampshire, where we know haley will be stronger? >> it's a good question. he has been keeping the donors going for a while here on this idea he can get to a one-on-one with donald trump, but i think iowa is affected at some level by new hampshire. not every voter but i mean the discussion around it certainly is. haley is so far ahead of him in new hampshire that it's something he's got to sort of make iowans not pay attention to and say, "hey, i'm your guy. i'm your trump alternative. stick with me." it seems to be working. haley peaked at a tie with desantis and has receded a few points. we'll have to see. they're close enough that it is likely that it'll come out as a split decision as to the trump alternative, which, of course, benefits only donald trump. >> only donald j. trump. busy month ahead. senior nbc news national politics reporter jonathan allen, thanks so much. and thanks to you for getting up

"way too early" on this thursday morning. "morning joe" starts right now. what is the specific constitutional crime that you're investigating? >> well, we're having an inquiry, so we can do an investigation and get the production witnesses and -- >> what is the crime you're investigating? >> -- and documents. high crimes, misdemeanors and -- >> what are you investigating? >> look, once i get time, i will explain what we're looking at. >> wow. that has the real vibe of a kid who did not prepare for the class presentation. the book was not just about mice, but it also had men. >> that clip is the house republican agenda in a nutshell. >> that was also my high school career. >> yeah. >> in a nutshell. >> he's not lying. the lower chamber is moving forward with an impeachment inquiry despite presenting no

evidence of any wrongdoing by the president. the vote came after hunter biden defied a subpoena from house republicans, challenging them to hold a public hearing for his testimony. we'll have much more from a bitter and partisan day on capitol hill. then there's this. >> if he's elected, the stock market will crash. >> that bell marks a new record high for the dow jones industrial average. going to close above 37,000 for the first time ever. >> i've got to say, willie, it's amazing that he said that, the stock market will crash. all-time record high yesterday. donald trump, at the same time, is saying joe biden has gotten us into a depression. the numbers are really strong across most of the sectors. you've got, actually, economists who had been predicting a recession saying that's not going to happen. we're going to have a smooth landing. we're going to also, most

likely, have three interest rate cuts next year. this reminds me a lot of 1983, ronald reagan strapped with a very bad economy in 1983. his approval rating got as low as 35%. he averaged 41% approval ratings on gallup throughout 1983. that's about where joe biden is right now. you have, again, this economy zooming up, and it's going to follow. voters are going to again start feeling this more and telling pollsters this more. i got one thing that bothers me, willie, just one thing. you and i both know i can't use the word that i want to use. it begins with "d." i'll just say fellas. there are fellas driving around in convertibleporsches. you know what i'm saying. >> mm-hmm. >> they're driving around their

convertible porsches. >> oh. >> they're pulling into their country clubs. they're getting out. they're having their caddies run up and get their bags. they're going out, going to the clubhouses, like, with their -- i don't know how much rolex watches cost. let's say $30,000 rolex watches that they first bought. they can't get through their conversations at, like, the grill, men's grill, because they keep looking -- i'm serious -- at their stock, the stock counters, to say how much money. i made $16,000 just in the time i sat down here. then they'll go out for 18 holes and bitch about how joe biden is a socialist who is ruining the economy. it happens nonstop. these d -- these d-guys. >> it's a french word, isn't it? >> i think it ends with an "e." they drive around their maseratis and porsches and their convertible mercedes. they talk about how horrible the

economy is. they made millions and millions on joe biden's economy, some billions and billions, and they attack him as a socialist. it's just pure garbage. >> yeah, i know exactly the person you're talking about or the people you're talking about. i understand the word you're using. i had -- not to reveal too much, i've had that conversation with that person that you're describing just within the last week, as a matter of fact. >> wow. >> bringing up all the things that you just brought up. dow. "the wall street journal" is covered with stories about, yes, it looks like there will be a soft landing. now, we hope there won't be a recession. in fact, we're turning the corner to a place where rates will come down. people can get back into the housing market. hopefully rents are coming down. these are all positive indicators. what you've done is folded in the politics of this. yeah, yeah, biden, he's old, man. he may not even be on the ballot

this year. you know, all the things, they run to different places. when you put together -- this is an amazing tweet from donald trump -- when you put together the politics with the economy, this was in 2019. then president trump tweeted this, you mean the stock market hit an all-time record high today and they're actually talking about impeachment? >> wow. >> will i ever be given credit for anything? wrote donald trump in 2019. there ya have it. you know what they say, there's a tweet for everyone, joe. >> there is. >> there is a tweet for everything. >> the new thing on fox is, joe biden hasn't accomplished anything. they just can't think of anything he has accomplished. that'll be the line. oh, god, don't even start on that. >> all biden accomplished is, well, more bipartisan legislation than any president since probably lbj, bipartisan legislation. and more job growth than any president in ages.

he's doing better economically in every area except for donald trump, save inflation. that's because we came out of covid, and those numbers are going down now. again, it's crazy, these people that are rich as hell talking about, like, making hundreds of millions of dollars, making billions of dollars. they put on their little vests, and they go to conferences and they talk about how joe biden -- >> i still want to know the word. >> you know the word, dear. but they put on their little vests to hide their fat stomachs. they go out there, and they talk about how joe biden is, like, "oh, he sucks as a president. he's too old, and he's a socialist. he doesn't believe in people making money. the economy is wrecked." i hear this all the time. "joe biden is ruining america. he is ruining the economy." oh, he really? record highs, willie. record highs.

you know what they're going to do today? they'll go out, and they're either going to buy, like, a portion of a partnership in a private jet today because they're making so much money, or they'll buy a lamborghini and they'll, like, drive down, you know, some westchester main street going 80 miles an hour for 2 seconds and then have to go to a stoplight. then they'll rev their engine at the stoplight. then they'll go 80 miles an hour for another 4 seconds, then they'll stop, you know, and they'll have their trump 2024 bumper sticker, talking about how joe biden is a socialist. then they'll get in a wreck because they're going to be looking at how much money they're making per minute because of the economy that joe biden has salvaged from donald trump. >> it's okay. they can buy another one. >> that's all i have to say. with joe, willie, and me, we have the host of "way too early" -- >> they irritate me. >> at "politico," -- i don't

know what they are. >> you know, mika. >> i don't. help me. >> they're around any country club. watch them go in with their lamborghinis or porsches. >> but i -- i mean, i know what you're talking about. i've definitely met the type, but i don't know what the word -- oh. i got it. >> mika. >> there we go. >> jonathan lemire. former director of communications to president obama, jennifer palmieri. the co-host of "how to win 2024" with claire mccaskill. u.s. national editor at "the financial times," ed luce is with us. nbc news capitol hill correspondent ali vitali. louis told me the word. i got it. >> exactly. this has happened. >> i got it. >> this has happened before. jen, you know, people wonder why joe biden remains pretty calm about this while democrats

across washington, d.c., in america wet their bed. he knows where the economy is. he knows where the economy is going. he knows there is a very long way to go. 1983, you know, where ronald reagan is, where joe biden was, reagan's approval rating got to as low as 35%. why? a recession. he averaged 41% in 1983, the year before his election that he won 49 states. we're not saying joe biden is going to win 49 states because there is, of course, the construct, the media construct that's enabled people to go out, tell lies about joe biden, and make money off of it. they'll keep telling lies about joe biden. they'll keep making money off of it. let them make their money. let them lie. joe biden, if the economy keeps going the way it's going, with three rate cuts next year, that's favorable. >> i mean, this is not one good

jobs report or one good report on inflation going down. this is what has kept the ceiling on, particularly for consumers, you know, average americans pay attention to interest rates. they understand what that means. they understand the implication that has on being able to buy a house or sell a house. knowing that going into 2024 that the plan is to lower the rates three times, i feel like that sort of takes the lid off of people having -- >> yes. >> -- this overhang, that overhang of concern that there might be a recession, that interest rates will continue to . if that is gone, i really do think, you know, the administration can go full bore ahead in making the argument that the plan is working. >> right. >> people can start to come down from this state of anxiety that people have been in since covid

of what's the next terrible thing with some certainty. >> yeah. >> you know, i mean, that is a very big deal. to end the year knowing that that's what's coming next year, you know, i wouldn't expect to see massive jumps in approval ratings the next week, but that portends a good glide path for next year. >> yeah, for sure. instead of it just being one report that comes out, a piece of data that stands alone, it's an overall direction. steve rattner is going to join us later in the show. will he be at the western wall? we shall see. >> southwest wall. we have two hot wars for the president to navigate on the world stage. and the republican-controlled house voted to authorize its impeachment inquiry into president biden despite failing to provide any evidence of wrongdoing by the president. the vote was strictly along party lines yesterday with all

221 republicans voting yes. all 212 democrats voting no. republicans say the move will grant them the ability to better enforce their subpoenas in the courts. house oversight chair, republican james comer, has accused hunter biden and other biden family members of engaging in, quote, shady business practices. but, as we said, has yet to reveal any evidence of wrongdoing or influence peddling by the president himself. so here is what several house democrats said ahead of the vote. >> the biden impeachment investigation isn't a whodunit. it's a what is it? it's like an agatha christie novel where the mystery is, what's the crime? >> i think if we give him enough time, he's going to prove that hunter biden is joe biden's son. >> we're here today not because of any wrongdoing by president biden but because donald trump

wants revenge. >> so the republicans leading the impeachment inquiry insisted they are driven by efforts to uphold the constitution, but this week, some have let it slip that their true intentions are politicly motivated. take a listen. >> what are you hoping to gain from an impeachment inquiry? >> donald j. trump 2024, baby. >> can you identify any actual policy decisions that joe biden has made in response to getting paid for those policy changes? >> well, we'll have to -- that will be part of the investigation. >> facts haven't taken me to that point where i can say that the president's guilty of anything. >> president biden must be really frustrated. he is dragging trump through the courts. trump is rising and surging in the polls. >> you know, this other issue of whether joe biden was involved in his son's business dealing that i think the american people are looking at, as well.

all that together is why you see the numbers where they're at. >> this has been, i think, the most transparent political -- or conventional investigation since i've been in congress. >> yeah. >> oh, my gosh. >> willie, the most political since he's been in congress. i asked alex -- >> he did not deliver. >> -- to give us "green acres" arnold the pig there at the end, but he wouldn't do it. >> that's bad producing. we love alex, but you have to get the "green acres" clip in there. they've been doing this a long time. when the congressman from texas says, "all i can say is trump 2024, baby," there it is. that's the point of the exercise. somehow, to dent in some way joe biden, though they've shown no evidence of it at all. as democrats, in the

conversation leading up to the vote pointed out yesterday, to put this side by side with what donald trump did, what he was impeached for, and what those republicans have ignored or defended, it really -- they've sort of lost the high ground when they're trying to talk about impeachment and defending the constitution. we got the party line vote, ali. the impeachment will go forward. where does this go? >> they continue investigating. i mean, the other quiet part out loud about all of this, and as you usually do, you pull the exact clips that i think are the most important about this debate, specifically troy saying, "trump 2024." republicans have used their ability to wield the gavel from the very moment they eventually chose a speaker back in january to play sort of counterpuncher and chief defender of former president trump at each turn, whether it is alvin bragg in manhattan, whether it is letitia james, all of these various

investigations into trump. house republicans through judiciary, oversight, or whatever committee have always sought to sort of back up trump and try to muddy the waters. so this is yet another instance of that. in terms of where it goes next, these investigations have been going on for the entirety of the year. the reason that i've been told from republicans who are involved in this is that they want to move it forward to an impeachment inquiry so they can officially say they're in the impeachment phase and have more juice to enforce the subpoenasy defending those in court, fine. i've been in briefings with the key committee chairman. what are the high crimes and misdemeanors? when the congressman was asking, what are the high crimes and misdemeanors, and no one can put a fine point on what that is -- the clip you showed at the top of the show -- it's because each chairman is pointing to a

different piece of this saying that's the high crime and misdemeanor, a. b, they don't have evidence for one yet. that's where this whole thing breaks down. it was surprising for me that they had full, unanimous republican support yesterday to open the inquiry. my understanding was that at least one republican congressman was leaning no, at least before he got on the house floor yesterday. now, they are all marching in lockstep toward this. that breaks down when you try to move toward an actual impeachment, though. that's where you start running into problems if you're republicans. >> let's be clear, there has been no evidence yet presented, ed luce, none whatsoever. this is about donald trump next year not wanting to be the only candidate on the ballot who has been impeached. this is trying to level the playing field. this is trying to tarnish president biden's reputation. we can take republicans at their word as to what they're trying to do. now, white house officials i speak to, let's be clear, no white house wants to go through this an impeachment inquiry and

certainly not an impeachment if we go down that road. it's a drain on resources and time. it's a drain on just when they could be doing other things, and we know how full the president's plate is, even before he launches his full re-election campaign. are voters going to see this, see there is no there there, and could this be a political gift for the white house? or will bit a drag on president biden's re-election chances? >> you're right, there is no there there. if you go back to the original allegations when he was vice president, biden asked the ukrainian government to fire its chief anti-corruption prosecution, and, somehow, that was a pay for play. this was something the entire international community were asking for, including the international monetary fund, which was conditioning its aid to ukraine on it getting rid of a corrupt anti-corruption prosecutor. what biden was doing was trying

to, along with the european union, he was trying to get ukraine to be less corrupt. this is being presented as the exact opposite. whether that kind of detail -- you know, mud is going to stick with some people. whether that kind of detail, you know, will come through when it is being presented so forcefully, you know, i guess depends on who you are and which channel you're watching. the fact that there is no there there probably doesn't bother the likes of jim jordan. i think representative mcgovern got it right when he said, when trump asks them to jump, they say, "how high?" they're now jumping for trump. this is his retribution, and it's a pr, very cynical, pr-driven attempt to besmirch biden without any evidence. >> forgive me for repeating the question we ask all too often, but what do our european allies, what do our nato allies, what do our enemies think of a country

that has a chamber, a house chamber that tells the israelis to go to hell, they're not going to fund them, tells ukraine to go to hell, they're not going to fund them, but they do have time, they do have time to move forward with a bogus impeachment inquiry that they even admit is formless? >> i think in terms of this impeachment inquiry, almost no attention will be paid to it. it's seen as bogus. >> yeah. >> it's seen as a charade. there is enormous amount of attention being paid to what could happen in 2024. not just, you know, amongst our allies, but, you know, we're in ukraine. ukraine is life and death, what happens in 2024. of course, it's life and death what's happening now, whether they get renewed funding and american supplies to defend from another putin winter onslaught. >> all right. still ahead, a deadly day

for israeli soldiers in the war with hamas. it comes as the country's prime minister continues to reject calls from global leaders for any sort of cease-fire. plus, we have brand-new polling on a potential head-to-head matchup between president biden and donald trump across seven swing states. "morning joe" is back in just a moment. ♪ green acres is the place to be keep manhattan just give me the countryside ♪ ♪ new york is where i'd rather stay ♪

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suffered one of its highest single day death counts since it began its ground invasion in gaza in late october. ten soldiers were killed tuesday, including a battalion commander and lieutenant colonel commander. the idf says nine of them died in an ambush attack while soldiers were in an advanced stage of clearing an area. the tenth soldier died in a separate battle in northern gaza. meanwhile, in southern gaza, the israel military has ramped up its attacks, according to "the washington post," and 20% of the buildings in the largest city have been damaged in israeli air strikes. president biden criticized israel's military campaign earlier this week at a fundraiser, saying the country is losing international support because of its, quote, indiscriminate bombings. the white house is now doubling down on that statement, saying the president's comment reflects

the reality of global opinion. adding, while israel has made some efforts to reduce civilian casualties, the biden administration wants to see more results. meanwhile, israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu is vowing to keep fighting, rejecting calls for a cease-fire amid the growing international pressure. israel's ambassador to the uk reaffirmed that statement in an interview with sky news, adding that a two-state solution with the palestinians is not possible. take a listen. >> we know we cannot associate with hamas. it means we need a better future for the palestinians. in order to achieve that -- >> two-state solution? is there still a chance for a two-state solution? >> it is about time for the world to realize the paradigm failed on the 7th of october, and we need a new one. >> does the new one include the palestinians living in a state of their own? >> i think the biggest question is what type of palestinians are

on the other side? israel realized it on the 7th of october. >> is -- >> absolutely no. i'll tell you why. >> how can there be peace? >> i'll tell you. the reason is the palestinians -- >> without offering a state to palestine -- >> mark. >> -- how can there be peace in israel? >> israel knows and the world should know, the reason the accords failed is the palestinians never wanted a state next to israel. they wanted a state from the river to the sea. >> the two-state solution is dead? >> why are you obsessed with a formula that never worked, that created these radical people on the other side? think about it. is that normal to carry on with a solution that never worked in the past? the palestinians kept denying it. now, it'll create another terror state. israel is not interested in that. >> that is israel's ambassador to the uk speaking yesterday. ed luce, the two-state solution is what explicitly the united states government has called for, what president biden has been talking about, a little more, actually, in the last few

days even, as a solution at the end of all this, as israel is trying to root out hamas. once it's achieved that, what peace might look like. an absolute nonstarter as we heard from the ambassador and, obviously, for the prime minister netanyahu, as well. >> yeah, talk, willie, about saying the quiet part out loud. what she said very explicitly there is what netanyahu has been making very clear in other words. since october the 7th, but actually since he began his political career, he's always been opposed to a palestinian state. his selling point as israel's leader, and in multiple elections he's been re-elected, is he will provide security to israelis. he's completely failed to do that. the intelligence failure on october the 7th is laid at his door. he would lose an election now. he's looking for another tag line. instead of me being

mr. security, he's going to be mr. no palestine. that's what he is going to fight the election on. of course, that directly clashes with what the biden administration is saying the day after goal should be in this situation. i don't really see any way around that. this split is going to get worse and worse. netanyahu will run against biden. in spite of biden being his best friend, there's only one friend that netanyahu has, and that's himself. so we're going to see this split get a lot worse. it's going to be the basis of netanyahu's re-election campaign next year. >> you know, jonathan lemire, following the heinous attack of october 7th, we talked about the importance of keeping things in context and talking about the heinous attack. we're now a month or two past, and we see somebody who is doing things that damages israel in

the eyes of the world every day. >> raises questions. >> benjamin netanyahu, here's a guy, we found out, that was begging qatar to keep funding hamas, giving them billions and billions of dollars weeks before the attack. qatar said, "do you want us to keep giving hamas money?" the answer from netanyahu's government was, "yes, yes, keep giving them money." netanyahu's government had the secret plans written down, that hamas had to destroy, to go through the gate and to -- >> a lengthy, detailed document. >> -- burn, kill, shoot israelis, and the netanyahu government ignored it. we can go on and on, but this is -- when anybody in israel is asked why, it's because he was so obsessed with avoiding a

two-state solution, that he made a deal with the devil. he, quote, was buying quiet. netanyahu cozied up to hamas, and israelis are dead, more israelis are dead in this attack than anytime since the holocaust. and netanyahu's people are saying, we're going to keep doing what we've been doing over the past ten years. we're going to keep telling the world to go to hell. we're going to say no to a two-state solution, and we're going to do whatever it takes, even if it makes israelis and jewish people at home and across the world less safe. we're going to do it. i'm sorry. we can't be a partner with this guy forever. we just can't. we can't be a partner with a guy that allowed jews to the raped, shot, killed, and burned, and his government did nothing for eight, nine, ten, eleven hours.

we can't continue to be an ally with a guy that actually turned the spigots of money onto hamas, telling qatar to give them billions and billions of dollars. >> before all this, questionable moves, made a lot of questionable moves, some say, to remain in power and avoid indictment. >> well, he's indicted. he wanted to avoid going to jail, so he started a war against the supreme court. >> right. >> it split the country. he was so obsessed with that that he forgot what an israeli prime minister's first job is. that is to protect the people of israel and, by extension, protect jews there and protect the 15 million jews living across the world. he has failed on every count. we cannot continue supporting benjamin netanyahu. they need to put somebody in power that's more interested in protecting israelis and protecting jews than they are

interested in protecting themselves from staying out of jail. >> an overlooked part of president biden's comments about israel the other day was when he said the netanyahu government was the most conservative in that nation's history. netanyahu cozied up to right-wing element there is in israel. president biden spoke out against his efforts tojudiciary the settlements in the west bank. even now, the netanyahu government has been slow to condemn the violence by extremist settlers there in the west bank. as noted, they still have no real embrace of a two-state solution, despite that being the u.s. saying over and over and over, that must be the end game here. joe, as you know, i reported some weeks ago that the biden administration believes netanyahu's standing is not tenable. eventually, he will be pushed from power. there are many close to president biden who say that day can't come soon enough. of course, ali vitali, all of this is the backdrop to the ongoing negotiations in congress. >> yeah. >> congress hasn't sent a dime

to israel yet. two months out from those october 7th terror attacks. of course, the foreign aid to israel and ukraine has been linked to the border security talks. give us an update. it seems lawmakers are heading for the exits before the holidays. will this be punted to the new year, which is already crowded? >> we're trying to figure out if the senate leaves today, for example, will we see them come back next week, or will we not see the folks again until january? the house speaker made clear he doesn't see a reason to call the house back. as of today, they're supposed to leave then for the next three weeks. as far as right now, we don't see them coming back. johnson said just the other day, he doesn't see the senate making enough progress in their bipartisan negotiations to warrant bringing the house back because they wouldn't have anything to vote on. in my understanding of where these negotiations are, really

everyone from a leadership perspective has a seat at the table except for folks from johnson's staff. house republicans have made clear, they will only go along with foreign aid packages to both ukraine, israel, and taiwan is also lumped into the end of year supplemental package, they'll only go along with it if there's also provisions on the border. not just that, specifically the provisions that they put in their border package earlier this year, which has many restrictive and, frankly, red lines for a lot of not just house but also senate democrats. i think what i'm looking for is we're starting to see the chorus from the congressional hispanic caucus get louder over the fact they hate some of the provisions that are clearly on the table in these negotiations. things like rolling back the way asylum is handled. is title 42 coming back on the table? there's different bullet points we've heard bandied about in the negotiations. nothing is firm. nothing is on paper.

that was the case when we left last night. the negotiators continue huddling in the capitol, working into the wee hours, is my understanding, last night, but it doesn't mean they're closer to any kind of an agreement. the thing i keep coming back to, now that immigration, one of the thorniest issues that all of us watched bipartisan negotiations seemingly come together on and then fall apart, congress has been incapable of dealing with this issue over the course of the last several years when it was a standalone. now, you put it next to things like ukraine and israel funding, which are thorny in their own ways, it just makes this supplemental package harder. frankly, time is ticking down on the table. >> this made for a scene on capitol hill a couple days ago. president zelenskyy was talking to republicans, and they were asking him about immigration and the border. he said, i understand you have domestic political problems, but i'm looking for bullets. you sort out the rest of it. nbc news capitol hill correspondent ali vitali, thank you for your reporting. jen palmieri, it does appear the

white house is open to some kind of deal on immigration. of course, they'd like to do this separately, from funding for ukraine and separately from funding for israel, but is it your sense that the white house and the biden campaign, as well, understands that something has to change? there is a crisis at the border, they do have to address immigration, especially with an election year around the corner. >> yes. in one word, yes. i thought it was interinteresti couple days ago, senator fetterman said, it's not xenophobic to think we need to deal with the problem at the border. there is a problem at the border. he said, like, the population of pittsburgh, it's the equivalent of showing up there. we need to deal wit. when you have progressive senators like that saying this is a problem that we need to deal with, it suggests that, you know, the dynamics of the issue -- not that the dynamics of the issue are moving, but the recognition of the logistical human problem at the border is

recognized. i have heard from senators that they feel that this deal can happen. ali is certainly right, though, that the details matter a lot, and there is concern is that you don't want to -- understanding something may need to be done here but not to give away too much that you're starting a new baseline for longer-term negotiations that have undone a lot of what are the protections, particularly the asylum and humanitarian protections. there's a concern about how -- about the details, but i think that would the white house want to get something done here? yes, they do. >> yeah, the white house wants to get something done. they're willing to meet the republicans more than halfway. john fetterman is right, the senator is right. we're hearing it from democratic mayors, democratic governors. what's happening at the border is madness, complete madness.

the biden administration understands that. they're trying to get to a deal with the republicans, not just because they want the israel funding and the ukraine funding to go through, they're trying to get to a deal because they understand the border needs to be fixed. every time they've tried to get a deal with republicans, republicans have run away. because republicans don't want the deal. republicans don't want the border fixed. they want their talking points for when they go on other cable news networks. they want to bitch and moan and whine and be little snow floefl and be triggered by all the immigrants coming in. when biden's team start talking about, or democrats on the hill start talking about fixes, they run away like little babies. like little babies. it's so sad. i feel so sorry for them. they're little snowflakes. they just want to whine instead of getting things done. >> like obamacare. >> they don't want to help israel. they want to whine.

they don't want to get things done. they don't want to help ukraine. they want to whine. they don't want to get things done. they'd rather vladimir putin win than joe biden win. it's that simple. even on the border, the biden administration has gone more than halfway. they're willing to do the deal on the border. the republicans are whining. they're running away. what they don't understand is they're giving biden and democrats in swing districts incredible issues. not just abortion. hey, look, the republicans, they not only betrayed our allies in israel, they not only allowed vladimir putin to walk into kyiv -- >> look away 50 years of rights -- >> they not only took away 50 years of rights, they wouldn't even fix the border. this is what biden proposed.

one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. the republicans said, no, no, no, no. no to border security. republicans suddenly don't want border security. they want the talking point. they don't want our borders secured. i think there's some in the senate that actually do. i've heard james langford talking in good faith about negotiating. i've heard some other people talking in good faith about negotiating. i'm sure there's some good republican senators that want to negotiate. nobody in the house that i've seen, though. nobody has come forward in the house to say, "let's secure the border and, actually, let's do something about i instead of whining and being little snowflakes, going on cable news networks hoping to get 14 people watching us." or maybe having a tiktok video and getting, like, 37 hits. i mean, it's ridiculous.

i want to circle back to ed luce. ed, you're working on biography of a great mind, a great foreign policy thinker of our time who had something to do with middle east peace process. camp david. we're talking, of course, of mika's father, dr. brzezinski. mika breaks out in a cold sweat every time we bring it up, but what is your insight on dr. brzezinski's approach at this point in this negotiation process? >> mika breaks out in a cold sweat because she was there at camp david for those 13 days. i'm guessing playing 8s and whatever they were occupying you with. >> to be clear, ed -- >> let ed speak. >> to be clear, it is true. jimmy carter validated this -- >> okay. >> -- after mr. brzezinski's

funeral, mika ran over -- >> it was a nudge. >> -- with a golf cart. >> i said, that's true? he said, it's true. go ahead. >> nudge is a good word. what camp david achieved in 1978 was the biggest sort of increase in israeli security that had been seen pushed by an american administration to date. that was to take egypt off the list of israel's enemies, to normalize with egypt. the other great effort, and, of course, dr. brzezinski was heavily involved with jimmy carter's negotiations there over the 13 days, and the other was the bush administration with the oslo accords. i think what dr. brzezinski would be saying today would be very little different to what he was saying then. israel's security is very much intimately bound up to palestine's sense of security.

the two cannot be separated. a two-state solution is the most pro-israeli thing that we can be pushing for. >> amen. >> furthermore, america, you know, supplies the arms to israel, the iron dome that protects it, and also the diplomatic sovereign of the u.n., and this cannot be a blank check. if we see israel doing things harmful to its own security, and secretary austin, you know, made it very clear, this is strategic blunder, then we have to call out when we see our friends blundering. i think that would be mika's dad's position on this. >> yeah, and that's a brilliant way to put it. he, of course, is brilliant. but, yes, we support, i support, the biden administration supports a two-state solution, not just for the palestinian's

dignity and safety, we support it for israel's long-term safety. >> for the future of actual peace. >> i mean, there is no -- it's one of the things with abraham accords. the abraham accords cynically believe that you could ignore the palestinians and strike deals with different arab states who also hated the palestinians, and the palestinian issue would go away. did it go away? no. it won't go away until there is a two-state solution. and benjamin netanyahu and people who speak for benjamin netanyahu saying there can never be a two-state solution are lying. there can be, not right now. again, context is key. the last thing israelis want to do right now is talk about a two-state solution. we certainly understand that. but this is something that has to be over the horizon. the united states can't allow people like benjamin netanyahu to continue to take the reckless actions that he's taken, that's

divided israel, made it less safe, fed hamas billions of dollars through qatar, and then sat back and slept for seven, eight, nine, ten, 11, 12, 13 hours while israeli women were being raped and little babies were being shot up in their cribs. we can't let that sort of person just have a blank check. >> exactly. >> because he had a blank check, and look what's happened. >> u.s. national editor at "the financial times," ed luce, ed, thank you so much for coming in this morning. i know it's a very stressful and difficult time for you, and we appreciate your coming in to talk about this and other things. >> thank you. >> thank you, ed. >> thank you. coming up, u.s. stocks surged yesterday on signs the federal reserve could start cutting interest rates sooner than expected. steve rattner will join us with charts on what's driving the optimism from the central bank.

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you do you. visit xfinitymobile.com today. as we approach the end of the year, it is natural to look back at the progress that has been made on the dual mandate objectives. inflation has eased from its highs, and this has come without a significant increase in unemployment. that's very good news. but inflation is still too high. ongoing progress and bringing it down is not assured, and the path forward is uncertain. as we look ahead to next year, i want to assure the american people that we're fully committed to returning inflation to our 2% goal. i have always felt, since the beginning, that there was a possibility, because of the unusual situation, that the

economy could cool off in a way that enabled inflation to come down without the kind of large job losses that have often been associated with high inflation and tightening cycles. so far, that's what we're seeing. that's what many forecasters on and off the committee are seeing. this result is not guaranteed. it is far too early to declare victory. >> some optimism from jerome powell, federal reserve chair, as he spoke yesterday. his comments helped send the stock market to record highs, clearing 37,000 as it closed. joining us now, former treasury official and "morning joe" economicage analyst, steve rattner. >> glad to be back at the southwest wall. >> let's talk about rate projections and what it might do next year. >> consistent with what chairman powell said yesterday, the fed changed a number of its projections. this is actually one of the most

consequential meetings i can remember. i wish the fed did nothing in the sense of not changing rates, but they did a lot of other stuff. let's start by talking about what's happening with inflation. this is, of course, what under underlies the rate increases and the fed's attempt to slow the economy. the fed changed its inflation expectation just in three months. if you go back to its september projection, which is this blue line here, the fed thought inflation this year was going to be 3.3%. in three months, it's taken it down to 2.8%. that is a major change. it's lowered its inflation prosections along the rest of the curve for the next several years. that is what leads the fed to have changed its expectation about interest rates. again, if you go back to september, this blue line is what the fed thought was going to happen to interest rates. this is what the fed now thinks is going to happen to interest rates. three reductions of a quarter

point each this year, and then interest rates continue to stay below what it previously thought, getting below 3%. one other thing to note here is that the credit markets, which have their own view of life and the economy, actually think interest rates are going to come down even faster. they think they're going to come down by 1.25% over the next year. a very bullish outlook from the market, and a positive outlook from the fed. >> steve, is it fair to say that -- we don't want to put up the mission accomplished banner yet, but did the fed achieve its goals with the rate hikes that sometimes frustrated people as they continue to go up, did the job they were intended to do, which was to tame inflation? >> it is quite extraordinary. this may well be the first time we've had inflation of this magnitude and gotten it out of the system without a recession, what the market calls immaculate disinflation. it'll be quite an accomplishment if this actually occurs. >> let's see if it occurs.

we can move to your next chart, suggesting a soft landing. let's remind our viewers what that means exactly and if you think that'll happen. >> soft landing is another word for immaculate disinflation. it means, basically, getting inflation back down to the fed's 2% target without having a recession, something that would almost be without precedent in recent american economic history anyway. let's take a look at how the fed is saying that. the fed is basically saying we will have continued economic growth. this is real gdp growth year by year going back to 2016. obviously, we had a hit during covid. we had a strong '21 and '22. again, '23, if you looked at the fed's projection from one year ago, this 2.6 number for this year's growth rate would be 0.5%. they thought the economy would really slow down, but it didn't. looking out, they're projecting smaller but positive increases, meaning no recession in their forecast at the moment. the so-called soft landing.

that has very significant implications for unemployment. unemployment, of course, is down near historic low 3.8%. they do think it trends up a little to 4.1%. part of keeping inflation under control. but this is still well within what economists call full employment. a really successful economy. >> a lot of good numbers there. a huge one on wall street yesterday, as you know, steve, crossing and closing over 37,000. obviously, the markets looking at the possibility now, the distinct possibility that rates will come down, which is good news for wall street. >> sure. we can take a look at the stock market reaction in realtime because it is quite interesting. so this is yesterday. we look at the s&p, what investors look at. the stock market was kind of flat during the day. this is noon on. flat during the day, flat during the day. the fed announces its decision, puts out a statement, and the market immediately jumps. then you had the powell press

conference. we showed a clip of that a few moments ago, and the market took off from there. up 1.4% on the day. that is a very, very significant move by the stock market. but what's even more significant is what that means for the year. the stock market at the moment, after yesterday, is up 22% year-to-date. while the dow jones hit a record, the s&p is just short of it. the record that was back here when the fed first started raising interest rates. high interest rates is the enemy of the stock market. the expectation of low rates is the friend of the market. >> a lot of objectively good data, not even talking about politics here. this is all good for people. allow unemployment, growth, and hopefully the soft landing you're talking about. steve rattner with his charts at the southwest wall, we appreciate it. thanks so much. ahead, republicans approve the impeachment inquiry into president biden without much evidence. we'll speak with house minority leader hakeem jeffries, who says this is all just a political hit

job. plus, what is right, and what is wrong when talking about ukraine's war? "the atlantic's" tom nichols will join us with his new piece and the questions we all should be asking. we're back in 90 seconds. no mask. no hose. just sleep. learn more and view important safety information at inspiresleep.com your shipping manager left to “find themself.” leaving you lost. you need to hire. i need indeed. indeed you do. indeed instant match instantly delivers quality candidates matching your job description. visit indeed.com/hire

this resolution has nothing to do with protecting the constitution from high crimes and misdemeanor. how do we know? a year of investigation, piles

of documents, and a herd of the republicans' witnesses confirmed there is zero evidence of wrongdoing. >> they've already reviewed tens of thousands of documents, interviewed dozens of witnesses, and nothing. why? because this has never been about the truth. this is about avenging donald trump. >> because as soon as we take this vote today, you know what they're going to do? they'll break for three weeks. they're going to run out of this place and leave for three weeks, even though it's so important and it's so overwhelming and the nation must be focused on this. they are going to run away and leave washington for three weeks. it's because there's no evidence on joe biden. the only thing they have uncovered is that joe biden is the father of hunter biden. that's it. >> a few of the house democrats who called out republicans

before the vote to authorize an impeachment inquiry into president joe biden. >> willie, something else not mentioned, the fact that they're running out for three weeks, the republicans are running out for three weeks without funding israel. >> yeah. >> without funding ukraine, who desperately needs the support, and without taking care of the southern border. joe biden is there negotiating, wants to take care of the souther border, and they're not doing it. they're being petulant, being snowflakes, and running out of town. >> yes, they want to create the smoke without fire, go down the rabbit hole, but there's really important stuff sitting before congress that isn't getting done. there are funding dead lunns deadlines around the corner. when they get back, will they pass the cr? will the government be funded? now, we'll sit through the holidays. three weeks is a long time in a

war if you're ukraine, in a war if you're israel, yet, republicans on capitol hill don't seem to be interested in it. they seem to be obsessed with hunter biden. congressman raskin said, usually in a whodunit, you have a crime and you figure out who did it. in this case, they have the who, and now they're looking for a crime. by the way, hunter biden was up on capitol hill yesterday. we had that news conference live. >> he was. >> he said, "i'm here, ready to talk. open forum. out in the public. i'm not hiding." they rejected the offer, so they didn't hear from hunter biden. >> of course they did. jonathan lemire and jen palmieri are still with us. joining us is tom nichols of "the atlantic." and "politico's" jonathan martin. good to have you all with us. >> jonathan martin, not a good look when you run out of town and you leave israel hanging, you leave the ukrainians

hanging, you leave negotiations on the southern border with joe biden. he's coming your way, but you leave it hanging. you start an impeachment inquiry, and members can't tell you what the high crime or misdemeanor is. >> john edwards' line, there is two americas, but there's two parties in some ways. the house gop is entirely operating in a separate universe. they are consumed with surviving primaries every two years. fidelity to trump is overwhelmingly their biggest imperative, and so they're focused on trying to do things like impeach biden, passing, joe, any number of resolutions condemning democratic members, resolutions trying to score points politically, but they don't seem to be terribly engaged, at least the majority doesn't, in the bulk of

governing. you see a very different picture. in the senate, at least you've got the remnants of the kind of traditional negotiation dealmaking that used to characterize congress at the end of a year when they still have unfinished business. it is fascinating to see the split screen between the house and the senate. >> yeah, really is. i mean, senate republicans are so embarrassed by much of what the house republicans do. mike barnicle, then you have this comer guy, who mark halperin said this morning in his newsletter, "wide world of news," in the words of bill clinton, this guy is so ineffectual, he couldn't work in a two-car parade. yet, republicans have him running the impeachment inquiry, and he is just lost. >> you know, watching comer and jim jordan yesterday in their little mini press conference, it struck me, they don't want to, and they cannot govern.

they don't know how to govern in the house of representatives. >> don't know how to. >> i can only imagine someone out there who has a peripheral interest in politics. you don't work in it every day, pay a little attention to it, but what would be in the minds of the average people in this country? you people in the house of representatives, is my child going to be safer at school? can you do anything about that? is health care going to be less expensive and more accessible for us? is social security going to be okay for the next 15 to 20 years? is my son going to be able to buy a house? are interest rates going to go down enough? can you help us with that? can you talk about that? they can't. they can't. >> no. >> because they're obsessed with revenge. they only want one thing, i would submit. they want their guy, the former guy, to be able to run for president again next year, claiming throughout the land each and every day, "hey, i wasn't the only one impeached.

the other guy was just impeached, too." that's what they want. >> yeah. >> jen palmieri. >> say it out loud. >> harry truman in 1947 was supposed to be absolutely trounced the next year in his first presidential campaign after being -- after taking over the white house from fdr, and he ran by running against "do nothing republicans." >> yeah. >> if you listen to what mike says, if you see what's going on, it's a perfect parallel. you have this republican party that couldn't even -- remember early on, they couldn't even put an immigration bill on the floor. they couldn't agree on an immigration bill. then, you know, they can't agree on who their speaker is going to be. they're walking around in circles.

chip roy screaming and yelling a couple weeks ago, "we've done absolutely nothing. we've done absolutely nothing!" well, they actually are continuing -- >> telling the truth. >> -- to try to take away women's rights that women had for 50 years. they're talking about taking away health care. donald trump has promised, just like he said he terminated roe v. wade, he's now going to terminate obamacare. they've done nothing on israel. they've done nothing on ukraine. they're now refusing to do anything on the southern border. tell ya what, if you're running against a republican in a biden district, that's like jonathan martin and i saying, where we're from, like shooting catfish in a barrel. >> now that george santos is gone, there are 17 house republicans that are in districts that joe biden won in the 2020 presidential election. i do not understand what they're thinking unless they're

thinking, i'm only going to be here until january of 2025, and i might as well make the best of it to try to make as many republicans as happy as possible. because the record that this congress has racked up, i mean -- first of all, the notion that trump wants biden to be impeachment, as well, so he's not the only one who is impeachment speaks to trump's vanity. the history is if a president is impeached, their popularity goes up, right? that happened to bill clinton. sorry to say, that also happened to donald trump. the notion that -- you know, the white house doesn't want to go through this, but i don't know that it'll actually hurt biden politically. then if you look at, okay, fine, so biden will be fine in terms of this impeachment vote. when you look at the house, though, what they are thinking, in january -- here's the record of the republican house from the first year. 15 votes to try to find a speaker. shortest speaker ever. in january, two anti-abortion

votes. that's their priority, right? later, they voted the d.o.d. authorization bill to restrict women members of the military, serving in the armed services, from being able to have the resources and the time to leave the state they're stationed in if they need to get abortion care. trying to repeal, failing, but trying to repeal popular elements of the inflation reduction act, including climate change provisions. electing the most conservative maga speaker who was part of the january 6th conspiracy. yesterday, they voted to start an impeachment inquiry into the president of the united states for no discernible reason. hakeem jeffries will be on later. the big question is, how are you going to narrow your campaign to run against this republican house? there's so much on the table that they did that the american people do not want, let alone all the business that they are not addressing, as you noted,

from gun violence to aid to israel to dealing with the border. this is just -- you know, you can't predict for sure that the democrats will take over, but this is a pretty good layup for democrats to make the argument that the republicans can't govern and they need to take over in 2025. >> yeah, i mean, their first initiative is to run interference for donald trump. as mike says here, they're being errand boys for him. tom nichols, you're writing about ukraine this morning. this is all wrapped up. ukraine funding. you had president zelenskyy up on capitol hill making pleas to republicans to come around and help him. whatever their complaints are about immigration, that's not for him to worry about. he hoped they could work that out. some republicans walked out of the room. some didn't show up. obviously, a very different tone than a year ago when president zelenskyy was here. you're asking what the wrong questions about ukraine's war are and what we should be asking. what should we be talking about

here? >> we should be asking how best to help ukraine survive against this russian onslaught and invasion, this ongoing russian butchery that has no end in sight. putin can just keep throwing more young, russian men into a meat grinder. i think even well-intentioned critics of ukraine aid end up asking questions about exit strategies. you know, these are phrases that have entranced american strategists for years. exit strategies and, you know, war termination processes, that's just not something that zelenskyy or anybody can be thinking about right now. this is an existential problem for ukraine. of course, there's a whole bunch of bad faith involved in this with the republicans.

you know, people like senator vance, you know, doing this performative walkout, and other republicans who, somehow, are making the argument this is just impoverishing us to send the aid to ukraine. even the folks, i think, who really want to help are asking the wrong questions about things like what we're getting for this investment. you know, how does this enhance our security? yesterday, two days ago, the intelligence community reported to congress that 87% of the day one russian army is gone. that's not 87% of the guys who went into combat. that's 87% of the standing russian ground force is gone and had to be replaced. now, it's not like they're down to 10% of their army because they keep crunching new recruits into this. but for an investment that is less than a tenth of our defense

budget, in a battle that's being born by the courage of the ukrainian people and the ukrainian armed forces, one of our most dangerous countries in the world has lost two-thirds of its armor. how republicans can vote against continuing that is beyond me. as we've seen with the impeachment and other policies, it's about owning the libs and servicing the primary voters and all kinds of other things that really don't have to do with national security. >> tom, despite those losses suffered by the russian military, vladimir putin is vowing to forge forward. he just gave a lengthy news conference in moscow today, suggesting his war aims have not changed. complete de-nazi-ization of

ukraine. putin said the united states not providing more aid is saying freebies, as he calls it, are already running out. not only if the u.s. fails to meet the obligation, but what could be the domino effect for the rest of europe? how isolated could ukraine end up being? >> i'm deeply concerned. one small glimmer of hope here is the europeans don't seem inclined to follow the lead of the republican party. i think our european allies have had a sober and clear-sighted view of a lot of this, at least most of the european allies. the president was absolutely right the other day. if you're getting shout-outs from russian television and vladimir putin about what a great job you're doing helping russia, and you're an american republican legislator, maybe you should step pack and think about what the hell it is you're doing.

putin is absolutely counting on this. he's in a tight spot right now because he's up for "re-election," and i say that rolling my eyes a little bit. he doesn't want a lot of trouble and upheaval during this re-election, so he can't really start drafting everybody just yet. he's got to take a step back. that's an opportunity. instead of exploiting that opportunity, the republicans are giving him a helping hand. he is acknowledging it. we don't even have to speculate about this. he's saying it out loud, "thank you for the help, republican party of the united states." >> wow. >> what an honor for them. staff writer at "the atlantic," tom nichols, thank you very much. joining us now, white house spokesman for oversight and investigations, ian sams. he serves as special assistant to the president and senior adviser to the white house counsel's office. instead of talking about the two wars the united states is

navigating on the global front, we're asking you about the impeachment inquiry that went through a vote yesterday. how does the white house plan to deal with this? >> look, i think that i was listening to your previous conversation and it really lays out the stakes of what's happening both in the country and in the world right now. we have really serious challenges, and these house republicans don't seem to be serious people. they're launching an impeachment inquiry based on lies with no evidence, while jetting out of town and leaving the ukraine aid on the table. i mean, this is really frightening behavior and un-serious behavior. look, on the impeachment inquiry, you know, they've been investigating this president all year long. actually, in fact, they've been investigaing this president for four years. the senate republicans, before he was even elected president, investigated these same allegations. now, all year long, they've been probing and investigating and subpoenaing and doing all the things they do to try to drum up

some type of wrongdoing by president biden, to try to attack him and use politically, and over and over again, they've found nothing. after 100,000 pages of documents, 40 hours of witness interviews, these are the things they've already gotten, and they haven't found a single shred of evidence of any wrongdoing by president biden because there is no evidence of wrongdoing by president biden. so as we move forward with this inquiry, whatever that is, they haven't really laid out exactly what they're trying to do here, we're going to keep pushing back and keep putting the facts out there for the american people to see that this is a baseless smear that is all motivated by politics and not by anything real. >> ian, if you consider what you are just speaking about right now, you know, the intent of the republicans who seemingly cannot govern, but their sole intent is to impeach president biden, and you consider what's happening for the further funding for ukraine, and the other half of a lit fuse in the middle east,

gaza, what does the white house do about this? there seems to be out in the country a creeping sense of isolationism to all of these problems that are on the president's desk. what does the white house do about confronting and explaining to the american people the true importance of ukraine, of gaza, and of dealing with all of that? >> it's a good question. i mean, you know, my good colleague here, admiral kirby, and press secretary jean-pierre, we talk about these messages all the time and sell it to the american people. but in the context of this impeachment inquiry, there is something broader. you guys talk about this a lot on your show. we're kind of in the middle of this wrestling match over democracy. you know, look back to january 6th. look at the concentrated effort led by republicans in congress to try to invalidate the results of the presidential election and

stop president biden from taking office. two weeks later, on his very first day in office, marjorie taylor greene, who right now is probably the most powerful house republican, introduced articles of impeachment, on his first day in office. they didn't know what they wanted to impeach him for. they just know they wanted to impeach him. now, fast forward, all this time that's been spent, you see it when they push back on ukraine aid. you see it when they don't deliver aid to israel that is badly needed, and you see it in abusing these constitutional, serious, grave constitutional processes like an impeachment as a cheap political stunt. it's all part of this longstanding effort, both to degrade our democratic principles and constitutional norms, and also use anything and everything just to do a political attack against the president. >> ian, good morning. as you know, hunter biden was up on capitol hill yesterday offering public testimony. said he wasn't going to do it behind closed doors.

the offer was rejected. in that sort of impromptu news gathering he gave on capitol hill, hunter biden said, quote, let me state as clearly as i can, my father was not financially involved in my business, not as a practicing member, not many my partnerships with a chinese businessman, not many my investments at home nor abroad, and certainly not as an artist. can president biden say the same? >> yes, and he has been saying it for years. in the last year, as republicans have investigated this president, over and over and over again, their own witnesses under oath have said this. multiple of hunter biden's business partners under oath said the president was not involved in their business. these are things that their own witnesses have said. they've gotten 100,000 pages of documents, 40,000 pages of

private financial records from these people who are involved in these business dealings, from business entities, and they haven't found a single shred of evidence tying it to joe biden. there is no link to joe biden. they're making this up so that they can use their power to launch a concentrated and relentless political attack campaign against the president. i think it is also really important to think about what this is coming at the expense of. when they ran for office in the midterm elections seeking a majority of the house of representatives, they said they were going to focus on inflation. they said they were going to focus on the border. just look at the last on the border, they're about to leave town when we're negotiating a border deal. on inflation, they're running us to a government shutdown in three weeks, and they've not acted. talk about something that will throw the economy into chaos and make our inflation matters worse, think about the government shutdown. these are the things that house republicans are punting off, not handling, not working on, so

that they can waste their time on the house floor on a baseless impeachment exercise just to politically go after the president. >> white house spokesman for oversight and investigations, ian sams, thank you very much for being on this morning. >> thank you. we're going to turn to new polling of a hypothetical 2024 election matchup that shows donald trump beating president joe biden in seven swing states, including six won by the sitting president in 2020. according to the new numbers from morning consult and bloomberg, trump holds a four-point lead over biden in arizona, six points in georgia, three points in nevada, two points in pennsylvania, and four points in wisconsin. those in addition to a nine point lead for trump in north carolina, a state he won by less than a point in 2020. the new survey also shows trump

with a seven point victory across all those battleground states when third-party candidates are included on the ballot. joining us now, white house reporter for bloomberg, akayla gardner, with more on these poll numbers. akayla, what stood out to you? >> i think what stood out to me the most was definitely when those declared third-party candidates and independent candidates were added in, trump's lead extends to seven points. we specifically asked voters about jill stein, robert f. kennedy jr., cornell west. robert f. kennedy jr., by far, had the most support at 9%. i think this really underscores some of democrats' worst fears. they had fear that some of the candidates were going to pull away voters from joe biden, of course, and this poll at least suggests they will. but we've seen democratic efforts push back against some of the candidates. we've seen pacs like move on,

the iron pac arguing these candidates don't have a path to the presidency. no labels, which could also put out a candidate in early 2024. that adds to the worries that if more third-party candidates specifically add to this race, it could eventually hurt joe biden. >> akayla, when you look at the numbers that biden is losing, where he is losing from, often it's young voters, it's people of color, especially younger black men, younger hispanic men, are you seeing that in this poll, as well? >> yeah, that's right. young voters, black voters, in particular, were also people that were most likely to say that they could consider a new or alternate political party. but i think the thing that stood out most in the poll is the economy continued to weigh on the president. there was some good signs for joe biden, though. people were less likely in an

october poll to say they -- i'm sorry. excuse me. that they thought prices were increasing. they were less likely. they were also more likely to say that their local economy was better than the national economy. there is signs the white house has been hoping that moderating inflation could start to resonate with voters, and this poll starts to show that some of those things are resonating there. >> akayla, let's tick through a couple of the states with the idea that, you know, we're still a year out. there's caveats, and things can change. these margins are close, most even, in fact, within the margin of error, particularly if it's a one-on-one race. there's concern with michigan in the wake of the israel and hamas war, where muslim voters are breaking away from the president. not that they're going to vote for trump but they could stay home. trump up there. when you talk to biden people, and i did some this week, they think they're happy to play defense in the swing states. where they think they can pluck

from trump's column is north carolina. but down nine, that seems like a substantial number. >> agreed. north carolina at least according to this poll is not something in the margin of error. also georgia, which the president won by a very close margin, as well. i think the concern was in 2020, biden had such small margins. he cannot afford to lose the key blocks like you mentioned, arab-americans, young voters, black voters. they have to go on the offense. something that i think is important to watch, especially on the economy, is they have been talking about price gouging. they're really putting pressure on corporate america, on companies to start bringing down some of the prices, especially in the health care industry and the oil industry. >> white house reporter for bloomberg, akayla gardner, thank you so much for coming on the show this morning. we'll see you again soon. still ahead on "morning joe," we'll talk to jonathan martin about his new piece entitled, "where are all the anti-trump republicans?" plus, we'll explain why the federal election interference case against donald trump is on

hold, and how it could jeopardize the trial's start day. meanwhile, trump's grifting seems to never end. we'll show you the new addition to his digital trading cards. >> selling pieces of his shirt. >> he is also selling pieces of his clothing, yuck. we'll be right back.

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we must expand as well. we need to rethink... next level moments, need the next level network. [speaker continues in the background] the network with 24/7 built-in security. chip? at&t business. how will history regard people like liz cheney and adam kissinger and people of their ilk? maybe it's just the two of them. >> yeah, i mean, they're friends of mine. i think they called -- look, trump is not a conseconservativ. he's an authoritarian narcissist. they called him out for that. he is a populist authoritarian narcissist, though historically speaking, all his tendencies are -- basically where narcissism takes him, whatever

makes him feel good at any given moment, and he doesn't think in classical, liberal, conserative terms. he thinks in an authoritarian way, and he has been able to get a big chunk of the republican base to follow him because, you know, he is the culture warrior. i think adam and liz stepped out of the flow and called it out, and, you know, paid for it. paid for it with their careers. >> former republican house speaker paul ryan yesterday saying former president donald trump is not a conservative but an authoritarian narcissist. jonathan, your latest article for "politico" magazine is entitled, "where are all the anti-trump republicans?" i think paul ryan might have just explained that, but in it, you write in part, quote, it's just under a month until the iowa caucuses and there's a striking lack of urgency among republicans who do not want to see trump nominated.

there's resignation, rationalization, despair, and even denial. yet, there'sittle action. there is a model for how trump could be toppled. it's the way biden claimed the democratic nomination in 2020. the moment he won the south carolina primary, it sent an immediate message to democrats hungry for a candidate who could defeat trump. sound familiar? biden was their man. with endorsements from his former foes and other party leaders, biden rolled into super tuesday three days later with unstoppable momentum. and so i ask, why -- i guess i'm asking the question you're asking, why aren't the republican candidates banding together and speaking out? >> yeah. >> i understand what paul ryan is saying. with respect, because, of course, we'll take, you know, somebody saying the truth whenever they say it, so i don't

want to diss him for actually saying the truth about donald trump. at the same time, he couldn't do it. >> right. >> he says that these people will lose their jobs. look at liz cheney and others. >> right. >> they paid for it with their job, sort of explaining, i guess, why he never spoke out. >> yeah. i mean, this is the most striking thing about the moment, mika. the people that feel the strongest about stopping trump, the liz cheneys, the paul ryans, the mitt romneys, are very much conscious that they have the least influence in the party today. because in some ways, if they were to try to intervene, trump would say, look, there they go. there's the old guard. the never trumpers coming after me. so it's a really revealing moment in the gop that those folks really can't do much in a public sphere.

here's what i want to know, though, and what i'm struck by as we said here going into christmas is, people like brian kemp and glenn youngkin, the governors, senators on capitol hill, folks like john cornyn, john thune, people who are still active in the party, who do still have a platform, the fact that they have not spoken out. look, i think some of them want to see iowa. they even want to see new hampshire. mika, here's the challenge, unlike democrats in 2020, after new hampshire could be too late for any kind of intervention. >> right. >> trump could effectively wrap up the nomination if he wins big in iowa and new hampshire. >> jonathan, before i get to my question, the s.e.c. schedules came out yesterday. >> sure. >> vandy and baton rouge next year. i will see you down there. >> the poor commodores. >> let's go! >> poor commodores. >> it'll be fun. let's talk about the candidates you're writing about right now and republicans sort of writ large, about why they don't

criticize him. obviously, they believe they need trump's voters if they have a hope of winning. it's a long shot in the primary right now. >> sure. >> when you talk to them privately as we often do ourselves, do you hear from them what paul ryan is now liberated to say out loud? >> sure. >> he's not in the government. do you hear from people who publicly go out and defend donald trump, who launch impeachment inquires into joe biden to run interference for donald trump, are they saying privately to you what we heard paul ryan say publicly? >> this is the great story our of time. the two parties, really, have a private conversation about their leaders and a very different public conversation about their leaders. dr democrats with biden. republicans with trump. almost anybody elected in the pre-trump times does not want him to come back and be their standard bearer. they know it's going to be a mess. just from a legal standpoint

alone next year, putting aside the implications for the country and our democracy. but, no, they don't speak up. in part because they don't -- they don't think it'll do any good. in part, yes, they do fear the voters. that's the big point here. it's not trump, it's the voters that they're scared of. i think a lot of republicans had paul ryan's instincts initially about trump. willie, once they saw their voters don't care he's not really a conservative, their voters don't care about his conduct, they had to fall in line. that is the real underlying issue here. the leaders are bowing to their voters and have been doing so the last seven years. >> the new piece is online now for "politico" magazine. the great jonathan martin, i'll see you in baton rouge november 23rd when the commodores come to town. democratic congressman hakeem jeffries of new york joining us. congressman, thanks for being with us. you spoke out very strongly yesterday on the floor of the house against what you called a

fraudulent impeachment inquiry into president biden. what did you make of the spectacle you saw from republicans yesterday? >> well, it was a very unfortunate abuse of the solemn and serious impeachment authority we have in the house of representatives. there is no evidence that president biden committed a crime. there is no evidence that president biden committed an impeachable offense. there is no evidence that president biden engaged in any wrongdoing. effectively, what we saw is that the extreme maga republicans in the house were ordered by an organized crime boss, the twice impeached former president of the united states, who has been, we've seen, a living, breathing, one-person crime wave, he basically ordered the extreme maga republicans to launch this illegitimate impeachment inquiry as a political hit on president joe biden to try to undermine president biden's ability to be re-elected. >> congressman jeffries, one of

the two participants in the press conference that republicans had yesterday was the chairman of the house judiciary committee, jim jordan of ohio. has he ever paid a price for ignoring a congressional subpoena? if not, why not? >> it's a great question. he has not. this speaks to sort of the approach that house republicans have taken during the trump years. facts don't matter. hypocrisy is not a constraint to their behavior. many of them believe that shamelessness is a superpower. so it's an approach that totally holds themselves to one standard of noncompliance with the law, with customs, with norms, with the constitution, but tries to hold everyone else to a different standard. we'll expose that hypocrisy to the american people, but the bigger challenge is that house republicans have spent this

entire year doing nothing. nothing on the economy. nothing on affordability. nothing on inflation. nothing to deal with the gun violence epidemic that continues to ravage this country. nothing on public safety. instead, they're going after reproductive freedom, failing to advance the best interest of the american people. >> leader jeffries, while house republicans yesterday were focused on this impeachment inquiry and the probe into hunter biden, what they were not doing was working on the israel, ukraine, and border security package. i know lawmakers are getting set to head home for the holidays. can you give us any update as to where things stand? is there any chance, any chance at all that a deal could get done by year's end? >> well, we absolutely need to make sure that we fund our national security priorities with respect to israel, ukraine, the indo-pacific, as well as

address in a bipartisan way some of the challenges that we've been experiencing at the border. what we see, i believe, is that the pro-putin caucus within the house republican conference, which on the inside is led by marjorie taylor greene and jim jordan, and on the outside is led by donald trump and tucker carlson, actually wants putin and russia to prevail. they do not want to see us succeed in ukraine. the facts are clear. 50% of the territory that was initially captured by russia has been recaptured by ukraine. 300,000 casualties have been inflicted by the brave ukrainians on the russian invaders. that is north of half of the russian military being wiped out. this is an extraordinary strategic success that is in the national security interest of

the united states, of our allies in europe, and certainly of nato. we can't allow that success to be eroded. there's no rational reason why the republicans are refusing to fund the ukrainian war effort, other than, at this point, taking orders from the pro-putin caucus. >> leader, when congress does come back in january, you're going to be very quickly facing a deadline on government funding, possibly facing another government shutdown. can you lay out for us what those first few weeks of congress are going to look like, what you see the role for the democrats in trying to find an agreement on the budget, keep the government operating? it's often fallen on democrats' shoulders to be there for the key votes. how do you see the next few weeks playing out? >> as you've pointed out, from the very beginning of this congress, house democrats have made clear we're going to continue to put people over politics and to find bipartisan,

common ground on any issue whenever and wherever possible. we've done that repeatedly as it relates to avoiding a cad catastrophic default on the vote. it was the democrats who kept the full faith and credit of the united states of america and kept the economy from crashing. it's been democrats providing the votes necessary to keep the government open not once but twice. we are ready, willing, and able to continue to do that, but we need partners on the other side of the aisle. i'm concerned that house republicans actually want to shut the government down. it's in their dna. they've done it multiple times. it'd be bad for the american people. we're prepared to do everything possible to stop that from happening. >> house minority leader congressman hakeem jeffries of new york, thank you very much for coming on the show this morning. we appreciate it. >> thank you. happy holidays. >> all right. you, too. coming up, why donald trump's lawyers are accusing special counsel jack smith of trying to sabotage their christmas.

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♪ you're a mean one mr. grinch ♪ ♪ you really are an eel ♪ president trump's lawyers are giving jack smith a new title, the special counsel who stole christmas. in a new court filing arguing against a request by smith's teams to expedite donald trump's presidential immunity appeal, the former president's attorneys this is not a joke. the filing readsn part, quote, it is as if the special counsel growled with his grinch fingers nervously drumming, i must find

some way to keep christmas from coming, but how? the court did grant the special counsel's request to speed up the appeal. in his reply, smith did not respond to the comparison, but he did point out that the ruling is consistent with his recommended schedule, the trump's team brief would due by december 23rd. the court approved the schedule last night, and there's so many parallels like the former president who stole women also rights, willie? >> you don't see dr. seuss invoked very often in legal documents. i'm not sure what they were getting at. trump's federal election case is on holt. judge chutkan halted this.

the judge ruled presidential ping did not shield him from these charges. special counsel jack smith has asked the supreme court and the account of appeals to expedite their decisions. as trump's legal bills continue to mount, he's literally selling the suit off his back for more money. he announced a digital trading card collection including these as george washington crossing the delaware, a wwe champion. now trump is back with what he's calling the mugshot edition of those cards featuring a very special deal for a limited time only. >> for the first time, we're creating a real physical trump card. purchase 47 digital cards and we'll mail you a beautiful trading card. it is an authentic piece of the suit i wore when i took that now famous mugshot, and it was a

great suit. believe me, a really good suit. it's all cut up, and you're going to get a piece of it. i wish i looked as good as i do on those cards, i tell you. they give me muscles where, believe me, i don't have them. i wanted to keep my trump digital trading cards at the same price, $99 each. collect your own exclusive piece of american history, and we'll all have fun together. have a good life. >> what does that mean? we'll all have fun together. have a good life. as you heard there, trump mentioning digital cards cost $99 apiece. i don't know a lot about digital cards. that sounds like a lot so you have to fork over close to $5,000 in order to get a physical card? and yes, a cut up piece of the suit trump is seen wearing in the mug shot. the fine print at the bottom of the video also mentioned the cards are nfts or nonfungible tokens.

nfts crashed last year making them almost completely worthless. we're getting -- >> i mean -- >> we're getting into a new place when you are buying garments from someone, pieces of the garments to collect and i don't know, play with at home or whatever. we're knocking on the door of here's a lock of my hair to keep in your pocket. >> imagine the joy that brings to families that have been preoccupied with school safety, guns, things like, that and preoccupied with the fact they're having difficulty paying their rent, preoccuied with the fact they lost their health care coverage, but this gives them the opportunity to get a picture or a piece of the president's clothing, or digital cards and they'll transform people's lives. he's just trying to make people happy, willie. >> i want you to have a good life, mike. have a good life. >> have a good life.

>> there is the other question we posed many times as donald trump hustles his own voters. he is or claims to be a billionaire. he claims to be very wealthy, and yet he continues to hold up his own voters, working class voters, for money to pay his legal bills. >> i just can't move on from the suit. it's the berlin wall, you all. like how they broke up pieces of the -- i'm just not often just astounded by him, but that whole -- the whole video was just astounding. also to tell us all to have a nice life after we buy his nfts and a scrap of the suit, i mean, wow. yeah. i'm speechless. >> i don't know what all the nay saying is. i saw that ad and got my christmas shopping done. i'm all set. so thank you. you can all look for that under the tree coming up in a couple of weeks.

it shows where we are, and how -- whether these sell well or not, the fact that the president of the united states, a former president of the united states is trivializing what is the mugshot, he's used it as a campaign fund-raiser and now he's using it for these. it is where our politics are right now, and that's not a good place. >> it goes without saying that you never really know if you are actually getting a piece of that suit, if you would really want it. we digress. still ahead, one of our guests says donald trump and his alies are not doing much about those worried about his autocratic instincts. a lot of them are leaning into the predictions. peter baker will join us with his piece from "the new york times." "morning joe" is back in a moment. times. "morning joe" is back in a moment

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what is thetutial crime thae investigating? >> well, we're having an inquiry

so we can do an investigation into the production -- >> what is the crime you're investigating? >> and documents. high crimes, misdemeanors, and briberies in the constitution. >> what is the crime you're investigating? >> i will -- once i get time, i will explain what we're looking at. >> wow. that -- that has the real vibe of a kid who did not prepare for the class presentation. the book was not just about mice, but it also had men. >> and that clip is the house republican agenda in a nutshell. >> that was also my high school career. >> yeah. >> in a nutshell. >> he's not lying. all right. the lower chamber is moving forward with an impeachment inquiry despite presenting no evidence of any wrongdoing by the president. the vote came after hunter biden defied a subpoena from house republicans, challenging them to hold a public hearing for his

testimony. we'll have much more from a bitter and partisan day on capitol hill. and then there's this. >> if he's elected, the stock market will crash. >> that bell marks a new record high for the dow jones industrial average, going to close above 37,000 for the first time ever. >> i've got to say, willie, it's -- it's amazing that he said that the stock market will crash. all-time high yesterday. that's the same as donald trump saying joe biden has gotten us into a depression. the numbers are really strong across most of the sectors. you've got actually economists who had been predicting a recession saying that's not going to happen. we're going to have this smooth landing, and that we're going to also most likely have three interest rate cuts next year. this reminds me a lot of 1983, ronald reagan, strapped with a

very bad economy in 1983. his approval rating got as low as 35%. he averaged 41% approval ratings on gallup throughout 1983. that's about where joe biden is right now. you have, again, you have this economy zooming up, and it's going to follow. voters are going to, again, start feeling this more and telling pollsters this more, but i got one thing that bothers me, willie. just one thing. you and i both know i can't use the word that i want to use. it begins with "d." i'll just say fellas. there are fellas driving around in convertible porsches. >> okay. >> you know what i'm saying? >> mm-hmm. >> they're driving in their convertible porsches, pulling into their country clubs. they're getting out, having their caddies run up and get

their bags. they're going out, going out to the clubhouses with their -- i don't know how much rolex watches cost. let's say $30,000 rolex watches that they first bought. they can't get through their conversations at, like, the grill, men's grill because they keep looking -- i'm serious -- at their stock. their stock counters to see how much money -- they look and go, i made $16,000 just in the time i sat down here, and then they'll go out and for 18 holes they'll bitch about how joe biden is a socialist who's ruining the economy. it happens nonstop. these "d" guys. >> it's a phrase. a french word, isn't it? >> it's a french word. i think it ends with an "e." they drive around in their maseratis, their porsches, their mercedes. they talk about how bad the economy is. they made millions and millions in joe biden's economy. some billions and billions, and they attack him as a socialist.

it's just pure garbage. >> yeah, i know exactly the person you're talking about, or the people you're talking about, and i understand the word you're using. i had -- not to reveal too much. i have had that conversation with that person that you're driving just within the last week as a matter of fact, and bringing up -- >> wow. >> -- all the things that you just brought up, and now 37,000 is the dow. "the wall street journal," the front page is covered in stories about how, yes. it looks like there will be a soft landing. no, it looks like we hope now there won't be a recession. in fact, we're turning the corner to where rates will come down. people can get back into the housing market. hopefully rents are coming down, and these are all positive indicators, but what you have done is folded in the politics of this, and people say, biden, he's old, man. he may not even be on the ballot this year. all the things they run to different places and when you put together -- this is an amazing tweet from donald trump. when you put together the

politics with the economy, this is in 2019, then-president trump tweeted this. quote, you mean the stock market hit an all-time record high today, and they're actually talking about impeachment? >> wow. >> will i ever be given credit for anything, wrote donald trump in 2019. there you have it. you know what they say. there's a tweet for everything, joe. >> there is a tweet for everything. >> there is. the newest thing on fox is joe biden hasn't accomplished anything. they just can't think of anything he's accomplished. that will be the line. don't even start on that. >> as well, more bipartisan legislation than any president since probably lbj. bipartisan legislation, and more job growth than any president in ages. he's doing better economically in every area except for donald trump save inflation. that's because we came out of

covid, and those numbers are going down now, but again, it's crazy. these people that are rich as hell talking about, like, making hundreds of millions of dollars, making billions of dollars. they put on their little vests, and they go to conferences, and they talk about how joe biden -- >> i just want to know the word. >> you know the word, dear, but they put on the little vests to hide their fat stomachs, and they go out there, and they talk about how joe biden is, like, oh. he sucks as a president. he's too old, and he's a socialist. he doesn't believe in people making money. the economy's wrecked, and i hear this all the time. joe biden's ruining america. he's ruining the economy. oh, is he really? record highs, willie. record highs, and you know what they're going to do today? they're going to go out and they're either going to buy, like, a portion of a, you know,

partnership in a private jet today because they're making so much money, or they'll buy a lamborghini, and they'll, like, drive down some, you know, west chester main street going 80 miles an hour for two seconds and then have to go to a stoplight and then rev their engine at the spotlight and then go 80 miles an hour for another four seconds and then they'll stop, you know, and they'll have their trump 2024 bumper sticker talking about how joe biden's a socialist, and then they'll get in a wreck because they're going to be looking at how much money they're making per minute because of the economy that joe biden has salvaged from donald trump. so there you go. that's all i got to say about that. >> we have the host of "way to early" -- >> they irritate me. >> i don't know what they are, but politico. >> you know, mika. >> i don't know. >> who they are because you see them. >> ali, help me. >> you watch them go in with

their lamborghinis and porsches. >> i know what you are talking about. i met the type. oh. i got it. louis. all right, jonathan lemire, former white house director of communications, jennifer palmieri, the co-host of "how to win 2024" with claire mccaskill, and nbc news capitol hill correspondent allie vitali. i don't mean louis. louis told me the word. >> this has happened before. jen, you know, people wonder why joe biden remains -- remains pretty calm about this while democrats across washington, d.c. in america wet their bed. i mean, he knows where the economy is. he knows where the economy's going. he knows it's still a very long

way to go. again, in 1983 where, you know, ronald reagan is, where joe biden was, reagan's approval rating got as low as 35%. why? a recession. he averaged 41% in 1983. the year before his election that he won 49 states. we're not saying joe biden is going to win 49 states because there is, of course, the construct -- the media construct has enabled people to go out and tell lies about joe biden and make money off of it. they're going to keep telling lies about joe biden. they're going to keep making money off of it, but let them make their money. let them lie. joe biden, if the economy keeps going the way it's going with three rate cuts next year -- >> yeah. >> -- that sure is favorable. >> i mean, this is not -- this is not one good jobs report. this isn't one good report on inflation going down. this is what has sort of kept

the ceiling on, i think particularly for consumers, you know, average americans pay attention to interest rates. they understand what that means. they understand the implication that has on being able to buy a house or sell a house or knowing that going into 2024 that the plan is to have three -- is to lower the rates three times. i just -- i feel like that sort of takes the lid off of people having this overhang. >> yes. >> that overhang of concern that there might be a recession that, you know, interest rates are going to continue to go up. if that is gone, then i really do think either the administration can go full boar ahead in making the argument that the plan is working, and so even -- >> right. >> -- if people can start to come down from this state of anxiety that people have been in since covid of what's the next terrible thing with some certainty, and, you know, that is a -- that is a very big deal,

and to go -- to end the year knowing that's what's coming next year, you know -- >> yeah. >> -- i wouldn't expect to see massive jumps in approval ratings in the next week, but that portends a good glide path for next year. >> yeah, for sure, instead of it just being one report that comes out, a piece of data that stands alone, it's an overall direction, and steve ratner is going to join us later in the show. will he be at the western wall? we shall see with his charts. the big story of course, is what we have two hot wars for the president to navigate on the world stage. the republican-controlled house has voted to formally authorize its impeachment inquiry into president biden despite it failing to prove any wrongdoing by the president. the voting was strictly among party lines yesterday. all democrats voting no, and all

republicans voting yes. house oversight chair republican james comer has accused hunter biden and other biden family members of the engaging in, quote, shady business practices, but as we said, has yet to reveal any evidence of wrongdoing or influence peddling by the president himself. so here is what several house democrats said ahead of the vote. >> the biden impeachment investigation isn't a whodunnit. it's is what is it? it's like an agatha christie novel where the question is what's the crime? >> if we give it time, he's going to prove that hunter biden is joe biden's son. >> we're here today not because of any wrongdoing by president biden, but because donald trump wants revenge. >> so the republicans leading the impeachment inquiry insisted they are driven by efforts to

uphold the constitution, but this week, some have let it slip that their true intentions are politically motivated. take a listen. >> what are you hoping to gain from an impeachment inquiry? >> all i can say is donald j. trump 2024. >> can you identify any actual policy decisions that joe biden has made in response to getting paid for those policy changes? >> well, we'll have to -- that will be part of the investigation. >> facts haven't taken me to that point where i can say the president is guilty of anything. >> he must be really frustrated. he's dragging trump through the courts, and trump is rising and surging in the polls. >> there's, you know, this other issue of whether joe biden was involved in his son's business dealings, that i think the american people are looking at as well. i think all that together is why you see the numbers where they're at. >> this has been i think, the most transparent political -- congressional investigation

since i have been in congress. >> yeah. >> oh my god. >> it's the most political, willie. the most political since he's been in congress. i've asked -- i asked. >> you did, and he did not deliver. >> to give us a clip of green acres, arnold the pig and he refused to do it. >> that's bad producing. we love alex, but you got to get that clip in there. they say the quiet part out loud. they have been doing that for a long time. when the one congressman from texas walked by and says, all i can say is trump 2024, baby, there it is. right? that's the whole point of this exercise is somehow to dent in some way, joe biden even though they've shown no evidence of it. also as democrats in the vote -- in the conversation leading up to the vote yesterday pointed out, to put this side by side with what donald trump did, what he was impeached for, and what

republicans have ignored or defended, it really -- they've sort of lost the high ground and they're trying to talk about impeachment and defending the constitution, but we did get the vote, party line vote. the i go forward. what happens next? where does this go? >> they continue investigating. i mean, the other quiet part out loud about all of this, is you usually do -- you pull the clips that i think are most important about this debate, specifically troy nell's trump 2024 because republicans have consistently used their majority and ability to wield the gavel from the moment they spoke a speaker back in january to play sort of counterpuncher and chief defender of former president trump at each turn, whether it's alvin bragg in manhattan, whether it's letitia james, and every house oversight or whatever committee have always sought to back up trump and muddy the waters.

this is yet another instance of that. in terms of where it goes next, these investigations have been going on for the entirety of the year. the reason that i'm told from republicans who are involved in this is that they want to move it forward to an impeachment inquiry so they can officially say they're in the inquiry phase and have a little bit more juice behind the ability to enforce their subpoenas when inevitably it comes to defending those subpoenas in court. fine. the thing i've yet to get an answer to, and i have been in a room with these committee chairmen, is what are the high crimes and misdemeanors? in that clip you showed at the beginning of the show, what are the high crimes and misdemeanors? nobody can put a fine point on what that is. it's because it depends which committee chairman you ask. each of them are pointing to a different piece of this and saying that's the high crime and misdemeanor, but they also don't have evidence for one yet, and i think that's where this whole thing breaks down. it was surprising for me that

they had full unanimous republican support yesterday to open the inquiry. my understanding was that at least one republican congressman was leaning no at least before he got on the house floor yesterday, but now they are all marching in lockstep towards this. that breaks down when you actually try to move towards an actual impeachment though, and i think that's where you start running into problems if you are republicans. >> and let's be clear. there has been no evidence yet presented, none whatsoever. this is about donald trump next year not wanting to be the only candidate on the ballot who's been impeached. this is trying to level the playing field. this is trying to tarnish president biden's reputation. we can take republicans at their word of what they're trying to do. the white house officials saying, no white house wants to go through this, you know, impeachment inquiry. it's not a full impeachment if we go down that road. it's a drain on resources and it's a drain on time. it's a drain on just when they could be doing other things, and we know how full the president's

plate is right now, even before he really launches his re-election campaign. what do you think? are voters going to see this and see there's no there there, and there will be a backlash? could this be a political gift for this white house, or is this going to be a drag on president biden's re-election campuses? >> i think you're absolutely right. there's no there there. if you go back to the original allegations of when he was vice president biden asked the government to fire its anti-corruption person, and that was a pay for play. this is the entire monetary fund which was conditioning its aid to ukraine on it getting rid of a corrupt anti-corruption prosecutor. what biden was doing was trying to -- along with everyone else, the whole of the european union, he was trying to get ukraine to become less corrupt. this is being presented as the exact opposite. whether that kind of detail in

a -- it's going to stick with some people. whether that kind of detail, you know, will come through when it's being presented so forcefully and forcefully, you know, i guess depends on who you are, and which channel you're watching. the fact that there is no there there probably doesn't bother the likes of jim jordan. i think representative mcgovern got it right when he said, when trump asks them to jump, they say how high, and they're now jumping for trump. this is his retribution, and it's a pr -- a very cynical pr-driven attempt to besmirch biden without any evidence. >> yeah. >> and forgive me for repeating the question we ask all too often, but what do our european allies -- what do our nato allies -- what do our enemies this of a country that has a chamber, a house chamber that tells israelis to go to hell, they're not going to fund them,

tells ukraine to go to hell, they're not going to fund them, but they do have time -- they do have time to move forward with a bogus impeachment inquiry that they even admit is formless. >> i think in terms of this impeachment inquiry, almost no attention will be paid to it. it's seen as bogus. it's seen as a charade. there is an enormous amount of attention being paid to what could happen in 2024, not just amongst, you know, our allies, but in ukraine. in ukraine, it is life and death what happens in 2024. of course, it's life and death what's happening now, whether they get renewed funding in american supplies to defend from another putin winter onslaught. all right. still ahead, a deadly day for israeli soldiers in the war with hamas. it comes as the country's prime minister continues to reject calls from global leaders for

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the israeli military suffered one of its heist single-day death counts since it began its ground invasion in gaza in late october. ten soldiers were killed tuesday including a battalion commander and lieutenant colonel commander. the idf says nine of them died in an ambush attack while soldiers were in an advanced stage of clearing an area. the tenth soldier died in a separate battle in northern gaza. meanwhile in southern gaza, the israeli military has ramped up

its attacks. according to the "washington post," 20% of the buildings in the area's largest city have been damaged in israeli air strikes. president biden criticized israel's military campaign earlier this week at a fund-raiser saying, the country is losing international support because of its, quote, indiscriminate bombings. the white house is now doubling down on that statement saying, the president's comments, quote, reflect the reality of global opinion adding that while israel has made some efforts to reduce civilian casualties, the biden administration wants to see more results. meanwhile israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu is vowing to keep fighting, rejecting calls for a ceasefire amid the growing international pressure. israel's ambassador to the uk reaffirmed that statement in an interview with sky news adding that a two-state solution with the palestinians is not

possible. take a listen. >> we know we cannot negotiate with hamas. it means we need to have a better future for the palestinians and in order to achieve that -- >> two-state solution? is there still a chance for a two-state solution? >> i think it's about time for the world to realize that the ultimate paradigm failed on the 7th of october, and we need to build a new one. >> does that include the palestinians living in a state of their own? is that what it includes? >> i think the biggest question is what type of palestinians are on the other side? this is what israel realizes -- >> what is the answer? >> the answer is absolutely no, and i'll tell you why. the reason is because the palestinians -- >> how can without offering a state to palestine, how can there be peace? >> israel knows today and the world should know now, the reason the courts failed is because the palestinians never wanted to have a state next to israel. they want to have a state from the river to the sea. >> the two-state solution is dead? >> why are you obsessed with a formula that never worked that

created these radical people on the other side? why are you obsessed with that? is it normal to do something the palestinians kept denying and it will create another terrorist state? israel is not interested with that. >> that is the ambassador to the uk speaking yesterday. ed luce, the two-state solution is what the united states has called for, what president biden has been talking about even more in the last few days. as a solution at the end of all this, once israel is trying to root out all this, what peace might look like, but an absolute nonstarter as we just heard there from the ambassador, and for prime minister netanyahu as well. >> yeah. talk about saying the quiet part out loud. what she said very explicitly there is what netanyahu has been maing sort of very clear in other words. that's since october the 7th,

and since his political career. he has always been opposed to a palestinian state. his selling point as israel's leader, and in multiple elections, he's been re-elected. it's been that he will provide security to israelis. when he's completely failed to do that, the intelligence failure on october the 7th is being laid at his door. he would lose an election now. he's looking for another tagline, and instead of being me being mr. security, he's going to be mr. no palestine. that's what he's going to fight the election on, and of course, that directly clashes with what the biden administration is saying that the day after goal should be. i don't see any way around that. this split is going to get worse and worse. netanyahu will run against biden. in spite of biden being his best friend, there's only one friend that netanyahu has, and that's himself.

we're going to see this split get a lot worse, and it's going to be the basis of netanyahu's re-election campaign next year. >> you know, jonathan lemire, following the heinous attack of october 7th, we talked about the importance of keeping things in context and talking about the heinous attack. we're now a month or two past, and we see somebody who is doing things that damages israel in the eyes of the world. every day benjamin netanyahu, here's a guy we found out, that was begging qatar to keep funding hamas, giving them billions and billions of dollars weeks before the attack. qatar said, do you want us to keep giving hamas money? and the answer from netanyahu's government was yes. yes. keep giving them money. netanyahu's government had the secret plans written down that hamas had to destroy -- to go

through the gate and to -- >> a lengthy, detailed document. >> burn, kill, shoot israelis, and the netanyahu government ignored it, and we can go on and on, but this is when anybody in israel is asked why, it's because he was so obsessed with avoiding a two-state solution that he made a deal with the devil. he, quote, was buying quiet netanyahu cozied up to hamas, and israelis are dead. more israelis are dead in this attack than any time since the holocaust, and netanyahu and netanyahu's people are saying, we're going to keep doing what we have been doing over the past ten years. we're going to keep telling the world to go to hell. we're going to say no to a

two-state solution, and we're going to do whatever it takes even if it makes israelis and jewish people at home and across the world less safe. we're going to do it. i'm sorry. we can't be a partner with this guy forever. we just can't. we can't be a partner with a guy that allowed jews to be raped, shot, killed, and burned, and his government did nothing for eight, nine, ten, 11 hours, and we can't continue to be an ally with a guy that actually turned the spigots of money onto hamas telling qatar to give them billions and billions of dollars. >> and before all this, questionable moves, made a lot of questionable moves some say to remain in power and avoid indictment. >> well, he's indicted. he wanted to avoid going to jail. he started a war against the supreme court. >> right. >> it split the country.

he was so obsessed with that, that he forgot what an israeli prime minister's first job is, and that is to protect the people of israel and by extension, protect jews there, and protect the 15 million jews living across the world. he has failed on every count. we cannot continue supporting benjamin netanyahu. they need to put somebody in power that's more interested in protecting israelis and protecting jews than they are in protecting themselves from staying out of jail. >> an overlooked part of president biden's comments about israel the other day was when he said that netanyahu's is the most conservative in that nation's history. president biden spoke out against his efforts to overhaul the judiciary, and of course, these settlements in the west bank, and then now the netanyahu government has been slow to condemn the violence by

extremist settlers there in the west bank because as just noted, they still have no real embrace of a two-state solution despite that being the u.s. saying over and over and over, that must be the end game here, and joe, as you reported, some weeks ago the biden administration believes netanyahu's standing is not tenable. he will be pushed from power. there are many who say that day can't come soon enough. the federal reserve could start cutting interest rates sooner than expected. steve ratner will join us with charts on what's driving the optimism from the central bank. "morning joe" is coming right back. bank "morning joe" is coming right back

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as we approach the end of the year, it's natural to look back on the progress that has been made toward our dual mandate objectives. inflation has eased from its highs and this has come without a significant increase in unemployment. that's very good news, but inflation is still too high, ongoing progress in bringing it down is not assured, and the path forward is uncertain. as we look ahead to next year, i want to assure the american people that we're fully committed to returning inflation to our 2% goal. i have always felt since the beginning that there was a possibility because of the unusual situation that the economy could cool off in a way that enabled inflation to come down without the kind of large job losses that have often been associated with high inflation and tightening cycles. so far, that's what we're seeing. that's what many forecasters on and off the committee are seeing.

this result is not guaranteed. it is -- it is far too early to declare victory. >> some optimism there from federal reserve chair jerome powell as he spoke yesterday. his comments as we mentioned, helped to send the stock market to record highs clearing 37,000 as it closed. joining us now, former treasury official, "morning joe" economic analyst, steve rattner. good morning, steve. good to see you back at your post at the southwestern wall. >> very good to be back at the southwestern wall. >> thank you. let's start with your first chart. the fed lowering inflations and the rate projections, what it might do next year. >> yeah. so consistent with what chairman powell said yesterday, the fed has changed a number of its projections. this is actually one of the most consequential meetings i can remember. i wish the fed did nothing in the sense of not changing rates, but they did a lot of other stuff. let's talk about what's happening with inflation, and this is, of course, what underlies all of these rate increases and the fed's effort to slow the economy, and what's

very dramatic is how the fed has changed its inflation expectation just in three months. if you go back to its september projection which is this blue line here, the fed thought inflation this year was going to be 3.3%. in three months, it has taken it down to 2.8%. that is a major change, and it has lowered its inflation projections along the rest of the curve the next several years. so that is what leads the fed to have changed the expectations about interest rates and again, if you just go back to september, this blue line is what the fed thought was going to happen to interest rates. this is what the fed thinks now will happen to interest rates. three-quarter reductions of a point this year, and interest rates continue to stay below what it previously thought in getting all the way down below 3%. what's one thing -- one other thing to note here is that the credit markets which have their own view of life and their own view of the economy actually think interest rates are going

to come down even faster. they think they're going to come down by 1.25% over the next year. a very bullish outlook from the market and a positive outlook from the fed. >> so steve, is it fair to say we don't want to put up the mission accomplished banner here yet, but that the fed achieved its goals with these rate hikes that sometimes frustrated people as they continued to go up, and they did the job they were intended to do which was to tame inflation? >> it's quite extraordinary. this may well be the first time we have had inflation of this magnitude and gotten it out of the system without a recession, what the market likes to call immaculate disinflation. it will be really quite an accomplishment if this occurs. >> let's see if this occurs moving to your next chart suggesting a soft landing. let's remind our viewers what that means, and if you think that's going to happen. >> so a soft landing is another word for immaculate disinflation. it means getting inflation back down to the fed's 2% target

without having a recession. that's something that would be almost without precedent in recent american history anyway. let's look at how the fed is saying that. the fed is saying we will have continual economic growth. this is real gdp growth back in 2016. we had a strong hit during covid, and again, 23. if you looked at the fed's projection from one year ago, this 2.6 number for this year's growth rate would be 5%. they thought the economy would slow down, and it didn't. as you look out, they're expecting positive increases meaning no recession in their forecast at the moment, the so-called soft landing, and that has very significant implications for unemployment. unemployment, of course, is down near -- still down near historic low 3.8%. they do think it trends up a little bit to 4.1%. part of keeping inflation under control, but this is still well

within what economists call full employment, a really, really successful economy. coming up, we'll go live to the white house for our senior contribuor eugene daniels who is there, and the newly launched impeachment inquiry into president biden. "morning joe" is back in a moment. biden. "morning joe" is back in a moment

welcome back. some of the world also most notorious authoritarians are in agreement on one thing, that the women in their country should focus more on procreation. in recent weeks, vladimir putin called on russian women to start

having eight or more children in a bid to, quote, preserve old traditions. in north korea, kim jong-un said women have a duty to stop the decline of the country's births in order to strengthen national power, and in china, president xi jinping said the country's women must start, quote, a new trend of family. here to discuss, editor of "forbes women" maggie mcgrath, and huma abedin. what is behind these remarks? >> all three men who have said this have never had to that. i think that the way i see this, is that they're using this argument of national pride and patriotism, but really it's a guise for an economic argument. if there's a problem in a country, of course, you need women to fix it.

look at russia and the war with ukraine. north korea, talk about an economy that's already broken and heavily sanctioned. they've had rapidly declining fertility rates over the last decade. they rely on a mobilized workforce. and then in china you have an aging population and low birthrates at the same time. you have women saying i'm going to delay getting married because of the reasons you just mentioned, the high cost of child care, the hindrance at work and really just gender discrimination. it's hard enough for women to have one child, let alone the seven or eight that these men require. this is masking economic challenges in these countries. >> if history is any indication, governments rarely can convince women to have more babies. do you agree? tell us why. >> i do agree.

we have seen politicians in taiwan and hungary and germany introduce baby bonuses to boost their countcountries' birthrate. that hasn't worked. gone are days where my grandma had nine kids. women have more financial and educational and professional opportunities. as we have made gains in the workplace and society, attitudes towards being child free and the stigma towards being child free have declined. the ideal of a child free life is increasing. part of the reason gets to your point. it is expensive to raise a family. in the u.s. $21,000 on average

to raise a child. that adds up to $300,000 over the course of a child's life, not including college. then we have to look at the policies in place to support families through this economic reality. it's not enough to have a one-time baby bonus. we need to look at cost of living, paid family leave, caregiving policies. >> i want to switch gears, because we have news on our upcoming 30/50 summit in abu dhabi, which is taking place march 5th through march 8th, international women's day. the global event focuses on creating cross-generational alliances to provide guidance and insight to women at every stage of their career while also offering diverse perspectives and rich cultural immersion.

this event has been remarkable every step of the way. we have exciting new speaker announcements about this year's event. who's headlining? >> maggie and i have been so excited waiting for today to make the first of many announcements of our speakers joining us in march. we really focused on a broad spectrum of women leaders in finance, women founders and entrepreneurs, women in fashion. you'll see the names just get better and better. i'm kind ofbursting with excitement. the first woman joining us is suzy orman. she is our finance north star. every woman in america should know who she is, because she was a pioneer on a subject that many

women aren't comfortable talking about. that's money. she gives us tools and programs on how to invest our money, how to save our money, how to grow our money and have long-term financial security. i think people are going to be excited to hear what she has to say. the second speaker is meg ryan, a golden globe nominated actor, director and producer. all of us remember her iconic roles that she played in the late '80s and '90s "sleepless in seattle," "you've got mail" and "when harrysally." we're thrilled to hear from her in march. >> she's had great things to say about aging in a really positive way. maggie, who else have we got? by the way, suzy orman is my inspiration. who else have we got?

>> we have sheila johnson. she is perhaps best known as the cofounder for b.e.t. she and her husband sold the network to viacom in 2021. she didn't stop there. she founded salamander hotel and resorts. she has stakes in the nba wizards. she's the only black women who own stakes in that many professional sports teams. she believes in intergenerational conversations and work, which is so perfect for this event. >> and we have more announcements in the weeks to come. huma abedin, maggie mcgrath, thank you very much. for more details head to forbes.com or knowyourvalue.com. up next, we'll have the latest on the republican-led investigation into president biden and his family, now backed by a vote to launch a formal

impeachment inquiry. also ahead, quote, checks and balances won't stop trump. congresswoman liz cheney warning about the risks of putting the former president back in the white house. he rmfoer president back in the white house.

in the criminal justice system, sometimes you really want someone to have done something bad even if they probably didn't, so you spend many months and millions of taxpayer dollars on an investigation, but the best you come up with is his son's penis pics. >> yeah. thank you dick wolf. >> that's all you got. all right. >> an episode of "law & order." >> that's a real episode. comer is the e.p. right now of law and order on the hill. what have you got, other than international fgitives as star

witnesses for comer? >> have they caught that guy yet? >> i don't think so. i think he's still running around. comer loves him, says he's his key witness even though he illegally smuggled iranian oil to the communist chinese party and illegally sold weapons. but, you know, everybody's got a complicated background, i guess. >> it is striking. we tried to watch with an open mind. just didn't do themselves any favor. asked again and again and again what's the crime, what are you going afterwards here? you're talking high crimes and misdemeanors. the inquiry is open. we'll see where with it goes. we start the fourth hour of "morning joe." joining the conversation, from the "new york times" peter

baker. and symone sanders townsend. the republican house voted yesterday to formally authorize its impeachment inquiry into president biden, despite failing to provide any evidence of wrongdoing by the president. garrett haake has the latest. >> the yays are 221 and the nays are 212. the resolution is adopted. >> reporter: republicans' months-long investigation into president biden is now backed by a vote to launch a formal impeachment inquiry, the house voing along party lines late wednesday to press on with an investigation of the president and his family's business dealings. >> we have a simple question i think a majority of americans have. what did the bidens do to receive the tens of millions of dollars from our enemies around the world? >> the republicans' probe focuses on hunter biden, accusing him of profiting off the family name while joe biden was vice president.

so far, they've been unable to publicly demonstrate any concrete evidence that directly connects president biden to any wrongdoing. >> the republicans are going this for political retribution at donald trump's direction. >> reporter: president biden accusing house republicans of a, quote, baseless political stunt, writing in part, "instead of doing anything to help make americans' lives better, they're focused on attacking me with lies." earlier wednesday, a defiant hunter biden appearing just outside the capitol. >> for six years i have been a target of the unrelenting trump attack machine shouting "where's hunter"? here's my answer, i am here. >> reporter: he has offered to give his testimony at a public hearing. >> in the depths of my

addiction, i was extremely irresponsible with my finances. but to suggest that is grounds for an impeachment inquiry is beyond the absurd. there is no evidence to support the allegations that my father was financially involved in my business, because it did not happen. >> again, this is what democrats and also what people in the media and some people in the mainstream media who are trying to be balanced and down the middle claim we have to keep digging into this, there has to be some "there" there. yet, we saw earlier this morning when we replayed the clip of the republican who could not answer the question what the investigation was about, what joe biden did that was impeachable. peter baker, i guess that's the thing that not only americans are still wondering, but many people in the republican caucus still wondering what are they

impeaching him for specifically? >> reporter: that's exactly the question. they'll say it's just a question, not an impeachment himself. by voting for an inquiry, it gives them a stronger leg to stand on legally as they seek information and so on and so forth. but it does put republicans on a track toward an ultimate outcome. we've seen once you start an impeachment inquiry like this, it heads toward an inevitable outcome. we thought moderate republicans would balk at pursuing an impeachment line without evidence. they decided to go for it anyway. that leaves biden's camp to worry when it comes to an actual impeachment vote, they might fall in line again. that's a big risk for a lot of

republicans in biden voting districts. there are 18 of them in the house. they're going to be taking a chance if they do decide to vote to impeach president biden. if they don't, republicans will look embarrassed for having pursued something that doesn't lead to an impeachment. it's a real risk the house republican caucus is taking right now. >> i didn't expect this to go through, only because i expected a couple of those republicans in biden districts to be responsible, say, well, we don't have any evidence, we don't know what this inquiry is about. again, these 18 people doing this while representing districts that voted for biden, i mean, it seems that would be so easy to go after these republicans, saying, wait, you don't have time to support

israel, you don't have time to stop putin, and you don't even have time to negotiate with joe biden to try to make the southern border more secure? yet, you've got time to start an impeachment inquiry that your guys don't even know what it's about. >> a lot of those republicans criticizes this previously in the open in public. yet, when the vote came down, every republican voted to open the inquiry. that is a tough vote to take for someone like mike lawlor or these swing district republicans in places where joe biden won the vote. the question was pretty stark yesterday up on capitol hill as republicans were asked what do you have to prove that joe biden is somehow tied to, as they call it, shady business dealings of his son? >> what are you hoping to gain from an impeachment inquiry? >> all i can say is donald trump 2024. >> can you identify any actual policy decisions that joe biden has made in response to getting

paid for those policy changes? >> well, we'll have to -- >> i can't say the president is guilty of anything. >> he must be really frustrated. he's dragging trump through the courts. trump is rising and surging in the polls. >> there's this other issue of whether joe biden was involved in his son's business dealings that i think the american people are looking at as well. i think all that together is why you see the numbers where they're at. >> this has been, i think, the most transparent political congressional investigation since i've been in congress. >> maybe it is transparent. what we can see into this transparency is so far there's nothing there. the argument is we want to open the inquiry to see if there's nothing there. but they never get into

specifics. if you're the white house, what do you do with all of this? they're going to continue this and use it through the election year. they're trying to put a dent in him in the general election. they're helping donald trump, as they just say explicitly now. >> i think the white house has to play hardball. there's all these things they could focus on. the president is ready and willing to work with them. everybody is about to leave for a holiday, yet this is what they're focused on. this idea that there's some good faith here, the chairman of the house oversight committee there is telling us it's a very transparent political investigation with your tax dollars. i just think this idea there is some balance here that there is

some "there" there that we have to give credence to, for lack of a better term, the other side. it's just ridiculous. every modern impeachment inquiry -- and joe biden the fifth president to face impeachment inquiry. every impeachment inquiry is based on some credible semblance of wrongdoing while the individual was president, not vice president. while the individual was president. remind the people. >> they're holding up republicans as if this is some kind of equivalency to the impeachment of donald trump, the second of which involved him leading a coup against the government effectively. they're suggesting, well, joe biden is shady too, as if there's any comparison. >> donald trump doesn't want to be the only presidential candidate on the ballot next year who's been impeached.

there's a viral video clip of speaker mike johnson talking about during the first trump impeachment, the one over ukraine, where he belittled it as a partisan exercise. well, first of all, there were republicans involved there. secondly, of course, this is a one-party exercise right now. the hypocrisy is just so obvious. the white house, of course, they don't want this. they don't welcome an inquiinqu. it takes up time and resources and energy that could be used for other things. they do believe there will be some political benefit. the republicans have overreached. we should note there is a new poll out today that surveys americans as to what they think of this impeachment inquiry. it's about a 50/50 split.

at least in that initial moment, there doesn't seem to be much political bump for this white house. but if this proceedings carries out in the months ahead and the republicans continue to ignore the public's business, that could change. >> we're talking about the moment where now speaker johnson said we can't be doing this 11 months before an election. congresswoman liz cheney has written an op-ed in the "wall street journal", quote, the framers warned us the checks and balances are only as effective as the people responsible for carrying them out. those who try to dismiss the risk of a second trump term do our country a great disservice. we have learned our current congress will not play this role. republican senators have shown

they won't step forward to check mr. trump's power. house republicans are even worse. some were personally involved in mr. trump's january 6th plan. others were too fearful of losing their primaries or threats of violence to stand up and stop him. that leaves the urt. almost every day trump and his allies declare that our justice department are, quote, weaponized, illegitimate. they continue to demonize judges. to achieve what he wants in a second term, mr. trump could declare a national emergency or an insurrection or falsely claim elections are hopelessly corrupted and must be postponed. our nation can endure bad policies for four or eight years. but once our constitutional system unravels, the damage is

irreversible. the framers understood this. we should too. the risk is far too great to elect trump ever again. that's liz cheney writing this morning in the "wall street journal." >> it's all so obvious. that's why i am stunned, i am shocked that almost half of americans support a former president who has promised to terminate the constitution, be a dictator from day one, execute disloyal generals, said he would terminate the constitution if that's what it took for him to become president again and actually ban television networks that were disloyal to him. now, again, i just want

everybody to stop and understand when americans say, well, why are you so tough on donald trump? why aren't you supporting donald trump? greatest president. ask them how they could support a president who promised, his words, to terminate the constitution, to execute generals that are disloyal to him, a guy who calls people who brutalized cops on january 6th american heros, saying that he was going to pardon them, ban television networks that he disagreed with and said he was going to be a dictator from day one. this is pretty simple, isn't it? this isn't about being a conservative or liberal or moderate or independent or democrat or republican. it's whether you like american

democracy or hate american democracy. liz cheney, great op-ed. why are so many republicans still supporting a guy who has said all this out loud? nobody's projecting onto him. this is donald trump admitting he's going to do it. peter baker, you have a piece about talk of trump dictatorship changes american political debate. it does, but is anybody moved by that debate? i know a large number of people still supporting this guy despite the fact he says he wants to terminate the constitution, execute disloyal generals and ban television networks that disagree with him. >> well, i think you're right to point out this is not the overheated rhetoric of his political opponents. this is trump's own words. after that piece, i got some e-mails saying, oh, this is just

democratic talking points. it's not democratic talking points. these are trump's talking points. this is exactly what he's telling us he's going to do. you rightly pointed out that he has openly said he's for termination of the constitution so he can be returned to power right now and joe biden can be taken out without an election. obviously that's not going to happen. he's being provocative. but that tells you something about the mindset of somebody who wants to be president of the united states who does not believe the constitution should apply to him. it's important to take somebody at their word when they're telling you who they are. he complains about weaponization of the justice department, then he says he wanted to weaponize the justice department. he complains about the government putting him on trial for 91 felony counts on charges that even his own former attorney general say are

legitimate, but says he's going to charge his former attorney general bill barr and john kelly and ty cobb who worked with him but criticized him and say they're going to use the justice department to go after them. people around him say they're going to go after the media. for what? well, saying things he doesn't like. they're still deciding whether it would be civilly or criminally. that's what they're telling us. it's important to pay attention to what the person who is running for office tells us if he's going to be quite so candid and transparent about it. >> we don't have to wonder about what donald trump is going to do in another term. 2015, 2016, oh, he can't be that bad. now, all the people that were there, the generals, mattis and

kelly and milley, they're not going to be around. >> i really think that folks who read peter baker's article said, oh, these are democratic talking points. they do not understand that the federal government is only as strong as the people in the seat, whether you're the president, the vice president, the people that advise the president. there is no one to check the checker if the people around the president, members of congress are unwilling to stand up to whomever that is. i really think people have to understand. i know america is the greatest country in the history of the world, the greatest democracy. let me just tell you, i worked there. so much of it is protocol. it's just what we do because it is what has been done. very few things that go on in that building are laws.

some of these things are just we do it because we're supposed to do it. what about people who don't believe in the protocols or don't have the reverence for the office? there will be no folks trying to keep the train on the rails. >> it's about people who put service and the country first. that's not the trump way. symone sanders townsend, thank you so much. this saturday an interview with the iconic patti labelle. can't wait to see that. president biden is reportedly open to new border policies in exchange for additional aid to ukraine. where things stand in the negotiations as congress is set to leave washington for a long

holiday recess. plus, we'll talk to cnbc's andrew ross sorkin about the impact of the federal reserve's surprise projection that it may cut interest rates three times next year. r. nexium 24hr prevents heartburn acid

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♪♪ beautiful shot of lower manhattan, where andrew ross sorkin is seen as a sort of king that walks among mere mortals, the man whose words can turn markets around in a single sentence. let's bring him in now to talk about the dow jumping to record

highs yesterday, obviously after hearing andrew ross sorkin's reports. andrew, you've done it again, moved the markets. you and jay powell, of course. let's talk about this. i know you don't like talking about yourself, so we'll just talk about jay powell. this was one of the most unique fed announcements for, first of all, what it didn't do and what it suggested it might do in the coming year. >> i will say i was surprised. i think we were all surprised. we were not expecting to hear jay powell speak explicitly about anything. we've long learned from these fed chairmen that they sort of talk in very vague ways so there's a lot of reading between the lines and tea leaf reading and the like. this was an explicit discussion about a plan to lower interest

rates at least three times in the year 2024. there was no expectation he would say that aloud. that made the stock market rocket. you saw it reach its highs yesterday. again, this morning we're up about 166 points on the dow. there is a sense that we could have a soft landing. i think his willingness to say what he said aloud suggests that he thinks interest rates are going to be coming down and have to come down and growth is going to come down. by the way, we always do the good news/bad news thing. the bad news is the reason he's going to be lowering interest rates is because we are going to see some softness in the economy. you want the softness. but we are walking into an election year. he also said that unemployment is going to go up, not down. we're at about 3.7 now. he's projecting it to go up to

about 4.1%. by all historical measures, that is still a remarkable number. let's see how that talking point gets used in the election over the next 12 months. >> by historical standards, that's still pretty darn low. you look at inflation, again, for the most part going down, consumer confidence starting to edge up. andrew, i wonder if you would like to get in the conversation i was willing with willie about certain guys that run around in their porsches and their convertible mercedes checking their stocks and how many millions they're making and at the same time talking about how joe biden is a socialist and he's wrecking the country and the economy is going to hell because he's such a left winger.

and yet, these same people are richer than ever before with a stock market that hit record highs yesterday. >> well, look, you know i don't disagree with you at all on this score. it is clear as day from a policy perspective and even beyond that that there is a school of thought among a certain group of people that want to have lower taxes, that want to defund the irs. you know, there is a political version of that in the form of many, frankly, of the candidates on the republican side. and we're seeing that. but i don't know what else to say about it except that it's obvious, and i think it goes back to taxes, taxes, taxes. the truth is that many of the people are in, in truth, being

undertaxed on a relative basis already and would like to be taxed even less. >> it's outrageous, the amount of breaks that billionaires and multinational corporations got from the trump tax cuts and they still want more. it's never enough. what else are you looking at today, andrew? >> well, there's a couple things going on that are probably worth considering. we didn't really get a chance to talk about it yesterday just in relation to this cop meeting that just happened on climate and fossil fuels. i think it was an important step. i don't know if you guys talked about it on the show. the phrase "fossil fuel" is now being used to reduce fossil fuels in a real way. i think that obviously may be very good for the planet on a long-term basis, but if i'm also being candid, it also could mean that the cost of fossil fuels

and our energy costs in the short term are going to be higher. i don't know if that's really priced into the market, but i can tell there's a lot of people starting to talk about that. >> the united states starting to produce more oil than ever before, yet donald trump is going "drill, drill, drill," proving he doesn't read the "wall street journal." >> i will say one thing. one of the things that's been surprising to me is, you know, i think there's a real push toward evs and electrification that would get rid of fossil fuels. and yet, the american public, for better or worse, doesn't want the evs in the marketplace

with the rapidity that you would think. the demand isn't there. with the exception of tesla, the demand isn't there. i don't know what that says about where we really are. >> well, what it says is what it said when my dad got mad when people were buying cars that weren't built in detroit. i was like, dad, people don't want cars built in detroit right now. like they're not ready to make the move back to buying american. we've seen a shift back to buy america over the past 20 years, especially with trucks and suvs playing such a large role. this is just market driven. there are some people that are ready to move to evs, but until it reaches critical mass the government is going to push and have incentives. you're right, though. that demand didn't follow the

government's push, did it? >> not to the extent i think they wanted. i think that's going to be another issue that we're going to see playing out in the next couple years. >> we're debating about what happens over the next 15 or 20 years. you talk to the richest oil producing countries. most of them will tell you they think they run out of oil in the next 20 years. so they even understand why they have to move to alternative fuel sources, why they have to move to evs. you look at the uae, which was the host of cop28 for a good reason, because the uae, like the saudis and so many others, at some point realize they run out of oil underground and they better be on the cutting edge of other energy sources, or else

they'll fall behind. andrew ross sorkin, thank you so much. appreciate it. willie geist, what's going on with the white house? >> they're trying to figure out immigration and whether it ought to be tied to funding for ukraine and israel. two sources tell nbc news the changes may involve new migrant expulsion powers and an expansion of the migrant system. negotiators are still working on specifics and call on the senate to stay in washington until an agreement is reached. pro-immigration groups dubbing the possible framework as, quote, title 42 on steroids. let's bring in eugene daniels. good to see you.

probably wishful thinking to ask congress to stay in town. they're scheduled to leave for their recess later today. how open is the white house to change in immigration policy? >> reporter: the good thing for folks who want a deal done is that the conversations are still happening. earlier this week there were concerns that they were just too far apart and nothing was going to happen. we reported today at politico that chris murphy and james langford were continuing negotiations last night and meeting with top administration officials, including alejandro mayorkas. the administration has, as you said, signalled that it's open to making it harder for migrants possibly to seek asylum and making it easier for the government to expel them.

you hear from folks in the democratic party that this is not what they want to see, especially when you tie it to more aid for ukraine and possibly israel in this deal. they are saying that democrats are going to look as if they are selling out migrants and people of color here for this foreign aid and these other deals. we had some fresh polling today that suggested that it might be good for the administration to get something done here on the border, that more people in this country seem interested in having a little bit tougher restrictions at the border. people can talk about whether or not that's good, what that actually means for us as a country. i will say from the very beginning president biden has

been open to something on the border on this deal. the republicans saying they haven't been is not true. when he sent the request, more money for border was actually in there. >> there's certainly a real policy debate as to what to do at the border and certainly is a cry from most that something needs to change there. let's talk further as to what eugene started, which is the political part of this, where there is some suggestion that maybe swing voters would approve of joe biden taking a tougher line at the border. by doing so, he would risk potentially turning off the progressives, the liberals, those on the left who are pretty disenchanted with things he's done, in particular his handling of the israel/hamas war. >> it's a fraught time for president biden when it comes to

his relationship with the left, in large part because of the israel/hamas war. a lot of younger democrats who are the key to him winning again next year are turned off by that and are turned offer by other things as well, turned off by his age. they don't believe he understands their generation, so on and so forth. they're not necessarily going to go to trump. the question is whether they're going to turn out in the numbers that president biden needs. yes, you're right, there's a risk depending on how far he goes on border security in terms of alienating his own base. at the same time it's hurt him with some other democrats who want to see him taking some sort of action to make the border more secure. this is such a complicated issue. to tie it together with ukraine is another area that has been of

criticism for the president. he's the one who originally said in his supplemental request to congress to add more money for ukraine aid, he's the one who said let's add some border money as well, therefore, marrying these two issues into a toxic stew. a lot of democrats are unhappy with him for doing that too, because it's complicated enough to find a border comprise without having it tied to this urgent need for ukraine at a time when russia is waiting in the wings. >> first of all, you have democratic mayors, democratic governors, democratic senators. you have a progressive democratic senator in pennsylvania john fetterman who says we have more people at the border right now than we have people that live in pittsburgh. there is a massive crisis at the border. why progressives think allowing

that massive crisis at the border to continue is humanitarian at any level is absurd, just as absurd as thinking you should let people just live on the streets in february in new york city and freeze to death, and somehow trying to get them into shelters is inhumane. that's, unfortunately, what an extreme element of the democratic party believe. barack obama was called by many on the left a, quote, deporter in chief. it did not hurt him. as we bring up on the show repeatedly, before donald trump got into office, illegal border crossings were at a 50-year low. they spiked the second donald trump became president of the united states. this is an economic issue. talk to voters that matter in

michigan, wisconsin, pennsylvania, new hampshire, georgia, nevada and arizona. they, along with most democrats, want to see order brought to the border. >> as you say, this is not a crazy right-wing talking point. this isn't a fox news narrative. ask the mayor of el paso, texas, if there's a crisis at the border. it's there. it's real. many democrats do recognize that. the president and his campaign understand that this is an important issue to americans too. perhaps that's why they've come to the table to say let's figure this out, especially since republicans want to tie it to ukraine. eugene daniels, the door is open for republicans to start an investigation, they say, into president biden and any connections he may have had to hunter biden's business dealings. again, they have not made one as

of yet even though being asked repeatedly over several years now. what is the white house strategy to deal with this? >> reporter: it's going to look probably similar to what we've seen over the last year since all of these investigations have started in earnest. this administration has built up a team whose main focus is to talk to congress about the investigations, not just of the white house and president biden, but across the administration, the possible impeachment of mayorkas, the secretary of homeland security. see the administration be a to little bit more tougher and out front, i don't think you're going to see that. they are very cnint of not doing that. president biden did release a statement that you just put up. the way that he phrases it is, instead of doing anything to help make americans' lives

better, republicans are focused on attacking me with lies. they're choosing to waste time on this baseless political stunt that even republicans in congress admit is not supported by the facts. this administration is going to say and has said, we are focusing on doing the work of the american people. contrast that with republicans who have already admitted and we've all seen and heard that there seems to be at this point no "there" there. they want to use this impeachment inquiry as strictly political. what the republicans have said is that the impeachment inquiry allows them to have these tools and levers to pull to kind of force the administration to engage in a different and more earnest way. they accuse the administration of not doing that. but at the end of this inquiry, no matter what they found, there's going to be a large segment of the republicans in the house and around this country who, after hearing all of these things over the last couple years, are going to

demand that the impeachment goes through no matter what they find. >> we learned a lot yesterday by that vote when every republican voted to open the inquiry, including those who have been previously critical of that idea. politico's eugene daniels at the white house, thank you so much. and chief white house correspondent for the "new york times," peter baker, thank you as well. next, we're dig into a new book titled "some people need killing, a memoir of murder in my country." the "new york times" named it one of the top ten books of the year. the author is our guest next to explain the true story behind that title. e true story behind that title

(vo) in three seconds, pam will decide... (pam) i'm moving closer to the grandkids! wait. i got to sell the house! (vo) don't wait, just sell directly to opendoor. easy as pie. (pam) piece of cake. (vo) whichever. get your competitve offer at opendoor.com. former president of the philippines rodrigo duterte says he may reenter politics if the vice president is impeached over alleged misuse of funds.

when he was elected, he launched a violent war on drugs that led to the deaths of thousands of people. he said, if someone is a drug addict, kill them yourselves. those honoring the victims of his regime broke ground in manila. a new book "some people need killing," the "new york times" just named it one of the best ten books of 2023. its author patricia i thank you. >> congratulations on all the acclaim. top ten of the year from "new york times," "time" magazine called it one of its books of the year. the title is so striking. we should explain that first. some people need killing. where does that come from? what does it mean?

>> it's actually not a quotation from former president duterte. in 2018 i was interviewing vigilantes who were accused of outsourcing -- no, i was outsourcing vigilantes who police had been outsourcing murder to. i was in a room with a vigilante, and he said he was a religious man. he said he was a good man, and he said that he killed drug addicts because he wanted to protect the future of his children. and i asked him how he squared that with this idea of being a good person, and he said i'm not a bad guy. i'm not all bad. it's just some people need killing. and that reverberates across my country, and it did on the campaign, during the campaign of president rodrigo duterte because duterte told a story, he took every fear and every grievance fueled by decades of failed expectations, and then he gave the enemy a name. he called it the scourge of

illegal drugs, and he said i will kill to destroy it. now, it's easy to dismiss the language of a politician and say it's just rhetoric, but we can't afford to do that. we've learned this across history. when a strong man says i will kill, he means it. when a strong man says i will suppress the press, he means it. when a strong man demeans a woman, he means it, and when he uses words as threats, he will act on those words when he has power, and that's what happened with us. and the price is a little too high and the stakes are too high to ignore the language. and i'll tell you one story, that price was paid by an 11-year-old girl. her name is love love, and love was the last word her father said when a vigilante shot a bullet through his temple, and then love love attempted to beg

the vigilante to say don't shoot my mother, and the vigilante stood up in front of her, raised the gun barrel, aimed it at her mother and said we are duterte, and then he emptied the magazine. it is a language from top to bottom. >> i want to go back to something you said because it probably stopped people in their tracks which is you're talking about drug addicts. you're not just talking about going after drug cartels to stop the drug trade, stop the flow of drugs. talk about wiping out all drug addicts as if the drug problem would go away if we could just kill all of those people. so let me ask you who are the vigilantes? who carried out this order? they weren't just military, they weren't just police. they weren't government. they were people who took his words and acted on their own. >> he was an inspiration. and the police have killed at

least 6,000. in every killing they claim that the drug addict, the drug dealer, the criminal, the suspect fought back, and there's always a gun on the ground beside the dead body, allegedly the man had pulled out a gun in defense of their lives. the language they use in police reports is we were forced to retaliate. but the vigilantes themselves, they say, at least the men i have spoken to, they say that they believe rodrigo duterte that addicts are terrible people. it was easy to demonize and dehumanize to take language like that and bring it down to the street. and they still think they're good men, they're just doing a job. >> he's out of power for now. we'll see if he finds his way back in. have these death squads gone away? is this effort over now? >> people are still dying on the streets. journalists are still dying. you don't have a man standing on

a podium saying kill them all anymore. impunity stands, the fear is on the streets. journalists wonder if it's dangerous to write what they write. so the drug war at the height of it is not the same anymore, but the repercussions will run through generations of children who have walked down the street, saw a body, and said this is normal. the terrible is ordinary now! jonathan lemire is in washington with a question for you. >> patricia, good to see you. congrats on the book. >> thank you. >> i was in manila with president trump on a trip where he praised these killings by duterte. some thought having a similar policy here in the united states, at least with drug dealers, maybe not drug users. talk about where things stand with duterte and what possible comeback might he have? >> president duterte does like to talk, and he does like his audiences, and he does like his

applause, which i think is particular to many people. there is word that maybe some sort of reckoning, the international criminal court has put the philippines under investigation. there's also some word that president duterte may run if he decides to, but right now, our president is the former dictator's son, ferdinand marcos jr. his vice president is rodrigo duterte's daughter. it's not as if a comeback is necessary for president duterte, his family is in power. >> let's talk about the people who follow him and how he had such a strong following. i read this about joy, an example of a duterte believer, joy's brother and cousins were deep into their drug addiction, they stole from the family to buy meth. quote, joy was angry all the way to the day when rodrigo duterte finally announced she was running for president.

she saw him on television. it was like seeing jesus. she ran home whenever her husband messaged her that duterte was on the air heading straight to the television to hear jesus speak. she we want every time, replayed every interview, every speech, every clip she could. jesus would save her. jesus would deliver her. jesus understood. joy also knew what the second d in dds meant, she was not afraid. talk about how transfixed many people in the philippines were. >> they said we are duterte, so the wonderful thing about duterte and i say this as a story teller is that he was able to make himself every man so that every man could be rodrigo duterte. he could be hero, he could be messiah, he could be anything. he's not special in that. there are charismatic men all over the world who will say

outrageous things, who will say dangerous things but not dangerous enough. they might say take back the country. they might say build a wall. they might say -- they might say destroy the addicts and protect the future for the children, and then the dial turns a little bit and maybe they'll say things that are a little more dangerous but more acceptable, like kill the addicts, kill the journalists, maybe shoot the shoplifters, maybe kill the federal judges, and in the end we realize, we know that it can happen anywhere. that it is happening everywhere and that the philippines is a cautionary tail for what happened when an autocrat can blow a dog whistle and is charismatic enough for the world to follow. and when that happens, people like me, we stand in the street. we count the bodies. we look at the body with his head wrapped in packing tape and a sign beside him saying drug dealer or drug addict and we ask

how did people let this happen, and then your autocrat will say all i did was tell a story. >> and we ought to take those stories very seriously and take their words very seriously. just a breathtaking book, so well told. it is titled "some people need killing: a memoir of murder in my country with warnings around the world as well. congratulations on the success of the book. thanks for being here today. >> thank you for having me. >> and that does it for us this morning, ana cabrera picks up the coverage in just 90 seconds. the coverage in just 90 seconds. so now, do you have a driver's license? oh. what did you get us? [ chuckling ] with the click of a pen, you can a new volkswagen at the sign, then drive event. sign today and you're off in a new volkswagen during the sign, then drive event. first time i connected with kim, she told me that her husband had passed. and that he took care of all of the

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