that's enough right there to vote down a nominee, but you have to have a very special political situation in your state to be comfortable voting down a trump nominee. and, again, even if you do that, there's probably a limit to two or three more. certainly we'd have to watch. we shall see. terrific analysis as always from brendon buck, msnbc political analyst, thank you. and thanks to all of you for getting up "way too early" with us on this tuesday morning. "morning joe" starts right now. g "morning joe" starts right now welcome to "morning joe." it is tuesday, december 3rd. we have a lot to get to this morning, including the increased scrutiny on donald trump's intended choice to be the next fbi director.

we will tell you who is on cash patel's so-called deep state enemies list. meanwhile, trumps selection for secretary of defense sat down with lawmakers yesterday after new allegations from whistleblowers detailing years of sexist behavior and alcohol abuse. we will have their reaction to the closed-door meetings with pete hegseth. we will go through the biden administration's last-minute efforts to get vertical funding to ukraine before the president-elect takes office. and we will bring you the latest from the middle east as there are concerns this morning . the cease-fire deal between israel and hezbollah may fall apart. we have the host of "way too early." associative editor of the washington post, eugene robinson, congressional investigators reporter for the washington post, jackie alameda.

let's dive right in. donald trump's pick of cash patel to potentially leave the fbi is bringing increased attention to patel's extreme views and his so-called enemies list. in his 2023 book, government gangsters, patel has an entire appendix listing what he calls, members of the executive branch deep state. the list, which contains 60 names, including democrats, biden administration officials and even some trump appointees. among them, former attorney general bill barr, deputy ag rosenstein, trumps former white house counsel and special counsel robert mueller. in the book patel also calls for firing the top ranks of the sbi -- fbi, prosecuting leaders it will journalists and replacing the national security workforce with people who don't

undermine the president's agenda. yesterday on capitol hill some senators were asked about trumps selection of cash patel. you know, i don't know him. i have read some of his comments and seen them. i think that's the reason that this process starting earlier is much to our benefit. we will get a chance to sit down and have a chance to talk to him. i have a big fbi presence in my state. we do all the background checks for the guns. it's an important part of the fbi mission. >> if you have the power of that office, the fbi director, and you are using it to go after political enemies, or the press, or people you regard his adversaries, that is worse than incompetence. that's abuse of power. and that power is awesome. >> we are talking right now about a potential replacement for christopher wray. somebody donald trump appointed

in 2017. somebody that has bipartisan support with many centers on the republican side and the democratic side. he supposed to have a ten-year term that started in 2017. there has been the signal from donald trump they he's going to fire christopher wray. he's going to replace him. he wants to replace him. he wants to replace them with somebody that has an enemies list. somebody that was selling boots a couple of years ago. but it has an enemies list. he has written it out, the people he wants to go after. a lot of republicans and a lot of democrats. a guy who has promised that he's going to go after reporters and journalists and arrest them for not following conspiracy theories about the 2020 election that has been disproven, time and time again. standby, we will be talking about -- having to apologize in

a second. and also saying he's going to shut down the fbi. he's going to clear it all out. if it is not the most radical pick, it's one of the most radical pics. again, if this is something that the republican party endorses in 2024, 25, that it actually will be a republican party in the senates that has reached a new low. >> back to your thought about christopher wray, the reason fbi directors get tenure terms is because that is supposed to be insulated from politics. i definition, it spans at least two presidencies. so donald trump, as you said, pointing christopher wray in 2017. he supposed to have a term that goes until 2027. he said he's going to fire him. and cash patel is a guy who is the pure distillation of loyalist to the end of donald trump. his entire being, his

entire public persona, his entire life has been the last decade or so in support of donald trump and attacking his perceived enemies, as you said, and perpetuating conspiracy theories. the job of fbi director is deadly serious because their work is deadly serious. and something that should not be used as an appointment of a loyalist, a friend to attack perceived enemies. that's what donald trump has chosen here. open question, whether the senate goes along with this. david, you actually profiled cash patel a few years ago. for those that don't know him, you detail how patel rose from being an obscure staffer to a key operative in trumps battle with the intelligence community. what should people know about cash patel as we enter this process? >> the main thing is he is the most loyal, extreme in his loyalty, member of trump's

entourage that i encountered. when he was sent to the pentagon as she is's chief of staff under chris miller in a brief period at the end of 2020 , serving undersecretary miller, he came with a very specific and focused agenda. this is what president trump wants me to do. he was not there to run the pentagon 's chief of staff in the usual way. he was there to conduct specific political goals. there was a list of them that he wanted troops to move from various battlefields around the world. patel tried his best. and in most cases, failed, to get those troops out of the way. he wanted to install a trump loyalist in a key position at the national security agency, one of our most sensitive intelligence facilities.

he talked with the cia about reducing the pentagon support for cia operations. a whole string of things. he made clear to the people that he was working with at the pentagon that he was not there to do the normal job of being chief of staff, but to do the president's bidding. i think what's of concern when you think about the fbi director, the fbi director has extraordinary powers to conduct surveillance on american citizens. and those powers, to listen into phone calls and read emails, would be directed by somebody that has shown that he has a very political agenda. and as you said, in his book, he had an enemies list. >> yes he did. cash patel has consistently pushed false claims of voter fraud in the 2010 election, including a widely debunked film by the name of "2000 mules." and now, the man who made the film, is finally admitting

publicly, finally, that parts of the film are simply not true. the core of his conspiracy theory contended that democrats hired mules during the 2010 election to collect and drop off balance at the same drop boxes multiple times. he released a statement on his website yesterday admitting the data he used to promote that theory was not accurate. and he only recently learned of the inconsistencies. >> oh, please. come on. even ann coulter said it was stupid years ago. it was so obviously, stupidly false. and everybody knew it when it came out. >> he also issued an apology to an atlanta area man who sued after the film wrongly identified him as a so-called,

mule, repeatedly dropping off balance. despite those admissions, he maintains the underlying premise of this film, quote, holds true. and continues to claim there was substantial fraud in the 2020 election without providing any evidence to back up those claims. >> they never provide any evidence. >> they do the damage. >> they do wild claims. they destroy people's lives. look at rudy giuliani, the lives that rudy giuliani destroyed and the cost of it to those women. and now the financial cost to rudy giuliani. the lies, repeated, over and over again. and one of those lies lies at the center of the guy that wants to be the next director of the fbi. and what are you hearing on the hill from senate republicans? are there four senate republicans that will say, maybe it's not a good idea that we put a guy in charge of the fbi who says he's going to shut, building on day one he's going to arrest journalists and

reporters that didn't follow lies in conspiracy theories about the 2020 election. and he has an enemies list and has promised to persecute those on his enemies list. >> first, the 2000 mules has been debunked now. the book version had to be detracted and reedited. the publisher has apologized and halted distributional of the book. he himself apologized and said the film is based on inaccuracies. it's wrong, every way about it, from the start. and you're right, there are real consequences here for innocent people. but cash patel, at least so far, has not had any consequences for supporting these lies. in fact, it's partially why he is donald trump's choice to be fbi director. what i hear on the hill is, yesterday, there is the day senators are back on the hill since the choice that patel was announced. even collins, who many expect will stand in opposition to this, she played lipservice.

senators are not going to come out right away and say, no, i'm not for this. but we are already hearing rumblings that there will be -- we expect mitch mcconnell, others, senator rounds has expressed misgivings already. there's a belief this number will grow. if you get four you probably get to six, eight, 10, 12 and the like. others will be able to jump in. so jackie, that's get your sense of this. because right now republican senators to have a bit of a bouncing -- balancing act. how many of these can they oppose? matt took himself out of the running, sparing themselves a no vote. we had pizza hegseth. he was on the hill yesterday trying to lobby senators . we know there is real, growing opposition to him because of allegations coming from the new yorker and other places. we also have senator saying,

why is christopher wray being fired? he's done a good job. let's not forget, he himself only to post because trump fired james comey because he was meddling with the russia investigation. what's got to be a stressful time for these republican senators. >> jonathan, this is going to be a real test for republicans who have faced a number of controversial nominees that trump has appointed to the most high-profile and powerful positions in the government. yesterday pam was making rounds on capitol hill, at least compared to the rest of the crew picks, is one of the less controversial choices that trump has made. as we spoke about extensively, there still a handful of others who rank up there with cash patel in terms of the conspiratorial and controversial view. republicans on the hill so far are loath to come out hot on

this and out right deny and say that they are not going to support certain nominees. they want to at least have the appearances of going through a fair and thorough process. that's why think you're seeing, now, a number of republicans, even some more conservative republicans who would be more likely to support trump's pics unconditionally, call for fbi background checks . they are basically now rallying around process, trying to get the trump transition process to go the more traditional route, which is a bit of a change already from what we saw at the beginning of november, when trump initially won the election. now you have people like john kennedy, or calling for thorough background checks with the fbi so people like patel can be vetted. and so that republicans on the hill have the full array of facts on them. you are right, there's some sort of internal thinking about

these limits, about how far they can oppose trump at the end of the day. but if there is this growing constituency of opposition, like we've seen with matt gates, and ultimately might have the power to persuade trump otherwise. >> the fbi background checks should be the bare minimum for people who want these really important jobs. of course, donald trump and his transition team, running their own process. just one last point on the film, because it is so foundational, when you talk to trump supporters, it is shorthand. 2000 meals. the election was stolen. he did make that one apology about the information in the movie. but he went on to say, the underlying premise of the film holds true. he said there was fraud sufficient to call the outcome into question. there was not, i only bring that up because that is something that cash patel is

heavily invested in, the idea that the 20 election was stolen and that he's going to secret tradition against the people he perceives to have stolen it. those will be among the questions if he makes it to the confirmation here. >> i'm curious, is he going to go after the 63 federal judges? is he going to go after them? is he going to go after the united states supreme court? is he going to after clarence thomas? the two most conservative justices, when they reviewed the pennsylvania appeal said, well, we need to look at this for legal reasons but it wouldn't have changed the outcome of the election. is he going to go after them as well? i mean, seriously. 63 federal decisions. the supreme court. you can go on, and on, and on. this is absolutely preposterous. i tell you what else is preposterous. >> you can use, bs. >> can i say that? i thought i said that.

>> that's what i heard. >> i will tell you what else is preposterous. and this next one really speaks to it. really, you get these pundits and everybody going, this was the worst loss of all-time. obviously it was at stake in the presidential race. obviously. we set it here, time and time again, most important election of our lifetime. and it went the other way from where we would have liked it to go. and yet, all these articles about the democratic parties destroyed forever and what are we doing, pundits sticking hands and blenders while going on blue sky and twitter. if you look at how close this race was, and i've got to say this again, because nobody listens, nobody listens to everybody it's actually getting actual facts out there, what

about a new story from fox news about the difference between the republicans and the democrats in the united states house on january 20th, when donald trump is sworn in. one, republicans have a one vote majority. you look at the senate, we have artie talked about how close it is there. you look at wisconsin, harris lost by less than a percentage point there. she lost by 1.2 or 1.3% in michigan. she lost by 1.6% in pennsylvania. like we said, repeatedly going up the election, this race is tight. now i can see if this was like a blowout in 1964 or nixon blowout in 1972, or reagan blowout in 1984.

but this was one of the closest elections ever, especially if you look at the outcome of the house and the outcome of the senate. and the only reason democrats are not in charge of the united states house of representatives and jeffries is not speaker of the house is because north carolina legislators rigged the process so badly that they took away three democratic seats there in a rigged redistricting attempt. it actually held up. again, here we are, one month since the 2024 election, willie. and only one house see the remains of on call this morning that is breaking democratic. makes it look like they are in a dead tie. you know what they call this? then europe, a unity government. because they are basically tied pics all these people are saying that this is the end of the world for the democratic party, i think they may be overanalyzing this just a bit. >> a three vote majority in the senate for republicans and an

even narrower majority at this moment in the house. as you said, joe, the swing states, all seven which went to donald trump, had troubling signs inside for democrats that they need to change. he won by a couple million votes. he has won by a majority of 49.9% this morning. you can throw out terms like, landslide, which is transition team likes to use. he does have a mandate in the sense of republicans are fully behind him. but the idea he's going to steamroll through anything you want, he's pushing those boundaries right now to see how far republicans will go. but he just doesn't have the votes to do it all on his own terms. so let's explain what joe was saying. one house he remains on call this morning, four weeks after election day. california's 13 congressional district, republican congressman

john duarte is -- by 200 votes with 99% of the vote in. should his democratic challenger oust him house speaker mike johnson will likely be dealing with a1c majority for those first 100 days of congress. that's because two house members are likely to serve in the incoming trump administration. and former florida congressman matt gates resigned from office last month, which will leave those seats empty until special elections are held. that small majority may also be due in part because of the north carolina supreme court. as dave wasserman at the cook political report notes, when republicans won the majority of the court in 2022 they had the power to redraw three democratic seats into the gop's hands, which may have effectively killed democrat chances at winning the house. gene robinson, you can take that into the fold. there may be a one-vote majority for the

first 100 days in the house. certainly, donald trump won all the swing states. most of them within the margin of error, narrowly. but what does it all mean for his first few months, first year in office? >> he has a victory but not a mandate. this is not a mandate to do the things he promises to do. what he is trying to do is put together in administration built on a foundation of lies. built on a lie of the storm election, built on the lies about the deep state, the conspiratorial deep state. built on the lies about vaccines. built on lies. and that's what, unfortunately, he's going to try to push through. we will see if republicans in the senate have the backbone to push back. background checks i

think will help. perhaps some of these nominations. but, you know, he's going to proceed as if this were a landslide and try to get through a program that is potentially disastrous for the country. certainly not helpful at all for the country. look, this is what we said for months, and months, and months. believe him when he says what he's going to do if he is elected. and he's trying to do it. >> what we have said time and time again on the show, don't listen to what kamala harris says, listen to a donald trump says. listen to what he's promising to do. there's one problem with that though, david. he's running into, basically, a divided government. a 50-50 government.

anybody that has been in the house were served for more than one minute knows that you have 435 people there and they are focused on 435 separate things. their own reelection. we saw the chaos when mike johnson had a four or five vote majority. a one-vote majority makes one thing clear, if republicans and donald trump want to get things done, they can talk tough, they can position themselves on the extremes, but you just look at the raw numbers. and they are going to have to deal with democrats. and people on x can scream, shout, hoot and holler all they want to. but you've got a one-vote majority. soon, maybe, in six months, a three vote majority. but we've all been around long enough to know, and i don't mean to be impolitic, because god knows i never that. some of

these members are going to make it to the end of their term. for variety of reasons. for a variety of reasons. they retire, they decide to go out and play golf. they want to move to boca. you name it. they don't make it through. the rate of attrition suggests that this could go anyway. and so you've got that small margin. you've got the small margin in the united states senate. and if anybody wants to get anything done, they will have to do something that nobody talked about in the campaign. on the republican side. and that is actually work with democrats and have democrats and republicans figuring out how to pass legislation. >> joe, i don't think we will have a unity government, as you suggested earlier. nice as that might be. >> i was being sarcastic. >> but i do think your basic point is right. individual members and senators are going to have unusual power

and have an opportunity, if they have the courage, to look into their hearts and think, what's right for the country? the margins are so narrow that if there forms a group in the house and senate that says, we are not going to be pushed around, we are going to choose the right nominees for positions. we will take visible positions on legislation, there will be reasonable checks against arbitrary presidential decisions. trump is assembling a cabinet that is prepared for his revenge and rep -- retribution agenda. and what will stop that is individual members of the legislative branch saying, no, we are here precisely to stop arbitrary decisions from your branch, to weigh them, to advise and consent. we are going to watch an amazing drama. a true piece of

american history, as we see whether people have the courage, have the emotional strength to withstand what will be enormous pressure and do the right thing. still ahead on "morning joe." the fragile cease-fire between israel and has block unravel. nbc's matt bradley joins us from lebanon with the latest from that reach. we are back in 90 seconds. liberty mutual customized my car insurance so i saved hundreds. with the money i saved i thought i'd get a wax figure of myself. cool right? look at this craftmanship. i mean they even got my nostrils right. it's just nice to know that years after i'm gone this guy will be standing the test of ti... he's melting! oh jeez... nooo... oh gaa... only pay for what you need.

♪ liberty, liberty, liberty, liberty ♪ i was out on a delivery, when i came across a snake. fedex presents tall tales of true deliveries our battle was legendary. maybe now my friends will believe me. we did this for one delivery, see what we can do for your business. fedex. welcome back. almost half past the hour.

the head of the presidential transition next month donald trump is weighing in on the conflict in gaza. posting on social media yesterday that if the remaining hostages are not free to before his inauguration on january 20th there will be, quote, all all to pay in the middle east. joining us from beirut, matt bradley. matt, there's a lot going on in the region, including the very shaky cease-fire between israel and hezbollah. what's the very latest right now? >> that's right. we are hearing donald trump weighing in, as you would expect, on his own social media platform. saying, basically he's going to come in here and bust heads if things don't go to plan before he takes office. it's unlikely a lot of the stuff will get resolved. i think we can expect that he will take credit regardless of what happens. this is a situation that's

worsening in almost every column, every category here in the middle east, including here in lebanon. a nation where there had been peace as of about a week ago. there was a peace deal that was brokered by the biden administration, along with our partners in france. now it looks like that is on a very, very shaky ground. this was yesterday, the deadliest day so far here in lebanon, since that peace treaty took affect almost a week ago last wednesday morning. 11 people were killed in israeli bombardments across southern lebanon. this is a situation where both sides, once again, are saying the others to blame, blaming the other fridge violations of cease-fires. at the same time, we know that hezbollah had fired, for the first time, just yesterday, into israel. that was something that they hadn't done. but israel has routinely been firing into lebanon, attacking targets that they say are essentially people moving towards hezbollah military installations or missile silos. and this has happened repeatedly. we have been hearing from the lebanese speaker of parliament. he said the israelis have violated the cease-fire more than 50 times. we've also heard from various other groups saying that it's much, much more than that coming from the

israeli side. just this morning we heard from a top israeli official saying that if this peace treaty doesn't come to pass, if it crumbles, then the lebanese people can expect that not just hezbollah will be punished, but all of lebanon will bear the brunt. so that is a very real threat, considering that nearly 4000 people were killed in just the past several months of fighting here in lebanon between hezbollah and the israelis. and they decapitated hezbollah's leadership. we heard from the u.s. administration last night that it looks as though, despite all of this really series of taken violence, that it looks as though this shaky truce is still holding. that is not the case for next- door in syria. we are seeing what is the first major maneuvers for the first time in the past five years for what was a dormant civil war ever since 2011, when we had seen that country being torn apart, masses -- massive amounts of death.

now it looks as though, ever since wednesday, a breeze and offensive by rebel groups, groups backed by their allies, or backed by turkey, took over huge parts of northwestern syria , breaking a peace treaty that had been in effect for about the past five years. it forced the regime to take flight. those soldiers abandoned their positions in a startling move. and ever since then, we have been seeing airstrikes conducted by the regime and their partners, the russians, against the cities of aleppo. that has killed dozens of people, according to the u.k.- based syrian observatory for human rights. now this was a situation that looks as though those rebels were taking advantage of the weakness of iran and russia, to put it mildly, have been distracted by wars elsewhere. guys? >> matt bradley, reporting from beirut. thank you very much.

ignatius, so much to ask you about. what's happening because of the weakness of russia, because of falling. russia is casually mounting at horrific levels. also, iran is weaker than the air defenses. basically just blown to pieces. i'm wondering, what should we expect in the future on syria? >> joe, what we are seeing right now, as your correspondent said, an illustration of a significantly weakened state of hezbollah, of iran, of their proxies. the government in syria is a proxy regime. it couldn't really stand on its own without help from russia. i think we are going to see a horrific campaign by the syrian military backed by russian bombing and airstrikes to take

back aleppo, the second-largest city in syria which was taken in a matter of hours by these rebels who swept south from their headquarters. there was a terrible, bloody battle for control of aleppo a few years ago that left thousands of people dead. i fear we are going to see some repetition of that as the government tries to take control again. the u.s. has been trying to explore whether some deal with syria might be possible and whether syria agreed to cut off the flow of weapons to hezbollah and lebanon. so far, given this trouble, that discussion has just stopped. it has collapsed. looking forward, what we see, literally, one war ends in the middle east with the cease-fire in lebanon and another one

starts up immediately. that's sort of a description of the fundamental instability of the whole region. >> let's talk about donald trump's threat toward hamas to release hostages or else. tell me, you had written a column in the washington post about donald trump's opening when he becomes president for peace in the middle east. explain that. and the weakened state of hezbollah and hamas, syria, and iran make a peace deal more possible. >> trump campaigned, in part, on the idea that there are too many wars in the world, it's too dangerous a world and those wars need to be settled. he was talking, primarily, about ukraine. but he was talking about wanting see the wars in gaza and lebanon over by the time he is president. now he's making a threat, if you don't end them then you will have hell to pay.

israel needs to have a clear plan of what happens in gaza when the war ends. and it does now. part of the problem is, the israelis still haven't come up with a coherent day after strategy. the senior israeli official was in the white house yesterday talking with the u.s. officials about possible approaches to a cease-fire in gaza. israel has achieved its military objectives there. it's time to end this war and end the suffering. right to the end of biden's term, we are going to see an effort to settle this war with the threat looming behind that if you don't settle it by january 20th you will have donald trump to deal with. and trump obviously is a more determined supporter of israel then biden is. >> and obviously, david,

ukraine is another place where people in the foreign-policy world, and obviously president zelensky, are concerned with what comes next for the administration. the ukrainian president indicating he would accept a cease-fire with russia if his country is put on a path 10 nato membership. wall street journal reporting that represents a subtle shift in his rhetoric about ending the war with russia. he is, in effect, except he could leave on occupied territory in moscow's hands if the rest of ukraine were given protection by allied forces. ukraine's defense ministry, meanwhile, says the russian army suffered record losses in military equipment and personnel in the month of november. near the 46,000 russian soldiers were wounded, killed or captured last month. ukrainian forces also reported destroying hundreds of tanks, armored combat vehicles and artillery. a new assistance package coming from the biden administration, more than $700 million to ukraine. this does have the feel of getting everything it can into the hands of ukrainian in case

the new trump administration cuts it off. >> that's exactly right. the biden administration wants to give ukraine as much leverage as possible. it has allowed them to use the so-called attack with missiles firing deep into russia. it has allowed them to use antipersonnel mines, which were for the before. it is rushing the assistance as fast as it will go to help the ukrainians and i think what everybody expects is likely to be a period in which there is at least a brief discussion about a peace agreement. i think it's interesting that zelensky said he would accept it some loss of territory. the key point for everybody to think about, most of all president-elect donald trump, is whatever deal that is made has to be durable enough that the ukrainians feel their security is protected, that the this isn't going to start up again after a brief lull. that ukraine will have

securities. they are like nato membership. so that you actually have a real end to the war instead of just a brief truce and then renewed fighting. >> to this point, the biden administration has not gone to support the immediate nato membership for ukraine. because of course if they become a country and russia attacks, suddenly article five is invoked and it becomes a massive world war. i'm told he may have to settle for other security guarantees. let's revisit the idea of aid here. the officials i talked to in the biden administration openly admit they are trying to get as much as they can to kyiv for january 20th. are there any mechanisms that the hill may also have? is there any appetite at all? we know there are some republicans who are stalwart defenders of ukraine, including mitch mcconnell, who has flat out said he wants that to be a big part of his legacy. is there any sense, that when trump comes in, that there will be a push from the gop on the , even a losing one, to get some

aid to ukraine? even if not at the levels we are seeing now. >> we are likely not to see a push from leadership, especially house gop leadership. they've already requested a $24 billion package by the end of the year for additional supplemental funding to go to ukraine. that's on top of what has artie been dispersed and allocated to ukraine, that the administration is scrambling to get out the door right now. mike johnson has already explicitly said that donald trump won on calling for an and to the war in ukraine, and that they are not going to support pushing this through. likely, they will go along with a stopgap that will put them further behind for spending goals for 2026 and could actually complicate donald trump's plans when he comes into the administration. there are still a handful of stalwart ukraine supporters, like mitch mcconnell, people that will have power with such slim majorities. in the house,

depending on what happens when these final calls on the election are made, there is going to be the opportunity for someone in the house gop conference to potentially put up a fight with regards to continuing to support ukraine. again, it's not going to come from leadership. and right now, getting that money out the door squarely in the hands of the biden administration, that money that's artie been allocated by congress, it's a lot of interagency wrangling. in order to quickly get the money out before january 20th. >> the washington post, thank you both very much for being on this morning. a lot going on. coming up on "morning joe." following donald trump's victory. our next guest argues we are seeing, quote, the end of democratic delusions. george packer will join us to explain that. next on "morning joe."

for more than a decade farxiga has been trusted again and again, and again. ♪ far-xi-ga ♪ ♪ far-xi-ga ♪ ♪ far-xi-ga ♪ ♪ far-xi-ga ♪ ask your doctor about farxiga. dexcom g7 is one of the easiest ways to take better control of your diabetes. this small wearable replaces fingersticks, lowers a1c, and it's covered by medicare. not managing your diabetes really affects your health for the future. the older you get, the more complications you're gonna see. i knew i couldn't ignore my diabetes anymore because it was causing my eyesight to go bad. for my patients, getting on dexcom g7 is the biggest eye opener they've ever had. i couldn't believe how easy it was. this small wearable sends my glucose numbers right to my phone or my receiver. with just a glance i can see if i'm going high,

low, or steady. so, i can make quick decisions in the moment. now, i'm a superstar. my a1c is 5.7. my a1c has never been lower. no other cgm system is more affordable for medicare patients than dexcom g7. don't wait! call now, and talk to a real person. still have moderate to severe ulcerative colitis... ...or crohn's disease symptoms after taking... ...a medication like humira or remicade? put them in check with rinvoq, a once-daily pill. when symptoms tried to take control, i got rapid relief with rinvoq. check. when flares tried to slow me down,... ...i got lasting remission with rinvoq. check. and many were in remission... ...even at nearly 2 years. and rinvoq... ...helped visibly reduce damage of the intestinal lining. check. rapid symptom relief. lasting remission. and visibly reduced damage. check. rinvoq can lower ability to fight infections. before treatment, test for tb and do bloodwork. serious infections, blood clots, some fatal;... ...cancers, including lymphoma and skin;...

...serious allergic reactions; gi tears; death;... ...heart attack; and stroke occurred. cv event risk increases in age 50 plus... ...with a heart disease risk factor. tell your doctor if you've had these events, infection,... ...hep b or c, smoked,... ...are pregnant or planning. don't take if allergic or have an infection. put uc and crohn's in check... ...and keep them there. with rinvoq. ask your gastroenterologist... ...about rinvoq.

♪ ♪ ask your gastroenterologist... ♪ something has changed within me ♪ ♪ it's time to try defying gravity ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ something has changed within me ♪ ♪ something is not the same ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ it's time to try defying gravity ♪

we would love for you to be our elphaba. we want you to be our glinda the good. ♪ ♪ what a beautiful shot of new york city. come back to "morning joe." nice, cold december morning in new york. hey, jean, we will bring in george packer in one minute.

i thought before we did that we would set this one up. then we are going to cross-examine george. i think george is one of the best and the brightest. >> i don't think that's why he signed up for. >> i love having him on because he's very insightful. right now i'm so glad he's on because there's a debate. i think i may be on one side of the debate. i talked about earlier, i'm curious what your thought is. there's a lot of talk about how the democratic party has to re- examine everything they've done. i've talked about the massive gains in texas, in florida, and middle america. but there is another side of that. the slimmest majority of the house of representatives since herbert hoover. he got a three vote margin in the united states senate. and if you go state-by-state, state-by-state, less than one percentage point in wisconsin. less than 1.5% in michigan.

about 1.5% in pennsylvania. that's the difference between a democratic president and republican president. also, one other thing, when anybody talks about the rise of the far right and everything else, donald trump got less votes in 2024 then he got in 2020. i'm not here to say people voted against kamala harris in large numbers because she was a woman. or because she was a black woman. even though the united states of america almost stands alone in not electing women to the top spot. right? but you look at the states. you and i remember, 1972, 1984, even 1980. all those democrats that got swept out in these landslides, kamala harris barely lost to wisconsin.

tammy, democratic senator, won. kamala harris really lost michigan and yet alyssa won. she lost pennsylvania. but, man, they had to go a couple of weeks before figuring out whether bob casey had won or lost. so again, we are talking about the thinnest of margins. this is one of those sayings that we say all the time. two things can be true at once. i believe democrats need to examine what they've done. at the same time, let's not pretend that this was like a 1984 style landslide. this is an election within the margin of errors and then those three swing states up north. if harris wins, gets an extra 1.5% or 2%. she's president. are you going to blow everything up for 1.5%? >> you are not. in my opinion, you're not. you are going to settle down.

you are going to step back from the ledge and, yes, you are going to look at a loss. because you did lose the election. you're not going to blow everything up. the country is very evenly divided. these elections are close, one way or the other. if i were advising the democratic party i would say, one thing you really need to look at is your declining share among latino voters. i don't think the democratic party understands the number of different communities . they don't understand that portion of the electorate well enough. and it's a growing portion of the electorate that

needs to be understo but, no, i don't think you have to start from scratch and say, let's tear down the entire democratic party and build a new one. you did, after all, go into the selection with a black and south asian woman at the head of the ticket. while we didn't talk about that a whole lot, nonetheless, this is the united states of america. i don't think you will ever convince me that that had no impact on the result. again, we are talking 1.5%. >> 1%. >> one way or the other. you know. this is what happened. >> to that point, yeah, but to that point, there's hard realities and major work to be done to make for a resounding wind so that those issues don't. let's bring in a staff writer for the atlantic, george

packer, who writes for the publication new issue about the end of democratic delusions, arguing the 2024 election has launched us into a new era. one he calls, the trump reaction. i thought we were already in the era. mike barnicle joins the conversation. >> we have presented our opening argument and we turn it over to you, the prosecution. go. >> i suddenly got the feeling, as i was watching earlier, that i had signed up for a firing squad here. i will do my best. look, first of all, don't put me in a corner where i never win. i'm not saying the democratic party is finished and needs to be rebuilt from scratch. you have been talking about some historical -- i would draw an analogy. joe, you remember, to 1968. when richard nixon

barely defeated the incumbent vice president, who had taken over for the incumbent president, who had withdrawn from the race. that was a really close election. but it signaled a change. a big change, which was the end of liberalism. it didn't happen all at once. it took maybe 12 years until ronald reagan swept it away in 1980. that's where i'm looking at more a trend, which is a trend toward populism, right wing populism. it's a global phenomenon. yes, you're right, it's been coming in this country for eight years. at the fact that donald trump won again, despite being pretty and popular, despite having tried to overthrow in election, despite being a convicted felon, tells me that trend, that sentiment in the public to get rid of old institutions, to

overthrow the status quo, it's a really strong one. strong enough to reelect this, i would say, and degenerate felon. democrats would be foolish not to look at that and say, we may be defending a status quo that the country has had enough of. >> george, in the piece that you wrote for the atlantic, you outline a couple of periods of times. 1964, massive democratic majority elected the 89th congress. that majority lasted basically until 1981, when the reagan revolution began. 1980, you can argue the reagan revolution. it probably ended in 2003 with george w. bush taking us into iraq. what i didn't gather from the piece was the impact of an outside force called, the culture, on our politics. did that not change everything in terms of persuasion? iphones, the internet, twitter. the impact that the culture had on our politics was far more

important, i think, than any candidate, any specific candidate. >> i think that's a great point, mike. i did talk about the challenge for journalists in an age where facts cease to exist. pouring disinformation, lies and propaganda every minute of every day. it's an even bigger problem than what i said. democrats are talking about what new policies might work to bring back latino voters, to bring back younger voters, to bring back especially working- class voters. well, one of policies and the facts that you bring to support those policies no longer matter? no longer stick with voters.

and instead, as you say, mike, it's culture, it's emotion, it's images and it's lies which people have become unable to separate from the truth. that's something that worries me more than cash patel running the fbi. although that worries me too. >> george, there's so much talk in the last four weeks about soul-searching the democratic party, how it needs to change the way it talks to voters, how it needs to change its message and appeal. that's easier said than done. that's reputation that's been earned over decades, which is, as you write about in the piece, this anti-elitism, which has been stuck to democrats. now donald trump, the billionaire with a department and fifth avenue that lives in a castle by the beach is a man of the people. but he has made that sale. so how'd do democrats begin to pull back some of the message that the party was built on so many years ago, which is reaching out to working-class voters? >> i am not someone that the party should turn to for political advice. i do like to play that role. but as i say in the piece, i

think the party is strongest when it focuses on economics, and especially on the economics of struggling people in this country and what they need, and what they want. and not on cultural issues that are divisive. they divide the democratic party within itself, as much as it divides democrats from republicans. the gradual, but really long- term change in the identity of the party, from working-class faced party to an educated, professional party, has given it some new voters. but mostly, it has lost voters. and that trend continued in 2024 . in new york city, where i am right now, where i live, the boroughs that showed trump's vote increase are the working class and nonwhite majority boroughs. queens, bronx. where harris was voting his manhattan, among white and well-

to-do voters. that's not a future the democratic party can win on. >> george packer, thank you. and we also think the spirit of orson welles inviting the citizen kane like lighting. >> this is very dramatic. it looks good. >> seriously? >> very orwellian. you are a room rate or zero. >> i'm five stars. >> george, thank you. we greatly appreciate it. still ahead, one of our next guests, biden's decision to pardon his son, hunter, -- roy cooper joins the conversation as republicans in his state look to strip hours away from the incoming democratic government. morning joe is coming right back. >> thanks, chopper 4.

all it takes is an idea, and now becomes the future where you grew a dream into a reality. the all new godaddy airo. put your business online in minutes with the power of ai. believe it or not baby... put your business online in minutes you could earn your... master's... for under 11 thousand! master's degree for under 11k in less than a year. earn your competency - based master's at university of phoenix. (fisher investments) at fisher investments we may look like other money managers, but we're different. (other money manager) how so? (fisher investments) we're a fiduciary, obligated to act in our client'' best interest. (fisher investments) so we don't sell any commission-based products. (other money manager) then how do you make money? (fisher investments) we have a simple management fee, structured so we do better when our clients do better. (other money manager) your clients really come first then, huh? fisher investments: yes. we make them a top priority, by getting to know their finances, family, health, lifestyle and more. (other money manager) wow, maybe we are different. (fisher investments) at fisher investments, we're clearly different.

now i am not a presidential historian, but i believe this is the first time a u. smpt president has pardoned both his son and a turkey in the same week. bidens went to church in nantucket on saturday. at one point during the mass hunter turned to his father and he said, dad, did you hear what the priest said about forgiveness, and it was done. i wonder if joe now has to get hunter anything for christmas. this is good enough, right? >> welcome back to "morning joe." it is tuesday, december 3rd. the pardon of hunter biden, a lot of talk about that. jonathan la mere and mike barnacle are still with us. we have managing editor at the bull works, sam stein, co-host of "the weekend" simone sanders townsend and dave weibel. >> simone, i wanted to circle

back to you. we obviously had george packer on talking about how the democrats need to re-examine what they're doing. i think we all agree if you look at what's happened with hispanic voters. look along the texas/mexico border to see how that reliably but area has gone republican, but how do you think we should balance this? because, again, as i was saying before, less than a percentage point difference in wisconsin where the democrats won the senate seat. about 1 1/2 percentage points in michigan where democrats won the senate seat. you know how close pennsylvania was and then even in arizona. you have reuben gallega, pretty progressive guy, the fourth time in a row democrats have won arizona in a state that they just never elected democrats. and of course nevada as welcomes through for democrats in the end in the senate. so how do you balance this?

it's a mixed bag. we've got basically a tie in the house of representatives, close to a tie in the senate. how -- how much handling should democrats really be doing right now? >> look, i think it is -- look, some of the message, yes, instead of using these acronyms to describe what you're talking about, just say the thing. i go back to andy beshear in kentucky who won re-election as governor talking about bidenomics but never used the term. he talked about the battery factories. he talked about the manufacturing that was happening in his state, what he was doing and never put a label on it and said what it was. i think for a lot of democrats across the country, fair and accurately democrats particularly in washington, they love an acronym. democrats love to put a nice little name on something and put a little bow on it. what people want you to do is talk to them about what you are doing because i do believe the policies that the party has, the

things that the democrats, particularly in congress and in statehouses across the country have fought for, that they are resonating. jordan harris was a representative out of pennsylvania in the statehouse said right after the election, he came on our show on "the weekend" and said the democratic party is too much starbucks and not enough done kirn donuts. it is not they have to do the whole sale rebrand on some things. parts of the coalition, perhaps, yes, but writ large,s go back to it. joe and mika, y'all know. the base is not white voters. black voters in detroit did not come out to vote. what was that about? >> reverend al came on set about ten days before the election and he said, they're just not excited in detroit. he said, this is nothing like 2020, and there's a real problem

with the level of engagement. that was very surprising to us. we heard it from people knocking on doors in pennsylvania. knocked on hundreds of thousands of doors but just about everybody we talked to said -- they came back saying the same thing. we don't like trump, we're going to vote for him anyway. what do you put that down to? especially because we said it here over and over again, that -- that in 2020 that race was won by black women in milwaukee, black women in detroit, black women in philly, in atlanta and i'm just curious why is it that there wasn't as much energy, especially among black men, for kamala harris in 2024? because that's one of the many things that would make a difference. we can look at hispanic voters and definitely need to, but if the base had come home, she would have won those states and won the election. >> well, look, i also think young voters.

there was a 1 percentage point difference between how donald trump did with black men in 2024 than how he did in 2020 and so i would argue that while, yes, this is a race that was won on the margins, the largest shift was with hispanic voters. now the base, joe, if you just described all these things, reverend sharpton was describing what was happening in detroit because he was out there with the central park five, nan, his organization was -- they were taking them around the country talking to voters. if he knew that, don't you think other people knew that, right? so the disconnect is what the ground is saying and how people are responding to what the ground is saying. i do believe that in the democratic party apparatus when it comes to campaigns, people have to listen to what the people are saying on the ground and be willing to adjust. now you just can't take what happens in one state and apply it writ large, you have to do

some case studies. that's where the data comes in. focus groups. everybody talks about the polls, what about the focus groups? those are more indicative of where everybody is. the 2024 election is not an election they looked at in the last 105, 10days, they were experiencing everything in the past two or three years. you have democrats up and down the ticket and the ballot saying gdp is up. record gdp growth. the fastest recovery of any g7 country. when you have democrats saying that the economy really, really, really, really great and you're not hearing the same amount of fervor talking about the housing policy and that the rent is too damn high, this is what we're doing about that. maxine waters talks about this all the time. people felt that there was a disconnect with what their lived reality is, and to be clear, the democratic party has a policy

there. but what they were hearing, what was being elevated, what was being talked about for not just the last 107 days, again, their prism was a lot larger. people's lived reality is very, very important. you cannot discount their lived reality. >> no. and i don't think that the harris campaign did that, simone. i agree with you, though there was just so much, joe, to answer to in such a small amount of time because from the trump side there were questions of democracy, questions of even fascist type tendencies, things put out there that needed an answer to as well. and i saw an attempt for them to address the exact issues that simone is talking about, but it was in this huge haze of many other issues that had to be addressed at the same time. trying to do everything at once. how to do that better. >> can i just say, joe, kamala harris couldn't have done it all. that's why i made the point about more than 105 days. she came out of the gate with all of the things that the

american people said was most important to them at the time. >> that's right. >> but they did not experience this election in just 105 days. so, you know, the mealy mob democrats, oh, my goodness, we have to think about how to throw the playbook out. no, baby, y'all got to go back to the basics. just the basics. >> go back to the basics. >> she came out with a housing plan. she came out with things that addressed -- >> yeah, but, you know, the thing is, it is -- you know, say james cargill's name and the twitter sphere explodes, but it goes back to it's the economy, stupid. >> yes. >> dave, you were out on the campaign trail throughout most of the year reporting from swing states, reporting from across america. you know, we would talk about the things that used to be judged in presidential races. we talk about job numbers being so good, the gdp being stronger,

talking about all the 'tiff things that my professor and in the one econ class i almost failed said macro economics. they are interviewing a hispanic voters in waterbury, connecticut. eight years ago he was angry because he couldn't vote for bernie sanders. this year he voted for donald trump and he did it because of the price of groceries, the price of gas and everything. it didn't matter if inflation had dropped to 2.2%. he's looking at the cumulative impact over the past four years and things were just not as good for him economically today as they were four years ago because of inflation. >> yeah. that connects to what i was writing about, about the disconnect, the dissidence people feel in the biden coalition about the hunter biden pardon, about giving up this

idea the democrats are the party of norms and democracy, a thing that they found out that this is a very low trust when it comes to politicians country. people do not have a lot of esteem for politicians. they might like their governor or politician, but the thought politicians are corrupt, people haven't connected that. the idea that donald trump was going to act, that he was strong, that he was beset by legal problems because he was such a bold and fearless actor was helpful to him. there were a lot of voters that i talked to, the post talked to that found this. no matter what was thrown at him, no matter what he had done january 6th, it looked like he was always trying to act and being stymied was powerful and that overwhelmed the policy critiques of him. that's one reason democrats are a little more comfortable. they're criticizing the biden pardon, some are angry that he said he wouldn't do it, then he

did. some of them a little more quietly this is the sort of thing donald trump has gotten away with, this is the thing bill clinton got away with in the '90s where he was able to perform fwhel a mid term, rebuild his image afterward. voters were more concerned about the economic problems they had and more interested will this president be strong and act quickly and shake off the doubters and the haters and the lawyers. this is the context, i think, for the biden pardon. if the voters had said, no, we care more about the norms, we care more about a president who goes through the process, who is even going to sacrifice his own son to the legal system, then they would have won. they didn't win. looks like the country cares more about the results or the appearance of results, action or the appearance of action than it does whether you're playing by these zbluls dave, we're going to get back to your piece about the pardon of hunter biden just a moment from now. let's talk about some of the choices donald trump has made to

fill vital cabinet positions. more questions this morning about past accusations of sexual assault against trump's pick for defense secretary, pete hegseth. a lawyer for hegseth repeatedly has claimed in interviews that sources told him the same woman who accused hegseth of assaulting her in 2017 previously had brought a false rape charge against someone else. attempts to corroborate that story have been unsuccessful. a "new yorker" article revealed the contents of a previously undisclosed 2015 whistle-blower report detailed several incidents of alleged drunken and illicit behavior. nbc news has not very vied that report. jane mayer wrote she filed a public records request that handled hegseth's case looking for information to support his lawyer's claim. writing, quote, the answer came back promptly and definitively.

the claim is spurious. the office had no such evidence of that claim made by his lawyer about the woman accusing him of assault. the district attorney has said it did not file charges in 2017 because, quote, no charges were supported by proof beyond a reasonable doubt. however, hegseth later paid his accuser an undisclosed sum as part of a 2023 settlement. hegseth lawyer has stated in part this police report confirms what i said all along, the incident was fully investigated and police found the allegation to be false. sam stein, there's a lot in there. what does all of this mean? we heard positive reviews on his meetings on capitol hill from some republican senators who said they are willing to overlook all of this stuff that's out and reported. what does it look like for him in this moment in terms of being confirmed? >> oh, god. there are like four different cabinet nominees where you can make the case that they are

either -- their fate is tenuous. and then you have kash patel, tulsi gabbard. there are a few things happening that are problematic. one is obviously all this years old evidence that he either committed acts of sexual assault, was a troubled leader in the heads of the nonprofit. then you have the email his mother sent him during the aftermath of the divorce. is that like a personal matter? and should we care too much about that? and the answer is, it does actually relate to how he would act as the head of the department of defense. he's very public in his criticism of women in combat roles which is, you know, obviously an important issue for the defense department. the defense department is also dealing with issues of rape within its ranks. sexual assault in its ranks. putting someone at the top of this position, these are direct policy ties. then on top of that which is

sort of the other big elephant in the room, his lack of qualifications. that's what you hear from lawmakers as much as this stuff, which is he ran a nonprofit, but since then he's been a tv host. no offense to joe, mika, you, willie and even you, la mere. >> no offense taken. >> i want to be clear. >> i'm going to be running the world bank next week, but go ahead. >> possibly. yeah, i mean, i think putting someone like that in charge of a 3 million person bureaucracy is a leap of faith. is that enough for four senators? i don't know. that's the question we're all sort of waiting to ask. i was talking about colleen, in the trump world they have moved the window in terms of the nominees. the decision of gates to step down waalmost like a sacrificial lamb for some of these senators. because of that they have a little bit of capital to push through people like hegseth,

tulsi gabbard or kash patel because they gave them one they could torpedo. >> that's what they're saying. jonathan lamere, first of all, we have to underline with pete hegseth, you have a guy who is grossly unqualified to run the most complicated, largest bureaucracy in america and some would say in the world. you have a guy that his own mother repeatedly accused of being an abuser of women, which lines up with accusations against him, lines up with a whistle-blower report. you add all of that up along with the fact that he is as unqualified as any candidate i think any of us have ever seen to hold a major post, and you can push the overton window as far as you want to. there should be 100 votes against this guy let alone four. but i do want to say one thing. you know, the thing that i always found when i was following votes in congress was

that there would be a certain number of members of congress that would say, you know, i can't vote against the leadership ten times but i'm going to vote against them on these two bills. somebody else would say, yeah, i'm going to vote against them on these two bills. there would be these coalitions that would work together so when they went back to the voters they weren't saying, oh, i voted against my leadership ten times in a row. no, these two issues matter to me. i've been saying it time and again. if your life mission is the national security of the united states of america and our armed forces, you're not going to vote for a guy like pete hegseth to run the dod. he's not qualified. if it's intel when we're having a war starting to break out again in syria, you're not going to have somebody running the intel agencies who is actually soft on assad, a guy that was responsible 500,000 syrians being killed in a civil war and

gassed them. i mean, if you're concerned about the rule of law, i mean, guys like john cornin and others who have been -- you know, who have talked seriously about the rule of law, you're not going to have, you know, all republicans voting for kash patel. it's not an either/or. it's not the four same people that are going to vote against them all. really, i would be really surprised if you didn't have a different number of groups saying, i can vote for these three, i cannot vote for kash patel. i can vote for these three, i cannot vote for pete hegseth. i can vote for these three, i can't vote for tulsi gabbard. it's not black or wheat. its it's not either/or. >> right. there's a sense, some from their own statements, that they would have objections to at least some of these picks. we know mitch mcconnell has

given interviews and has authorized aides to say he feels newly liberated and he's not in leadership and he might be willing to stand up against these. the real key is some ore senators who might oppose one or two. let's look at joni ernst. she cares deeply about women in the military, among many issues. she is someone who very well might be okay with, you know, maybe she's okay with robert f. kennedy jr., maybe okay with kash patel. it's hard to see her signing off on pete hegseth. it might be a different coalition or assemblage of four republicans who say, no, that's the key. let's remember, of course, it's not just about agencies, it's about defend being the institution of the senate itself and that's where john thune may come into play. this idea where there are -- donald trump is clearly part of this as a test, right? trying to bend the senate to his will, trying to push through his

nominees, potentially even break some of these agencies. no better example than kash patel and the fbi. talk to us, though, about someone like john thune who cares about the senate's role in all of this, how he mayo pose what trump is trying to do just to make sure the senate stays viable for the next two, four, six years and beyond. >> you know, it's amazing what recent political history is doing to institutions that people once revered. the united states senate. the department of justice. the department of defense. as this all occurs during government by grievance. this is what we're witnessing now, all of these various appointments that are absurd on their face. pete hegseth as secretary of defense as joe just pointed out, totally unqualified to be secretary of defense at a moment when america stands on the verge of what will we do in ukraine and further? what will we do in the middle east? will we go any further?

government by grievance. the next six weeks, the next four years are going to be trembling with anticipation of disaster perhaps. >> i mean, my -- yes. yes, it is. trembling with anticipation of disaster and also, i don't know, i'm just kind of like, where's the line? because the line's obviously moved and i think it's important to acknowledge that the line has moved, but in what way and what does that mean? and if we are talking about potentially that pete hegseth is going to be confirmed as the next secretary of state -- pardon me, secretary of defense, what does that mean for the men and women serving? what does that mean for operations happening right now in sudan? come on now. >> marco rubio, secretary of state, looks like winston churchill. >> come on now. yes. >> all right.

on that note, dave, your latest article for semafore is titled president biden's hunter pardon splits the anti-trump resistance. biden and attorney general merrick garland had 58 loud a trump ordered probe of the trump russia inquiry to continue, had appointed a special counsel to investigate a special counsel to investigate biden's handling of classified documents leaving the vice presidency and had kept on david weiss. none of this was very compelling to voters who heard trump accuse the bide n doj to try to destroy him. that was very depressing. some hoped biden would leave office on the high ground making

an -- an abrahamic sacrifice of his son and making any trump revenge moves or pardons look cheap by comparison. well, he didn't. he didn't. dave, i wish he hadn't said i would never pardon him or i will not pardon him, but having said that, when you look at the statement they put out about exactly why they did what they did, you can see the sense of it. i can't put myself in his shoes. your thoughts. >> yeah. that's where a lot of democrats are safely landing, that he shouldn't have said he was going to do this if he was going to do it. the internal rationale you've heard from people closer to biden is that letting his son go through the agony of these court cases, the humiliation that he went through the last four years, that should be punishment enough. i think that's where democrats might end up. >> seems fair. >> mike was talking about this before. all of this is in the context of an election conducted in a country that assumes most politicians are pretty corrupt

and doing favors for each other that are fine with a lot of the economic connections, the financial gains that members of the trump transition team, incoming cabinet, the gains they could make from being part of the administration because they assume a lot of politicians are doing that already. this is -- i go back to the campaign to stop members of congress from trading stock. that was started by peter schweitzer, steve bannon was? favor of it. the the impetus was we need to get the political class out of washington. we need to get people out of their comfy jobs in the deep state. you can't trust any of them. if you keep lowering the level of trust people have with politicians, people get away with more if their base supports them whmpt it comes to biden, it split the coalition of people who say rule of law still matters, that's not how people feel anymore. it was decided in the election. >> i also think that no matter

what you think of this pardon, the coverage of this is as if -- you look at what has happened on the trump side, especially if you parallel pardons that trump has done himself, it's just always so -- it seems so hysterically imbalanced. i just -- you know, when you -- when you read this and you look at the things that are happening on the other side, it is, again, completely out of step with reality. >> dave, that's something that you're hearing. i know you're not a media critic but i know you've heard this complaint. "the new york times," the top six stories online today were all about the pardon. you looked at the washington post yesterday, you expected like war is over. >> right. >> in massive headlines. on the same day donald trump said he's going to nominate a

guy who said he had an enemies list he was going to go after and he was going to arrest journalists. i don't remember headlines this large when donald trump commuted the sentence of roger stone, then let him run the stop the steal -- help the stop the steal campaign and then pardoned him after that. again, i'm not asking you to take sides here, i'm just saying talk about the frustration that many democrats are having on "the new york times," "the washington post," "the wall street journal", a lot of mainstream organizations blowing this up to the size that they believe is really out of proportion given everything donald trump has done in the past and what he's doing right now. >> this has actually come up in my conversations with people running to lead the dnc, the democratic party after the election, because one big conversation they're having is how do we reach out to people who just believed everything

donald trump said, don't believe the media and they don't have a good answer because the country has gotten so segmented. you just talked about what's on the front page of "the new york times." that's never going to get to a lot of voters. >> no. >> they're not going to see the paper in print, they're not going to care what's leading the website because they don't trust it. i'm not saying, oh, they're correct about it. this is what's been happening for five or six years. when you talk to republican voters, they'll fix atd or remember a couple of incidents be where trump is accused of something and it didn't pan out. >> right. >> we mentioned the trump russia investigation. that comes up again and again. they said russia stole the election for him, they didn't. i don't trust the media. there were millions of people, they don't read the paper, they heard about what was in it. they had some sense of what the big nightly news networks were running, they tuned that out, they read social media now. they don't trust any accusation against not just trump, they're

not going to trust the reports about pete hegseth. they're not going to trust criticism of kash patel. >> that's a great point. simone, this is really one of the great challenges. democrats, again, here i'm talking about "the new york times," "the washington post," "the wall street journal" when the fact is that so many voters now are getting their news from tiktok, instagram reels, x, blue sky. >> yeah. the exactly. so, again, i think people should just be up front and clear. the clutching by democrats is not surprising but it's disappointing. this 118th congress opened up an impeachment inquiry into president biden. people may have forgotten that. in our nation's history only five presidents before biden had

ever had an impeachment inquiry open against them. all of the recent impeachment inquiries, except for joe biden who was the sixth president to have an impeachment inquiry against him were based on credible evidence. the evidence was so baseless, their own witnesses said there was no there there. so knowing all of that, do we actually believe that joe biden was just going to let the president-elect's administration make good on their promise to go after his son? joe biden is leaving the stage. he's leaving the stage. he's not -- this is not a donald trump situation where he could come back and run for president. he has done everything. joe biden has played by all the rules people told him he had to play by, right? he's done it all. good for joe biden and good for hunter i say. sorry to the com shop this week. this is very unfortunate to the people in the com shop. oh, well. the democrats need to really --

the house is literally on fire and y'all still looking for the keys. donald trump is about to -- i'm going to hold america's hand. baby, donald trump is about to be president. donald trump is about to be president and the supreme court has said he is basically a king with an asterisk. so please -- >> immunity. >> -- what is happening here? >> i hear you completely. we appreciate that. politics reporter for semafor, dave weigel. thank you very much. great conversation. dave's new piece is available online. simone sanders townsend. thank you very much. we will be watching "the weekend" saturdays and sundays starting at 8 a.m. right here on msnbc. still ahead on "morning joe," republicans in north carolina are looking to strip powers away from the incoming democratic governor, attorney general and other offices democrats won last month. outgoing governor roy cooper joins us to weigh in on that

effort. "morning joe" is coming right back. hi, my name is damian clark. if you have both medicare and medicaid, i have some really encouraging news that you'll definitely want to hear. depending on the plans available in your area, you may be eligible to get extra benefits with a humana medicare advantage dual-eligible special needs plan. most plans include the humana healthy options allowance. a monthly allowance to help pay for eligible groceries, utilities, rent, and over-the-counter items. the healthy options

allowance is loaded onto a prepaid card each month. and whatever you don't spend, carries over from each month. plus, your doctor, hospital and pharmacy may already be part of our large humana networks. so, call the number on your screen now, and ask about a humana medicare advantage dual-eligible special needs plan. and remember, annual enrollment ends on december 7th. humana. a more human way to healthcare. if you have generalized myasthenia gravis, picture what life could look like with... vyvgart hytrulo, a subcutaneous injection that takes about 30 to 90 seconds. for one thing, could it mean more time for you? vyvgart hytrulo can improve daily abilities and reduce muscle weakness with a treatment plan that's personalized to you. do not use vyvgart hytrulo if you have a serious allergy to any of its ingredients. it can cause serious allergic reactions like trouble breathing and decrease in blood pressure

leading to fainting and allergic reactions such as rashes, swelling under the skin, shortness of breath, and hives. the most common side effects are respiratory and urinary tract infections, headache, and injection site reactions. it may increase the risk of infusion-related reactions and infection. tell your doctor if you have a history of infections or symptoms of an infection. talk to your neurologist about vyvgart hytrulo for gmg and picture your life in motion.

drop everything and get some magic of your own talk to your neurologist about vyvgart hytrulo during the xfinity black friday sale. xfinity internet customers, our best deals of the year are back! switch to xfinity mobile and get your choice of a free 5g phone, plus your next unlimited line free for a year. get amazing savings and connect to wifi speeds up to a gig on the go with xfinity mobile. fly don't walk to get our best deals of the year. connect to the world of wicked this holiday, in theaters now.

the motion before the body is that the senate -- is that senate bill 382 become law notwithstanding the objections of the governor. >> dye stroi the will of the voters. it's voter suppression. >> mr. president -- >> disruptive and out of order to the legislative process. >> she's being removed.

[ applause ] >> clear the gallery. just clear the gallery. everybody's got to go. everybody's got to go. clear the gallery. not going to be tolerated. >> mr. president -- mr. president, you can't clear the whole gallery. a lot of the people here are being respectful and here to see what's happening. this is the people's house. should not clear the whole gallery. undemocratic. >> okay. a bit of chaos there in north carolina in the state senate yesterday as protests erupted. you heard one voice there, maybe a few others, after the republican-controlled body voted to override a veto from outgoing democratic governor roy cooper. now the bill in question includes some relief for those impacted by hurricane helene, but it mainly takes power away

from the next governor, who is also a democrat. critics are calling it a blatant power grab by republicans in the state. you've heard the person screaming there, and north carolina's democratic governor roy cooper joins us now. thank you very much for coming on the show this morning. can you explain this bill, what's going on here, and how power would be taken away from the incoming governor? >> well, i understand why the people in the gallery are mad. the people of north carolina are mad. we've just experienced the most devastating and deadliest storm that north carolina has ever had. we're making progress. we've opened more than 900 roads that were closed, opened schools, fixed water systems, gotten people into temporary shelters and we're all working to get the billions of dollars it's going to take to recover. i led a western delegation to washington. met with the president in the oval office.

went to capitol hill. it is now time for our state legislators to step up and provide the relief that is so desperately needed. they didn't do it. in fact, they called it a disaster relief bill but really all they did was move money from one fund to another in raleigh and then they actually took money away from western north carolina by removing the power of the governor that i just used to enhance unemployment benefits for employees who had lost their jobs as a result of this storm. and so they used disaster relief, which they didn't do, as a fig leaf to grab power. and it's important to note that, yes, we lost at the top of the ticket like the other swing states, but in north carolina we elected a democratic governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, secretary of state,

superintendent of public schools, the only supreme court justice that was up. we won the only swing congressional seat and we also broke the super majority in the state legislature, but what do they do as a lame duck gerrymandered legislature? they pass this sham of a bill that takes away power from these elected officials that the people of north carolina just elected, moved it to themselves, and ignored the people in western north carolina. a lot of western legislators are mad at this. three of them didn't vote for this bill. if i were a western legislator of either party, i would be furious that they didn't do anything of substance to help western north carolina and used this legislation as a mask. i mean, they've gotten the media to talk about this bill

providing disaster relief. it really doesn't. it doesn't. it moves money around and it ends up hurting western north carolina. a lot of frustration right now, but we still got an opportunity on december the 11th to try and uphold this veto even though we're facing a super majority. there are a number of western delegation republicans who understand what this legislation does to ople they represent. i hope they stand up and do the right thing. >> so, governor, as you say, the incoming governor, the attorney general, kind of followed your path from the attorney general's office to the governor's mansion, josh stein. he won by an overwhelming margin in the governor's race, but this bill would take some of his power away. can you just explain a little bit more specifically and practically how it does that, how it takes power away from democratic leadership in the state and why it's so outrageous to you and a lot of other people? >> the biggest issue is the state board of elections. for decades under democratic and

republican governors our system has worked well and has conducted fair and secure elections. the governor appoints a majority of his or her party to serve on the board of elections. from day one they have been trying to change this and get the power to themselves, and we were able to stop it through my veto, through the courts and even by the people of north carolina in an overwhelming vote when they tried to change the constitution. ment here they are trying to change it again making sure that republicans can run elections in north carolina when they have been run fairly in a bipartisan way by governors for decades. the that's a big thing. another example is taking the highway patrol, which is an important law enforcement agency, statewide agency, away from the governor's cabinet

position, making the highway patrol independent, and they themselves in the legislature appointing the commander of the highway patrol instead of the governor. these are the kinds of things that they have done over the years using their super majority status, which they have gained by using the most technologically diabolical partisan gerrymandering in the history of the country. north carolina is the worst. we are down three members of congress simply because of their gerrymandering. when we had court-ordered fair districts in north carolina, it was seven to seven. this time it's ten to four and we barely held on to that fourth seat winning that seat that was a swing seat, but this is -- this is the heart of the problem. and one of the reasons why congress is so dysfunctional is the gerrymandered districts that are so blue and so red, so few

purple districts with people having incentive to find compromise, to find ways forward. >> governor, sam stein here. you're obviously an outgoing governor. this might be your final battle in the governor's chair, but there's also been a lot of speculation, as you know, about what comes next for you. tom tillis, current senator is up for election in 2026. your name has been discussed as a potential nominee. where is your head at with ra rds to that race? >> everything is on the table for me in the future. i am going to run through the tape. western north carolina has taken up most of my time and my priority. there are a lot of issues here at the end of the term that you have to deal with, so i'm going to run through the tape, i'm going to take some time and decide where i can have my best use. i have enjoyed public service. we've accomplished a lot in north carolina with medicaid

expansion, with clean energy. we are moving forward in an economy in our state where we've got better paying jobs for people. i'm excited about that, but i'm not going to make any decisions soon, but obviously everything is on the table right now for me. >> democratic governor roy cooper of north carolina. thank you very much for coming on the show this morning. we really appreciate it. >> thank you. >> take care. coming up, the new documentary "facing the falls" tells the story of a disability rights advocate as she takes a 12-day journey through the grand canyon. the subject of the film and one of the film's executive producers chelsea clinton join us next on "morning joe."

t in 99% of people over 50. it's lying dormant, waiting... and could reactivate. shingles strikes as a painful, blistering rash that can last for weeks. and it could wake at any time. think you're not at risk for shingles? it's time to wake up. because shingles could wake up in you. if you're over 50, talk to your doctor or pharmacist

about shingles prevention. hey, grab more delectables. if you're over 50, talk to you know, that lickable cat treat? de-lick-able delectables? yes, just hurry. hmm. it must be delicious. delectables lickable treat. my favorite babysitter is annalisa. she's pretty good, she's like my grandma. she says “hola cómo estás” and then we go skateboarding! from babysitters, to nannies, to daycare centers. find all the care you need at care.com

they get it. they know how it works. and most importantly, it works for them. from babysitters, to nannies, to daycare centers. i don't have any anxiety about money anymore. i don't have to worry about a mortgage payment every month. it allowed me to live in my home and not have to make payments. if you're 62 or older and own your home, you could access a portion of your equity to improve your lifestyle. a reverse mortgage loan can eliminate your monthly mortgage payments and put tax-free cash in your pocket. it was the best thing i've ever done. really? yes without a doubt. these folks know, finance of america can show you how a reverse mortgage loan uses your built-up home equity to give you tax-free cash.

it's a good thing! so look, why don't you get the facts like these folks did and see if a reverse mortgage could work for you. call finance of america and get your free, info kit. call this number.

these are the steepest steps. >> oh, my god. >> prepare yourself. >> ohhh. >> steady. >> we will cross the grand canyon on horseback for the first three days and then raft along the colorado river for 150 miles. >> this is a very rare disease. it's made my body going down and the ambition and drive goes up. >> about 30 seconds and we're going. >> i can do it. >> there's always a risk that people aren't going to agree with what you're doing but so often we don't even try something because we're afraid.

>> grand canyon doesn't allow for a set plan. a lot can go wrong. >> i don't want to put somebody's life at risk on my watch. >> the best way to be a beacon for my community is to have the courage to just be. >> that is a look at the extraordinary new documentary short titled "facing the falls" premiering globally this morning on international day of persons with disabilities. the film follows disability rights advocate kara yarkon. she embarks on a courageous and dangerous journey to cross the grand canyon. kara joins us now with one of the film's he executive produce chelsea clinton. it's always good to see you. >> appropriately. appropriately. >> kara, what an extraordinary trip you took to the grand canyon. you were just saying this has been something like ten years in the making. what gave you such an audacious idea as to make a 12-day trek

through the canyon? >> i had moved to the united states after living in 11 glorious countries around the country. i came to the u.s. and thought, what's more grand than the grand canyon. to find out it was a natural wonder of the world, this is something i don't want to take a photograph at the edge but get into it. i couldn't be walk unassisted at the time so we had to be creative in how we were going to make this happen. >> so you -- one of the things you did, you were just telling me because i think it's amazing because i told you i took a donkey part of the way down and it terrified me. you said you wangted to learn to ride a mustang. >> correct. >> tell me about that. >> yes. so i knew i wouldn't be able to walk down. the princess that i am didn't want to ride a donkey. i wanted to go in and cross it rim to rim, so i contacted a local therapeutic riding program and asked if they would teach me how to ride. that was in 2014. so i trained for this for four years, but as i was training we

had to constantly adapt, particularly with the adaptive equipment of riding the horse, because my body was deteriorating and i was becoming weaker and weaker from head to toe. we did it with a lot of team work. a lot of creative and innovative ways as people with disabilities have to do to make this happen. >> chelsea, one of the great things about this film that you've executive produced is that it is available to everyone. >> yes. >> on youtube starting today. there's no barrier. >> no barrier. available for free on youtube. it's available with audio assisted technology, with closed captions. we wanted anyone and everyone to be able to see this film because, willie, as i think you've gotten a sense, she's extraordinary. an inspiration to my mom and me and we think an inspiration to everyone. >> cara, this is you and your team ing those elements across the grand canyon. let's take a look. >> it's okay. >> deep breaths. >> absolutely terrified. >> i know you are.

the see the people ahead? >> no, i can't. >> stay where you're at. >> communication. >> okay. we're stepping again. again. one more. >> hold on. >> whoa! >> yes. >> whew. >> that was real, cara. >> farch tas particular. didn't fall out of the boat. >> didn't fall out of the boat. i mean, this is a difficult enough journey with someone who does not have a disability. what gave you the strength to keep going? what were you thinking about? what propelled you? >> first and foremost, it's an

adventure film. so often you see a white male as a protagonist. people don't ever consider thinking that the protagonist is going to be a biracial south asian woman with a disability. we feel this need to prove ourselves that we're the same person as our body changes but also to prove to the world that we're the same person. so i think some of that performance was a driver, which is a very ablist mindset, but also the team. i had a wonderful crew and expedition team around me who i trusted explicitly to keep us safe. this project is about hundreds of people who have been involved and they very much were what drove me forward. i felt accountable to them and to the disability community that i was representing. >> you served it very well. chelsea, i know you and your mom and your production company see a lot of pitches. you see a lot coming across your desk. i don't have to ask you what appealed to you about this

story. >> yes. >> what really struck you when you first heard it? >> cara is so extraordinary, as i think is evident in our conversation here and certainly from the clips and my mom and i are deeply compelled and committed to, you know, platforming and amplifying the stories of extraordinarily brave, inspiring people, particularly women. and i think that cara's story of resilience and kind of the constant, as you'll see in the film, just persistence and problem solving of like we may have to figure out a different way to do this to get down, to get through, to get up, to get over. for those of us certainly i think who are able bodied to not think, well, if she did this, what could we do? what must we do? which is a question a lot of us are asking these days. >> cara, you are amazing. the new documentary short is called "facing the falls." streaming free on youtube. disability rights advocate and

rock star and chelsea clinton, congratulations. great to see you both. >> thank you. >> still ahead, we'll have the latest on rising tensions across the middle east as israel and hezbollah continue to trade fire threatening the recently signed truce. plus, catherine cortez masto joins us. "morning joe" is coming right back. healthcare should evolve with you, and part of that evolution means choosing the right medicare plan for you. humana can help. with original medicare you're covered for hospital stays and doctor office visits, but you'll have to pay a deductible for each. a medicare supplement plan pays for some or all of your original medicare deductibles, but they may have higher monthly premiums and no prescription drug coverage. humana medicare advantage prescription drug plans include medical coverage. plus, prescription drug coverage

with $0 copays on hundreds of prescriptions. most plans include coverage for dental, vision, even hearing. and there's a cap on your out-of-pocket costs! so, call or go online today to see if there's a humana plan in your area and to get our free decision guide. the medicare annual enrollment period ends on december 7th, so call now. humana - a more human way to healthcare. what causes a curve down there? is it peyronie's disease? will it get worse? how common is it? who can i talk to? can this be treated? stop typing. start talking to a specialized urologist. because it could be peyronie's disease, or pd. it's a medical condition where there is a curve in the erection, caused by a formation of scar tissue. and an estimated 1 in 10 men may have it. but pd can be treated even without surgery. say goodbye to searching online. find a specialized urologist who can diagnose pd and build a treatment plan with you. visit makeapdplan.com today.

your business needs a network it can count on... and build a treatment plan with you. even during the unexpected. power's out! -power's out!

power's out! comcast business has got you covered, with wifi backup to help keep you up and running. wifi's up. let's power on! let's power on! -let's power on! it's from the company with 99.9% network reliability. let's power on! power on with the leader in connectivity. get wifi backup for your business, or get started with comcast business internet. and for a limited time, get an $800 holiday bonus. call today. . good morning and welcome to "morning joe." it is tuesday, december 3rd. we have a lot to get to this morning, including the increased scrutiny on donald trump's intended choice to be the next fbi director. we'll tell you who is on kash patel's so-called deep state enemy list. trump's choice of secretary of

defense sat down with lawmakers, detailing years of sexist behavior and alcohol abuse. we'll have their reaction to the closed door meeting with pete hegseth. also ahead we'll go through the biden administration's critical funding to ukraine before the president-elect takes office. we'll bring you the latest from the middle east as there are concerns this morning. along with joe, willie and me, we have the host of way too early, jonathan lemire, eugene robinson, congressional investigations reporter for "the washington post," jackie and columnist and associated editor for "the washington post," david ignatius. and let's dive right in. donald trump's pick of kash patel to potentially lead the fbi is bringing increased attention to patel's extreme

views and his so-called enemies list. in his 2023 book "government gangsters," patel has an entire appendix listing what he calls members of the executive branch deep state. the list, which contains 60 names, including democrats, biden administration officials, and even some trump appointees, among them former attorney general bill barr, former deputy a.g. rod rosenstein, pat cipollone and special counsel robert hur and calls for firing the top ranks of the fbi, prosecuting leakers, journalists and replacing the national security workforce with people who don't undermine the president's agenda. yesterday on capitol hill, some senators were asked about trump's selection of kash patel. >> you know, i don't know him.

i have read some of his comments and seen them. i think that's the reason this process starting earlier is much to our benefit. we'll get a chance to sit down, talk to him. i have a big fbi presence in my state. we do the background checks for all the guns. it's an important part of the fbi's mission. >> if you have the power of that office, the fbi director, and you're using it to go after political enemies or the press or people you regard as adversaries, that's worse than incompetence, that's abuse of power you have. that power is awesome. >> we're talk willing right now about potential replacement, though, for christopher wray. somebody that has bipartisan support with many senators on the republican side and democratic side. he's supposed to have a ten-year term that started in 2017.

but there has been the signal from donald trump that he's going to fire christopher wray. he wants to replace him, he wants to replace him with somebody that has an enemies list, someone selling boots, kash boots but has an enemies list and he's written it out. a lot of republicans, a lot of democrats, a guy who is promised he's going to go after reporters and journalists and arrest them for not following conspiracy theories about the 2020 election and disproven time and time again. stand by. we'll be talking about danesh desousza having to apologize and saying he's going to clear out the fbi, clear it all out. man, if it is not the most

radical pick, it's one of the most radical picks. and if this is something the republican party endorses in 2024, 2025, it will be a republican party that's reached a new low. >> the reason fbi directors get ten-year terms because that's supposed to be insulated from politics. by definition, it spans at least two presidencies. donald trump, as you said a pointed christopher wray in 2017. he's supposed to have a term that goes to 2027. he said he's going to fire him. kash patel is the distillation of maga. his entire life has been in support of donald trump and attacking his perceived enemies

and perpetuating conspiracy theories. fbi directors work is deadly serious and not something that should be used as an appointment of a loyalist, a friend to attack perceived enemies. that's what donald trump has chosen here. open question whether the senate goes along with this. david, you profiled kash patel a few years ago. for people who don't know him, in the piece you show how he rose from obscure staffer to a key operative in trump's battle with the intelligence community. what more should people know about kash patel as we enter this process? >> i think, willie, the main thing is he is the most loyal, extreme in his loyalty, member of trump's entourage that i've encountered. when he was sent to the pentagon as chief of staff under chris miller in a very brief period at the end of 2020 serving under

secretary miller, he came with a very specific and focused agenda. this is what president trump wants am he to do. he was not there to run the pentagon as chief of staff in the usual way, he was there to conduct special political goals. there was a list of them and trump wanted troops removed from various battlefields around the world. patel tried his best and in most cases failed to get those troops out of the way. he wanted to install a trump loyalist in a key position at the national security agency, one of our most sensitive intelligence facilities. he talked with the cia about reducing the pentagon support for cia operations. a whole string of things. he made clear to the people he was working with at the pentagon that he was not there to do the normal job of being a chief of staff but to do the president's

bidding. and i think what's of concern when you think about him as fbi director, the fbi director has extraordinary powers to conduct surveillance on american citizens. and those powers to listen into phone calls, to read mail, so to speak, would be directed by somebody who has shown that he has a very political agenda. as you said, in his book, he had an enemies list. >> yes, he did. kash patel has consistently pushed false claims of voter fraud during the 2020 election, including a widely debunked film by the name of "2,000 mules" and now the man who made the film, dinesh 'souza is admitting that parts of the film is not true. they hired mules during the 2020

election to collect and drop off ballots at the same drop box at multiple times. he released a statement on his website yesterday admitting the data he used to promote that theory was not accurate and he only recently learned of the inconsistencies. >> please. come on. everything -- even ann coulter said it was stupid years ago. it was so patently, obviously, stupidly false and everybody knew it when it came out. >> also issued an apology to an atlanta area man who sued after the film wrongly identified him as a so-called mule, repeatedly dropping off ballots. despite those admissions, d'souza maintains the underlying premise, quote, holds true and claims there was substantial fraud in the 2020 election without provided any evidence -- >> never, never, never provides,

jonathan lemire, they never provide any damage. >> they do wild claims. >> say they're sorry. >> destroy people's lives. look at rudy giuliani, the lives rudy giuliani destroyed and the cost of it to those women and now the financial cost to rudy giuliani. the lies repeated over and over again. lies at the center of the guy who wants to be the next director of the fbi. what are you hearing on the hill from senate republicans? are there four senate republicans that might say it may not be a good idea if we put a guy in charge of the fbi who says he's going to shut down the building on day one, he's going to arrest journalists and reporters that didn't follow d d'souza's lies, and he has an enemies list and he's promised

to persecute those? >> "2000 mules" has been debunked. the book had to be re-edited and the book publisher apologizing and now dinesh is apologizing. it was wrong from the start and there are real consequences for innocent people. kash patel, so far, hasn't paid any consequences for supporting these lies. it's partially why he's donald trump's choice to be fbi director. what i'm hearing on the hill is, look, yesterday the first day senators were back on the hill since the choice of patel was announced. and even susan collins who many expect will stand in opposition, she paid lip service, we need to learn more about him, do the process, so on. senators won't come out right way and say, no, i'm not for

this, but we're ing rumblings, senator rounds who expressed misgivings already. there's belief this number will go. if you get to four, it's scuttled, if you get to four you probably get to six, ten, eight, ten, the like because wanting to jump in and not be that decisive vote. right now republican senators have a bit of a balancing act. they have some calculus here. how many can they oppose? matt gaetz took himself out of the running. we have pete hegseth, he was on the hill yesterday trying to lobby senators. we know there's growing opposition to him because of some of the allegations that are coming forward in "the new yorker" and other places. we have some senators saying, why is christopher wray being fired? he's done a good job. wray himself is in the post because trump fired james comey because of allegations he meddled with the russia investigation. give us the state of play, what has to be a stressful time for

these republican senators. >> this is going to be a real test for republicans who face a number of controversial nominees that trump has appointed to the most high profile and powerful positions in the government. yesterday pam bondi was making the rounds on capitol hill, who at least compared to the rest of the crew of picks is one of the less controversial choices that trump has made. but there are still a handful of others who rank up there with kash patel in terms of their conspiracy views. they want to have the appearances of going through a fair and thorough process. i think that's why you're seeing a number of republicans even

more conservative republicans who would be more likely to support trump's picks unconditionally call for fbi background checks. they're basically rallying around process, trying to get trump and the trump transition process to go the more traditional route, which is a little bit of a sea change already from what we saw at the beginning of november when trump initially won the election and bewere talking about recess appointments. now john kennedy calling for thorough background checks with the fbi so people like patel can be vetted. so people on the hill have the full array of facts on him. you're right, probably some internal thinking about these limits of how far they can oppose trump at the end of the day. if there is this growing constituency of opposition like

we've seen with matt gaetz, it might have the power to persuade trump otherwise. coming up, the gop will control the house by the thinnest of margins. we'll break down what could be a one-seat majorityagenda. that's straight ahead on "morning joe." ." liberty mutual customized my car insurance so i saved hundreds. with the money i saved i thought i'd get a wax figure of myself. cool right?

look at this craftmanship. i mean they even got my nostrils right. it's just nice to know that years after i'm gone this guy will be standing the test of ti... he's melting! oh jeez... nooo... oh gaa... only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty, liberty, liberty, liberty ♪

one house seat remains uncalled. california's 13th congressional district, republican congressman john dwarte is trailing his democratic challenger by more than 200 votes with 99% of the vote in. should his democratic challenger oust him, house speaker mike johnson will likely be dealing with a one-seat majority for the first 100 days of congress because two house members are likely to serve in the incoming trump administration. former florida congressman matt gaetz resigned from office last month, which will leave those seats empty until special elections are held. gene robinson, can you take that into the fold. it may be a one-vote majority in the house. donald trump won all those swing states, most within the margin much error narrowly. what does it all mean for his first few months, first months in office? >> he has a victory, not a

mandate. this is not a mandate to do the things he promises to do. you know, what he is trying to do is put together an administration built on a foundation of lie, a lie about the stolen election, built on the lies about the deep state, the conspiracy deep state, built on lies. that's what, unfortunately, he's going to try to push through. we'll see if republicans in the senate have the backbone to push back. background checks will help, perhaps, some of these nominations. you know, he's going to proceed as if this were an lbj landslide

and try to get through a program that is potentially disastrous for the country. certainly not helpful at all for the country. but, look, this is what we said for months and months and months. believe him when he says what he's going to do, if he's elected. he's trying to do it. >> we've said time and time on the show, don't listen to what kamala harris says, listen to what donald trump says. listen to what donald trump is promising to do. there's one problem with that, though, david ignatius. he's running into basically a divided government, a 50-50 government. anybody that has been in the house or served in the house more than one minute knows you have 435 people there and they are focused on 435 separate things. their own re-election. we saw the chaos when mike johnson had a four or five-vote

majority. a one-vote majority makes one thing clear. if republicans and donald trump want to get things done, they can talk tough, they can position themselves on the extremes, but you just look at the raw numbers and they're going to have to deal with democrats. people on x can scream and shout and hoot and holler all they want to, but you have a one-vote majority. soon, maybe in six months, a three-vote majority, but we've all been around long enough to know, and i don't mean to be in politics, but some of these members aren't going to make it to the end of their term for a variety of reasons. for a variety of reasons. they retire -- >> joe. >> they decide to go out and play golf, they move to boca, you name it, they don't make it

through. the rate of attrition suggests that this could go any way. so, you got that small margin, you got the small margin in the united states senate. if anybody wants to get anything done, they have to do something that nobody talked about in the campaign. campaign, on the republican side, and that is actually work with democrats and have democrats and republicans figuring out how to pass legislation. >> joe, i don't think we'll have a unity government, as you suggested earlier. >> no. >> nice as that might be. >> but i do think your basic point is right, that individual members and senators are going to have unusual power. and have an opportunity, if they have the courage, to look into their hearts and think, what's right for the country? the margins are so narrow. if there forms a group in the

house and senate who says, we're not going to push around, we're going to choose the right nominees for positions, we're going to take principal positions on legislation, there will be reasonable checks against arbitrary decisions. trump is assembling a cabinet that's prepared for his revenge and retribution agenda. what will stop that is individual members of the legislative branch saying, no, we are here precisely to stop arbitrary decisions from your branch, to weigh them, to advise and consent, and so we're going to watch an amazing drama, true piece of american history, as we see whether people have the courage, have the emotional strength, to withstand what will be enormous pressure and do the right thing. >> coming up, new reporting this morning from lebanon where a cease-fire between israel and hezbollah could be fraying. nbc's matt bradley is in beirut

straight ahead on "morning joe." " you don't stop being you just because you turn 65. but, you do face more risk from flu and covid. last year alone, those viruses hospitalized nearly 1 million people 65 and older. 1 million. vaccines lower your risk of getting really sick, so you can keep doing you.

ahead of the presidential transition next month, donald trump is weighing in on the conflict in gaza, posting on social media yesterday that if the remaining hostages are not freed before his inauguration on january 20th, there will be, quote, all hell to pay in the middle east. joining us now live from beirut, nbc news international correspondent matt bradley. matt, there's a lot going on in the region, including the very shaky cease-fire between israel and hezbollah. what's the very latest right now? >> reporter: that's right. we're hearing donald trump weighing in. his social media platform saying

basically he's going to come in and bust heads if things don't go to plan right before he takes office. it's unlikely things will get resolved. i think he'll take credit regardless of what happens. this is a situation that's worsening in almost every column, every category here in the middle east, including here in lebanon. a nation where there had been peace as of about a week ago. there was a peace deal brokered by the biden administration, along with their partners in france. now it looks like that's on very shaky ground. this was yesterday, the deadliest day in lebanon since that peace treaty took effect last wednesday morning. 11 people were killed in israeli bombardments across southern lebanon. this is a situation where both sides once again are saying that the other is to blame. blaming the other for violations of cease-fires, but at the same time, we know that hezbollah had fired for the first time just yesterday into israel. israel has been routinely firing

into lebanon, attacking targets they say are essentially people moving towards hezbollah military installations or missile silos. this has happened repeatedly. we've been hearing from the lebanese speaker of parliament. he said that the israelis had violated the cease-fire more than 50 times. we've heard from various other groups saying it's much more than that in terms of the violations coming from the israeli side. just this morning, we heard from a top israeli official saying if this peace treaty doesn't come to pass, if it crumbles, the israeli people can expect not just hezbollah will be punished but all of lebanon will bear the brunt. that's a very real threat considering more than 4,000 people were killed in the past several months of fighting here in lebanon between hezbollah and the israelis. they decapitated hezbollah's leadership. yet we heard from the u.s. administration last night that it looks as though, despite all of this really serious uptick in

violence, that it looks as though this shaky truce is still holding. that is not the case for next door in syria where we're seeing the first major maneuvers for the first time in the past five years for what was a dormant civil war since 2011 when we've seen that country being torn apart, massive amounts of death for intervention from all sides. now it looks as though, ever since wednesday, a brazen offensive by rebel groups, islamist groups backed by their allies, backed by turkey, took over huge parts of northwestern syria, breaking a peace treaty that had been in effect the past five years. it forced the regime of bashar al asa to take flights. those soldiers abandoned their positions in a startling move. ever since then we've been seeing air strikes conducted by the regime of bashar al assad and the russians against the city of aleppo and idlib. that has killed dozens of

people, according to the uk-based observatory for human rights. this was a situation that looks as though those rebels were taking advantage of iran and russia who have been distracted by wars elsewhere. guys? >> nbc's matt bradley reporting from beirut. thank you so much. david ignatius, so much to ask you about. what's happening in syria because of the weakness of russia, because of, you know, the ruble falling. russia casually is just mounting at horrific levels. also iran weaker than they've been. their air defense is basically just blown to pieces. i'm wondering what should we expect in the future on syria? >> joe, what we're seeing right now, as your correspondent said, illustration of the significantly weakened state of hezbollah, of iran, of their

proxies and, in a sense, bashar al assad's government in syria is a problgsy regime, couldn't stand on its own without help from russia, iran, hezbollah fighters. i think we're going to see a horrific campaign by the syrian military backed by russian bombing and air strikes to take back aleppo, the second largest city in syria, which was taken in a matter of hours by these rebels who swept south from their headquarters in idlib well below the turkish border. it was a terrible bloody battle for control of aleppo a few years ago that left thousands of people dead. i fear we'll see some repetition of that as the government tries to take control again. the u.s. has been trying to explore whether some deal with syria might be possible and where syria agreed to cut off the flow of weapons to hezbollah and lebanon.

so far given this trouble, that discussion has just stopped, just collapsed. but the -- i think looking forward, what we see is that just in literally one ends in the middle east with a cease-fire in lebanon and another one starts up immediately. that's sort of a description of the fundamental instability of the whole region. >> let's talk about donald trump's threat towards hamas to release the hostages or else. tell me, you had written a column in "the washington post" about donald trump's opening when he becomes president for peace in the middle east. explain that and does a weakened state of hezbollah and hamas and syria and iran make a peace deal more possible? >> so, trump campaigned, in part, on the idea there are too

many wars in the world, it's too dangerous a world and those wars needed to be settled. he was referring primarily to ukraine but said he wanted to see the wars in lebanon and gaza over by the time he became president. now he's making a threat. if you don't end them, then you'll have hell to pay, a threat of use of further violence. i think israel needs to have a clearer plan about what happens in gaza when the war ends. part of the problem is that the israeli's still haven't come up with a coherent day after strategy. senior white house official talking with the u.s. officials about possible approaches to a cease-fire in gaza. israel has achieved it's military objectives there. it's time to end this war and end the suffering. so i think right to the end of

biden's term, we'll see an effort to settle this war with the threat looming behind that if you don't settle it by january 20, you'll have donald trump to deal with. trump is obviously a more determined supporter of israel than biden is. >> david, stay with us. we want to talk about russia's war in ukraine and a possible path forward to ending that conflict. also ahead, wall street kicked off december with a new round of record highs. we'll go live to cnbc for a look at business before the bell when "morning joe" comes right back. k

we put our heart into everything we do. we are

farmers, bakers, florists and makers who grow and create with a passion. 1-800 flowers. share with love.

obviously, david, ukraine is another place where people in foreign policy world and president zelenskyy are

concerned for what comes next for the new administration. the ukrainian president indicating he would accept a cease-fire with russia if his country is put on a path to nato membership. "the wall street journal's" reporting that it's representing a subtle shift. he's, in effect, suggesting he could accept leaving occupied territory in moscow's hands if the rest of ukraine were given protection by allied forces. russian military said they suffered record losses, according to the kyiv independent, nearly 46,000 russian soldiers were wounded, killed or captured last month, and reportedly destroyed hundreds of tanks and combat vehicles. a new assistance package coming from the biden administration, more than $700 million to ukraine. this has the feel of getting everything it can into the hands of the ukrainians in case the new trump administration cuts it off. >> so, willie, i think that's

exactly right. the biden administration wants to give ukraine as much leverage as possible. it's allowed them to use these missiles, and antimines, it's rushing assistance as fast as it will go to help the ukrainians in what, i think, everybody expects is likely to be a period in which there is at least discussion of some kind of peace agreement. i think it's very interesting zelenskyy is saying he would accept some loss of territory. the key point for everybody to think about, most of all, president-elect donald trump, is whatever deal is made has to be durable enough that ukrainians feel their security is protected. this isn't going to just start up again after a brief lull. that ukraine will have security guarantees that are like nato membership so that you actually have a real end of the war as

opposed to a brief truce and then renewed fighting. >> so this point the biden administration has not gone to support immediate nato membership for ukraine because, of course, if ukraine becomes a nato country, russia attacks, suddenly article v is invoked and it becomes a massive world war. but zelenskyy, i'm told, may have to settle for other security guarantees. jackie, let's revisit the idea of aid. officials i've talked to in the biden administration, they openly admit, they're trying to get as much as they can to kyiv before january 20th. talk to us, are there any mechanisms the hill may also have? is there any appetite at all? we know there are some republicans who are stalwart defenders of ukraine, including mitch mcconnell, who has said he wants that to be a big part of his legacy. is there any sense when trump comes in, there will be a push from the gop on the hill, even a losing one, to try to get at least some aid to ukraine, even if not at the levels we're seeing now? >> we're not going to likely see

a push from leadership, especially house gop leadership. the white house, as politico reported yesterday, has requested $24 billion package by the end of the year for additional supplemental funding to go to ukraine that's on top of what's already been disperseded and allocated to ukraine that the administration is scrambling to get out the door right now. but mike johnson has already explicitly said that donald trump won on calling for an end to the war in ukraine. and that they're not going to support pushing this through. likely they're going to just go along with a stopgap that will put them further behind for spending goals in 2026 and could complicate donald trump's plans when he comes into the administration. there are still a handful of stalwart ukraine supporters, like mitch mcconnell, people who are going to have outsized power with such slim majorities. and in the house, depending on what happens when these final calls on the election are made,

there is going to be the opportunity for someone in the house gop conference to potentially put up a fight with regards to continuing to support ukraine. again, it's not going to come from leadership. right now getting that money out the door is squarely in the hands of the biden administration, that money that's already been allocated by congress. it's a lot of interagency wrangling in order to quickly get the money out before january 20th. >> "the washington post," jackie, and david ignatius, thank you for being on this morning. a lot going on. coming up on "morning joe," following donald trump's election victory, our next guest argues we're seeing, quote, the end of democratic delusions. "the atlantic's" george packer will join us to discuss that next on "morning joe." discuss tt next on "morning joe." they run out fast. whether you want to say, "thank you", "i love you", or just "happy holidays" -

send something special, beautiful, and delicious. order your harry and david favorites now before they're gone. right now across the u.s., people are trying to ban books from public schools and public libraries. yes, libraries. we all have a first amendment right to read and learn different viewpoints. that's why every book belongs on the shelf. yet book banning in the u.s. is worse than i've ever seen. it's people in power who want to control everything. well, i say no to censorship. and i say yes to freedom of speech and expression. if you do too, please join us in supporting the american civil liberties union today. for over 100 years, the aclu has fought for your rights and mine. including the right to read all manner of books. so please call or go online to myaclu.org. for just $19 a month, only $0.63 a day.

you can become a guardian of liberty and help protect all the rights promised to us by the u.s. constitution. make no mistake, this move to ban books is a coordinated attack on students right to learn. this is a clear violation of free speech. that's why the aclu is working to fight against censorship in all its forms. it is so important now more than ever. so please call or go to myaclu.org and become an aclu guardian of liberty, for just $19 a month. use your credit card and you'll get this special we the people t-shirt and more to show you're helping to protect the rights of all people. the aclu is in all 50 states, d.c. and puerto rico defending our first amendment right of free speech and all of your constitutional rights. because we the people, means all of us.

so please, call or, go online to myaclu.org today.

gene, we're going to bring in george packer in one minute, but i thought before we did that, we're going to set that up and then we're going to cross-examine george. i think george is one of the best and the brightest. >> i don't think it's what he signed up for. >> i love having him on because he's very insightful. right now, i'm so glad he's on because there's a debate. i talked about it earlier, i'm curious what your thought is. you know, there's a lot of talk about how the democratic party has to re-examine everything they've done. and i've talked about, i mean, massive gains in texas, in florida, in middle america. that is true. but there is another side of that. the slimmest majority in the house of representatives since herbert hoover. a three-vote margin in the united states senate. and then if you go state by state, state by state, less than one percentage point in

wisconsin, about 1 -- less than 1.5 percentage points in michigan, about 1.5 percentage points in pennsylvania. that's the difference between the democratic president and a republican president. also one other thing. when everybody talks about the rise of the far right and everything else, donald trump got less votes in 2024 than he got in 2020. now, i'm not here to say people voted against kamala harris in large numbers because she was a woman or because she was a black woman, even though the united states of america almost stands alone in not electing women to the top spot, right? but you look at these states. you and i remember, like, 1972, 1984, even 1980. remember all of those democrats that got swept out in these

landslides. kamala harris barely lost wisconsin. tammy baldwin, democratic senator won. kamala harris barely lost michigan. and yet elisa slotkin won. she lost pennsylvania but she had to go a couple of weeks before figuring out if bob casey had won or lost. so, again, we're talking about the thinnest of margins. this is one of those things we say all the time, two things can be true at once. i believe democrats need to examine what they've done. at the same time, let's not pretend that this was like a 1984 style landslide. this was an election within the margin of errors. and in those three swing states up north, if harris wins -- gets an extra 1, 1.5, 2%, she's president. so, are you going to blow everything up for 1.5%? >> yeah, you're not. i mean, in my opinion, you're

not. you're going to settle down, you're going to get back -- step back from the ledge, and you're going to -- yes, you're going to look at a loss because you did lose the election. but, no, you're not going to blow everything up. the country is very evenly divided. and these elections are close one way or the other. if i -- if i were advising the democratic party, i would say one thing you really need to look at is your declining share among latino voters. i don't think the democratic party understands the latino community or latino voters because there are actually a number of different communities. they don't understand that portion of the electorate well

enough. and it's a growing portion of the electorate that needs to be understood. but, no, i don't think you have to start from scratch and say, let's tear down the entire democratic party and build a new one. you did, after all, go into this election with a black and south asian woman at the head of the ticket. and while we didn't talk about that a whole lot, nonetheless, this is the united states of america. and i don't think you'll ever convince me that that had no impact on the result. again, we're talking 1.5%. >> 1%. >> one way or the other. so, you know. >> so to that point -- >> this is what happened. >> yeah, but to that point, there is some hard realities and some major work to be done to make for a resounding win. >> of course. >> so that those issues --

>> of course. >> let's bring in staff writer for "the ," george packer, who writes about the end of democratic delusions, arguing the 2024 election has launched us into a new era. one he calls the trump reaction. i thought we were already in that era. >> we have presented our opening argument. we turn it over to you, the prosecution. go. >> yeah, i suddenly got the feeling as i was watching earlier that i had actually signed up for a firing squad here. >> no, no, no. >> no. >> i will do my best. look, first of all, don't put me in a corner where i never win. i am not saying the democratic party is finished and needs to be rebuilt from scratch. you've been talking about some historical parallels. i would draw an analogy. joe, you remember, to 1968,

when richard nixon barely defeated the incumbent vice president, who had taken over for the incumbent president who had withdrawn from the race. that was a really close election, but it signaled a change, a big change, which was the end, really, of new deal liberalism. it didn't happen all at once. it took maybe 12 years until ronald reagan swept it away in 1980. but that's -- that's where i'm looking, more a trend, which is the trend toward populism, right-wing populism. it's a global phenomenon. you're right, it's been coming in this country for eight years. but the fact that donald trump won again, despite being pretty unpopular, despite having tried to overthrow an election, despite being a convicted felon, tells me that that trend, that sentiment in the public to get rid of old institutions, to overthrow the status quo, it's a really strong one. strong enough to re-elect this,

i would say, degenerate felon. >> coming up, can president biden make a move on immigration with just 48 days left in office? our next guest is pushing the white house for executive action. senator catherine cortez masto of nevada joins the conversation just ahead on "morning joe." st " we're in a parade. everyone customize and save hundreds on car insurance with liberty mutual. customize and sa— (balloon doug pops & deflates) and then i wake up. and you have this dream every night? yeah, every night! hmm... i see. (limu squawks) only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪

hi. i'm damian clark. i'm here to help you understand how to get the most from medicare. if you're eligible for medicare, it's a good idea to have original medicare. it gives you coverage for doctor office visits and hospital stays. but if you want even more benefits, you can choose a medicare advantage plan like the ones offered at humana. our plans combine original medicare with extra benefits in a single, convenient plan with $0, or low monthly plan premiums. these plans could even include prescription drug coverage with $0 copays on hundreds of prescriptions. plus, there's a cap on your out-of-pocket costs. most plans include dental, vision, even hearing coverage. there are $0 copays for in-network preventive services, and much more. get the most from medicare with a humana medicare advantage plan. call today to learn more. remember, annual enrollment for medicare advantage plans ends december 7th. humana. a more human way to health care.

kash patel, who is totally unqualified to run the fbi, but what he did do was write not one, not two, but three children's books about donald trump. >> my name is kash patel and i have written the first ever children's russia gate book. it's called "the plot against the king." it is a fantastical telling by me, the russia gate teller how

we triumphed how to put truth over evil and report the facts to the american public. please go to the link below and order your copy today. >> yes, yes, i'm a normal adult man who wrote a book in which donald trump is king and i am his wizard for kids. >> welcome to the fourth hour of "morning joe." it's 6 a.m. on the west coast, 9 a.m. in the east. jonathan lamere is here with us. the president-elect's choice of kash patel to potentially lead the fbi is bringing increased scrutiny on patel's extreme views and so-called enemy's list. in his 2023 book "government gangsters" patel has an entire appendix listing what he called members of the executive branch deep state. the list includes democrats, biden administration officials and even some trump appointees from trump's first

administration. meanwhile, amid more questions about past accusations of sexual assault, trump's pick for defense secretary, pete hegseth, was back on capitol hill yesterday. at least one republican senator called for a background check while dozens of others, including senator cynthia loomis of wyoming say they're ready to back his nomination. >> sir, are you going to insist on seeing an fbi background check on pete hegseth? >> we are actually looking at -- we're looking at the way it's been done traditionally and getting information about that as to who actually orders the fbi background check, and i'll know more tomorrow. >> but is that something that you would want to see? >> i would prefer a full background check, yes. >> we want to restore american confidence in our military and

world conference -- confidence in our military, and pete hegseth has been a voice for that. and that voice, that message, both to americans and around the world, is the key to his strength as a nominee, in my opinion. and all these other issues are side issues. they're throwing disparaging remarks at someone who has earned a great deal of credibility. are soldiers sometimes wild childs? yeah, that can happen. but it is very clear that this guy is the guy who, at a time when americans are losing confidence in their own military and our ability to project strength around the world, that pete hegseth is the answer to that concern. >> tale of two senators there. there are actually responsible

republicans who are saying we probably need fbi background checks. in fact, senator wicker said we do need fbi background checks for all of these nominees holding the most sensitive, important positions in america. and on the planet, actually. the pentagon is actually the biggest, most powerful, most i think substantial bureaucracy on the planet when it comes to its impact on american national security and the peace of this planet. i've got to say, john heilman, let me bring you in here. it's interesting. wild childs. i think of jerry garcia, maybe grace slick. we can go down a very long list of wild childs. i'm fascinated that the senator calls a, quote, wild child somebody that was called an abuser of women repeatedly by

his own mother, someone who was kicked out of two vets' organizations for being drunk and having to be hauled off the stage of a strip club and, again, two whistle-blower reports talking about how this guy's not only unfit to run the largest, most important, most powerful bureaucracy in america and the world but couldn't even stay associated with two vets' organizations because of major character flaws that his mother and others brought up. and on top of that, let's take that all aside. as i've been saying, even if he has the character of atticus finch, the man doesn't have the qualifications for this position. where do the republican senators go who actually care about american national security? >> we will, i think they go,

joe, to doing -- starting to put some of the same kind of pressure on the trump administration that those same kind of senators put on the trump administration when it came to matt gaetz as attorney general. this reporting by jane mayer in the new yorker is devastating. it's devastating in the depth of it, in the breadth of it. this is someone who -- you know, jane is as good an investigative journalist as there is on the planet, and her -- you know, mu references, if you read that whole piece, you just get the impression of this is someone, you were just talking about jerry garcia, grace slick, maybe janice joplin, i'm not sure how many you mentioned there, i'm

thinking he's like jim morrison, often appears on stage too drunk to stand up but has a very nice head of hair. beyond that, i'm not sure that a wild child -- the wild child describes anything other than someone who is clearly not on the basis of what is known now or the basis of what that reporting shows, not someone who's going to command the respect of the american military. i think a lot of these republican senators reading those reports are going to have the questions that are already surfacing and the kind of pushback that we might be heading down a path that leads to the same destination as we ended up with matt gaetz. >> yeah. i think a lot of american service men and women would object to the fact that they're wild children. david drucker, we're talking about pete hegseth, we could add kash patel, we could add tulsi gabbard, robert f. kennedy, go

down the list. donald trump is clearly pushing the boundaries to see what this senate would tolerate from him. it wouldn't tolerate matt gaetz. what's your expectation? >> he's nominating exactly who he said he would, not in name but definitely in spirit. and there are different ways republican senators can approach this. on the one hand i think there's a strong desire to defer to the president-elect because of the support he has inside the party with voters and because of how the election turned out, but as we saw with matt gaetz, you didn't necessarily see, you know, a dozen republican senators jumping up and down and stomping on their feet and saying ell no. but they acted publicly about the nomination and quietly said they were going to oppose. i think they're also trying to

figure out, who do we oppose? who do we just accept so that we don't end up in a full blown war where we then start talking about recess appointments. i wouldn't be surprised if there is more skepticism to some of these nominees than we're aware of publicly, but what they're trying to do is let the information about these nominees become public. if it becomes damaging enough, there's a lot less opposing they need to do and it's a lot easier for them to maintain the relationship with trump. >> attorney general merrick garland and top justice department officials are trying to get career staffers to stay at their posts through the next administration. sources tell "the washington post" that garland is stressing that institutional knowledge is important as new leaders take hold. the post notes that the weeks since president-elect donald trump's victory have been filled with uncertainty and tumult for

many of the more than 100,000 individuals that work at the world's largest law enforcement agency according to people familiar with the situation, but the nomination of pam bondi brought some relief about whether trump would erase existing firewalls between the white house and the justice department's criminal investigations. so far there has not been a mass exodus from the agency. the post notes that many career employees worked for the justice department during the first trump administration and are waiting to see who is appointed to head different decisions before deciding how to proceed. >> you know what, jonathan lamere, is so fascinating, we're seeing an evolution of thinking here post election. there was the election shock, the night after. we saw the week after. we're now starting to see democrats, a lot of democratic

leaders and thought leaders actually saying, hold on a second. hold on. we had vertigo for a week or two. molly john fast said we've got institutions. we've got to rely on the senate institution. we've got institutions. the house is basically split. there's going to be a one-vote margin. we still have the federal courts and we have the bureaucracies and this is where merrick garland is saying bat ton down the hatches makes a whole lot of sense because if people quit, if they resign in large numbers, that makes the job easier to fill those positions. whereas, if they stay there, if the professionals stay and basically man their quarters, then suddenly you're going to be getting pushback not only from republicans in the senate who give a damn about national

security and intel and america's health and the rule of law, but you're going to get it from the house where you know, yeah, there's one, two, three, four, five, six republicans who want to be in the house who warrant to be governor, senator, or another position where they can't take extreme positions. so you start going and like molly john fast wrote in her latest piece nor for vanity fai there's a need to stand there, to push back, to do your job and to not panic. >> right. because it's so far been very different than what we saw in the aftermath of the 2016 election. 2016 there was shock and suddenly anger and resolve. we saw democrats rally to try to stop the incoming trump administration who they thought had dangerous policies. this time around democrats seem despondent. there has not been a protest in the streets, sort of a hopelessness. i think we're starting to see that change here a little bit in small ways.

yes, merrick garland's note to staffers could be seen as a piece of this it. in the house jamie raskin is challenging jerry nadler for the leadership of a key house committee that will put him in the front lines of the trump administration. that's not something we often see democrats do. they say it's time for a new generation, it's time for a fresh face. we certainly know there is plenty of talent on the democratic governors who plan to do the same. so there is a sense here. the institutions, look, they held, just barely. many democrats believe in trump's first term it would be that much harder this time around with trump taking office with more of a wind at his back, even more compliant supreme court. i think the message from democrats is starting to change echoing what we heard from vice president harris in her farewell to staff saying, look, stay in this fight. you can't give up. it's too important. >> all right. on top of his promise to deport millions of undocumented

immigrants, president-elect trump has also threatened to revoke the legal status of immigrants living in the u.s. trump has specifically mentioned those afforded temporary protected status, which has been granted to more than 1 million immigrants from countries dealing with natural disasters, armed conflict or other extraordinary circumstances. the designation for several countries ends next year, including el salvador, ukraine, and venezuela. trump could simply let the protected status of these countries expire or revoke that status before the expiration date, which has never been done before. let's bring in democratic senator catherine cortez masto. >> senator, how would he do that? >> good morning. first of all, let me just say thank you for drawing attention to this. this is the point. right now the president has the

legal ability to do this. these countries that you just talked about already, really there are horrific conditions. this he satisfy -- they satisfyg the president to take tps status coming from countries of horrific conditions. some of them are already here. some of them are already working, they are already contributing to the economy, they are part of our communities, and what the president can do is just take legal action to extend their tps status, but it's not just our tps recipients. my hope is that the president in the last two months also quickly processes our daca resip yents applications. we need to make sure the dreamers have the ability to stay here, be a part of the country that they grew up in because unfortunately as you have identified, the next administration is going to come in and there's going to be chaos around immigration and mass

deportation. we've already seen it when the president was in office once before. >> senator, good morning. great to have you with us. so what we're hearing so far from the incoming trump administration, from his czar as they're calling it, tom homan, they're just going after the criminals. they want to get the criminals who are here illegally out of the country. what is your expectation about what mass deportation actually looks like though? >> nobody's safe. i can tell you under the previous, when president trump was in office the first time, i can tell you the calls to my office and the chaos that he created around immigration and separating families and nobody was safe. everybody in our community, at least in nevada that i saw, they weren't protected whether you were married to a u.s. citizen or whether you were a dreamer. so really at the end of the day what i take is what i hear from this incoming administration, they're going to engage in mass deportation and nobody's safe. that's why i'm asking the administration to come in and take action that they can now to

protect some of the immigrant community, tps recipients, daca recipients. make sure we're bringing certainty to them and keeping their families together. >> so, david drucker, let me ask you about what reporting you've gotten, what we've heard, what other people have heard, what willie just referenced is the incoming trump administration talking about they're going to focus on the violent criminals, they're going to focus on those who committed crimes and run them out and they don't want a repeat of what happened in 2017. i'm curious if that lines up with what you're hearing. i'm also curious what pressure they may be getting from wall street and from businesses and from smaller businesses where you have a lot of these legal immigrants who are actually helping staff family restaurants, family hardware stores, small businesses on main

street, mid-sized businesses across america. i mean, this is obviously -- if you talk to a lot of people who voted for donald trump, yeah, get the criminals out but, please, we've got an economy to run here. don't run out people who are here legally. what are you hearing? >> right. and i think we're going to have a -- we're going to see a debate within the white house and the administration broadly with exactly how extensive these deportation actions should be. there are so many hispanic voters, in fact, that voted for trump because they want criminal aliens deported but they do not expect the trump administration incoming to actually go after people that are here illegally but working. so that's the expectation from some of the voters that could be impacted themselves or members of their family. i think a lot of people in the business community are expecting trump to do what's best for the economy, and what's not good for

the economy, even if it lines up with the law, is to do blanket mass deportations that sweeps up people who are working and are a part of these industries that are so vital to the u.s. economy. and the thing about this is, joe, there's always conflicting signals coming from within trump's circle because some of the people advising him are hard line and want these deportation orders to include everybody that is here illegally. they want to see the president revoke temporary status to immigrants because they feel that it'll benefit american citizens who are seeking employment or have employment and then there are others who look at this in a more pragmatic sense. i always like to say, you've got to figure out who's talking to trump last if you want to figure out where he's going to land on this stuff. >> so, senator, let's take a bigger picture look here.

obviously this is part of an agenda the president-elect is trying to put into place and he's trying to get his team in place to do so. members of his potential cabinet have been on capitol hill meeting with senators in recent days. what is your assessment of the quality of the incoming selections and whether or not you think that some of your republican colleagues may say no to a few that have been identified as perhaps the more problematic, hegseth, gabbard and patel and the like? >> we've already seen them say no already. of course, have concerns, but like any process previously even under the trump administration, the biden administration, as a senator, i take this process very seriously. it is important we engage in this vice and advice and consen. do i have concerns with some of them? absolutely. and that's why i'm going to be hopefully meeting with them and asking them the questions about their intent as they get into

these positions. >> all right. democratic senator catherine cortez masto of nevada, thank you for coming on the show. we appreciate it. senior writer for "the dispatch," david drucker, thank you very much. >> thank you, david. time for other headlines. coffee prices are now at their highest in nearly half a century. brazil one of the biggest producers saw its worst drought in more than 70 years followed by heavy rains raising concerns about next year's crop. meanwhile, vietnam has had three consecutive years of low output. a fiber optic data cable that runs between sweden and finland has been damaged in had two separate places this morning. the swedish government said it expected an act of sabotage. finnish police did not have any reason to suspect criminal

activity. it comes after the rupture of two data cables in the baltic sea. the long lost note about the beatles breakup are set to go on auction next week. more than 300 pages of typed documents compiled by the band's advisers and legal representatives were found in a cupboard where they have remained untouched since the 1970s. >> come on. >> the notes were discovered last year in an undisclosed location. >> it's pretty crazy. john heilman, i can't wait to look at the notes and see what they say, but the whole story about the beatles breakup is so framed by jan winters interview with john lennon which still framed it up until peter jackson's get back, but the funny thing is, if you go back and look at history, like two or three years later john lennon was telling george martin and all of his bandmates, don't

paolini attention to that. i was stoned during the interview. i didn't mean any of it. that has framed it. i can't wait to see these notes. >> yeah. i can't wait to see them either, joe. always interested in expanding our knowledge of everything related to the beatles. i will say when i think about these things going up on auction though, you know, you were the biggest beetles fan i know. you think about the most comprehensive, the most completest, how much would you be willing to pay for those notes? >> oh, come on. >> even for a good charity. >> no. >> you know, i mean -- you know, about as much as the boston red sox have paid for players in the off season. you know, coupons, clip -- i don't know, but i don't know -- >> how much someone will pay is the question. >> i don't know how much somebody will pay. it's probably going to be -- >> yes. >> -- a good bit. and i'm wondering if you -- from what i understand, paul mccartney, he saved all of his

song writing notes, he saved all these other things. >> right. >> and he's just been compiling them through the years over the past 50, 55, 60 years. i'm wondering if he or somebody else associated with the band doesn't step in and maybe snap these things up. >> well, it depends on what's in them, joe. when i think about people paying absurd amounts of money for ridiculous trivia, i think of connor, roy and succession paying tens of millions of dollars for some -- i believe for napoleon's junk, which had been supposedly preserved in formaldehyde for a number of years. i think it kind of depends on what you're bag here, right? i'll tell you, the mccartney notes on having written a lot of these songs, if they are compiled somewhere the way that dylon's recently were, they put out the giant books that has all

of the notes from song writing, that's a brilliant book. i'd be right there with you. i'd be willing to spend a lot of notes. i'm not sure about the advisers trying to figure out the finances of the beetles as the broke out. >> i'll say. there's so much more stuff out there. but speaking of what he's talking about, i'm still getting over the -- >> that's art. that's high art. >> not high art. >> john eilman, thank you. president-elect donald trump says he will block the sale of an iconic american business to a foreign firm. the we'll tell you which one that is. plus, elon musk lost his bid for the largest pay package in u.s. history for a public company executive. cnbc's dom chu joins us with

those details next. you're watching "morning joe."

the virus that causes shingles is sleeping... in 99% of people over 50. it's lying dormant, waiting... and could reactivate. shingles strikes as a painful, blistering rash that can last for weeks. and it could wake at any time. think you're not at risk for shingles? it's time to wake up. because shingles could wake up in you. if you're over 50, talk to your doctor or pharmacist about shingles prevention.

drop everything and get some magic of your own if you're over 50, talk to your during the xfinityst black friday sale. xfinity internet customers, our best deals of the year are back! switch to xfinity mobile and get your choice of a free 5g phone, plus your next unlimited line free for a year. get amazing savings and connect to wifi speeds up to a gig on the go with xfinity mobile. fly don't walk to get our best deals of the year. connect to the world of wicked this holiday,

in theaters now. ♪♪ you know, it's a question that -- really, it's a rhetorical question. willie, will you and your children and my children all be dancing around the comcast commerce tree tomorrow night when it's lit up? >> does that tree need water? >> i put my lights up yesterday so i'm excited to see how mine stack up against what they've got coming tomorrow night in rockefeller center. when they push those two last plugs together hoping the bulbs held over the long summer months. >> okay. >> it will be exciting to see tomorrow night on nbc. >> are you guys -- >> it is going to be very exciting to see. >> okay. >> you know, you can plug it together just like chevy chase in "christmas vacation."

>> do you not like that tree? >> the tree does not look good. >> it looks like it's dieing. >> this is the comcast commerce tree. >> look at it. >> let me tell you what it's going to do. it's going to be like charlie brown christmas and this is, again, the commerce tree, right? so when they see little kids, the second that they do the chevy chase and lights up and all of the kids rush in to the nbc experience store and start putting down cold, hard cash, which is what, of course, the christmas spirit is about when you're in front of the commerce tree, well, willie, i think this tree is going to bloom to life just like we saw -- >> let's hope. >> -- at the end of "a charlie brown christmas." >> it's perfect. symmetrical, green, good-looking tree. if you do happen to find yourself in the nbc store, pick up "morning joe" gear, ny

pack. where you keep all your stuff. >> i think it needs water, guys. >> the spirit of christmas. >> okay. >> the spirit of christmas. >> i'm moving on. being honest. >> you put up the lights this weekend. >> i did. i put the tree up and i watered the tree. somebody needs to water the tree. somebody needs to get a hose out and water that tree. >> we were watching the iron bowl, willie. alabama/auburn. i turn around and mika's going over and she's putting lights around the christmas tree. i guess she didn't want to see the game. >> all of a sudden i went to go get it -- but i watered it, too. >> putting up the decorations this weekend. >> you guys are trying to deflect that the comcast commerce tree is wilting. >> i genuinely don't see it. let's see it again. what's the problem? looks good to me. >> it's wilting. >> that is a deep green, like $100 bill that a kid is smacking down in the nbc experience

store. getting willie geist's sunday today thermos and lunch box. >> all proceeds go directly to my checking account. >> amen. >> let's move on. >> okay. >> good cause. the european federation of journalists has announced it will stop publishing content on elon musk's social media platform, x. it will take effect on january 20th, which is donald trump's inauguration day. in a statement the organization said it, quote, can no longer ethically participate in a social network which its owner has transformed into a machine of disinformation and propaganda. meanwhile, the tesla ceo has just lost a bid to get his pay package reinstated. back in january a judge voided the compensation plan calling the process deeply flawed. she said shareholders had not been properly informed of the details. at the time the stock options

were worth more than $50 billion. it's now worth about 100 billion after tesla's share price jumped in recent weeks. >> let's bring in cnbc's dom chu. dom, this is a story that we talked about -- that andrew ross sorkin and i talked about a while ago. regardless how you feel about elon musk, how you feel about his politics, we're having trouble squaring up the fact that this is something the shareholders wanted, right? so the shareholders decide they want him to get the pay package. judge decides, no, and i think for a lot of people they're like, wait, i thought it was the shareholders' company. what's going on here that we're missing? >> the law is basically what it comes down to, at least the law as seen through the eyes of a judge or chancellor in delaware chance sorry court. we're talking about the judge kathleen mccormick. like mika points out.

the whole idea is she called the process flawed. that the board of directors had not fairly negotiated a plan that was given basically mandated to them by the ceo, elon musk. it was $56 billion package. a lot of zeroes. it would have been the biggest in corporate history. now in response to that ruling, remember, we put up that shareholder vote that we saw in june, tesla did, right, to reinstate the pay package. it was improved. then chancellor mccormick said in this most recent ruling that, quote, even if a stockholder vote could have a ratifying effect, which is what they were trying to do, it could not do so here. were the court to actually condone the practice of allowing defeated parties to create new facts for the purpose of revising judgements, lawsuits would become interminable. that was the reason why she said you couldn't just vote on something and then reinstate it again. tesla did say, by the way, guys, it plans to appeal the ruling while musk called it, quote, absolute corruption.

those were his words in response to the ruling yesterday. after the initial rejection back in january musk successfully, you may recall, convinced shareholders to vote in favor of just moving tesla's incorporation to the state of texas, which was viewed as more business friendly to musk versus what happened in delaware. so you've got that. we've also got some other headlines with regard to global trade standoffs. the biden administration unveiled a new wave of trade restrictions for u.s. controls and restrictions on companies that sell goods to china's computer chip companies. the new sanctions target roughly 140 chinese companies including tech giants like huawei and semiconductor international corp. it's called smic. commerce secretary said the new restrictions are the strongest enacted ever by america to keep advanced technology out of the hands of china that could be used in things like military applications. of course, that led to the latest retaliation by china,

which has now said it will halt the export of key minerals and metals to u.s. markets, including things like gallium and uranium that are critical to things like micro chips and solar panels. china produces a lot of those supplies. there's a standoff there brewing for sure. we'll stick with the u.s.-china relations. one of the things both president biden and president-elect trump agree on is u.s. steel should remain a u.s. company and not be acquired by japanese steel titan nippon steel. the president-elect reiterated that view on his truth social platform saying, quote, i am totally against the once great and powerful u.s. steel being bought by a foreign company, in this case nippon steel of japan, adding, quote, as president i will block this deal from happening. buyer beware. nippon steel did agree to buy u.s. steel last year for 14 plus

billion dollars and has said it is determined to protect and grow u.s. steel in a way that reinforces american industry and domestic supply chains but the deal has faced a lot of bipartisan and labor union opposition over things like national security and potential job losses. for its part, guys, u.s. steel itself says the acquisition is in the best interests of employees, shareholders, communities and customers. so there is at least one thing that both administrations will agree on, and that is that u.s. steel should remain a u.s. company, guys. >> all right. cnbc's dom chu. thank you very much for that. we're going to have a look at the stories making front page headlines this morning. the papers across the country, including one governor pushing for funds to fight president-elect donald trump's policies. we'll tell you who that is when "morning joe" comes right back. and research on pain relief, my recommendation is simple: every home should have salonpas.

powerful yet non-addictive. targeted and long-lasting. i recommend salonpas. it's good medicine. ♪ hisamitsu ♪

welcome back. time now for a look at the morning papers. we begin in michigan where "the detroit news" reports the united auto workers is considering going on strike against stellantis. the union says it will hold a vote to authorize the strike early next year amid claims the automaker has not followed through with the promises it made in its 2023 contract which was ratified after the last auto workers' strike. this comes just a day after the company's ceo resigned. it's not clear if that will impact the union's decisions, but stellantis says the strike threats violates the union's contract. we'll follow that. in california "the sacramento bee" has a story on gavin newsom creating a fund for potential litigation against president-elect donald trump's policies. newsom wants to set aside $25 million for court challenges and

administrative actions. he says the fund can help safeguard funding for disaster relief, health care and other vital services. california sued the trump administration 122 times during his last presidency costing the state about $42 million. in new york "the post standard" is highlighting giving tuesday, which is today. the day follows consumer-focused black friday and cyber monday and encourages people to donate to charitable causes. it started as a project of the 92nd street y in new york city back in 2012 and has since grown into a global movement. in 2022 and 2023 giving tuesday raised over $3 billion for nonprofits. and in massachusetts ""the boston globe"" is highlighting staffers at the new england aquarium who are treating more

than 200 turtles that washed on to shore along cape cod. the change in water temperature and wind patterns around this time of year caused dozens of turtles to become cold stunned and left suffering from hypothermia. most are treated with fluids and antibiotics and then released back into the wild. still ahead, the play "o mary" has been a hit on broadway since it opened earlier this year. it stars cole lascola and now the emmy nominated betty gilpin join the cast. they'll join us next on "morning joe." ght i'd get a wax figure of myself. cool right? look at this craftmanship. i mean they even got my nostrils right. it's just nice to know that years after i'm gone this guy will be standing the test of ti...

he's melting! oh jeez... nooo... oh gaa... only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty, liberty, liberty, liberty ♪

few plays in recent years have taken broadway by storm quite like the new comedy "oh, mary." the show takes some creative liberties. imagine the life of a frustrated

and drunk mary todd lincoln in the weeks leading up to abraham lincoln's assassination. now after a successful run, the show is announcing here exclusively on "morning joe" that cole is handing over the reins in that curly wig to emmy nominated actress betty gilpin who will play the former first lady for an eight weaken gaugement. the show will be extends its run deep into next year. cole and betty join us now. so great to have you here. >> thank you for having us and for breaking the scoop. >> that's the scoop. i stole some of the thunder, cole. i'll let you dive in a little deeper. this has been so well-received doesn't begin to explain what's happened. this is the show on broadway. must-see show right now. i saw it last week. it blew my mind. cole's unhinged historical fantasia. >> thanks. thank you. >> tell me about handing over the torch. >> well, you know, she just

wouldn't leave me alone. >> yeah. that's right. >> she's been hounding me for -- ever since the show started. >> since birth. >> since birth. no, i -- i have to take a break because i was -- i have to write some scripts that i've already been paid to write like two years ago and i was like, oh, i'll get to them after the play finishes downtown, and then here we are almost a year later and people are angry. >> right. >> and so i called the most talented actress i know. >> she wasn't available. >> she wasn't available. >> i stepped in. >> she said, do you know a little gal named betty gilpin. no, i couldn't be more excited about betty. >> betty, tell me from your side about that phone call. what was it like to get that offer? >> well, strangely, i was doing a mini series about james garfield, another assassinated

president. i was playing the first lady. >> what are the odds? >> i was in the full regalia, petty coat and all and got the call to play mary todd. i hit the floor in tears. i have been obsessed with cole forever. their brain is just one of our most brilliant on the planet but i'm also completely obsessed with "oh, mary." i cannot wait. >> cole, this has all happened so quickly. as you said, it was off broadway starting february of this year. >> yeah. well, previews started in january. >> but early this year. >> yeah. >> then just came to broadway in july. >> yeah. >> it was a sensation. how have you been able to process any of it or take in any of what's happened to you? >> i haven't been able to. i don't think i'll be able to until betty takes over and then, yeah, i mean, it's eight shows a week. it's no joke, you know. a week. >> i think a lot of people clulg

myself who watched the show say, where in cole's mind was this born? how did you even conceive of this idea? >> i had the idea, i thought what if abraham lincoln's assassination wasn't such a bad thing for mary? you know, i think for a lot of husband -- for a lot of women, the prospect of their husband's being assassinated is -- you know, maybe a hope or a dream that they have. >> i hope not. >> i wanted to give women a place to come and live out that fantasy. >> feel recognized. >> but to put that feeling that you just said in the middle of the most famous assassination of all time, what gave you the idea to place it around lincoln? >> because people have a concept of how it all happened and i wanted to fill in some of the blanks. >> so, betty, with that as the backdrop, what is it like to step into what has become so

very quickly an iconic and popular role in production? is. >> i'm very excited. you know, i think that cole and i share some demented brain dna. >> uh-huh. >> a love of what is ridiculous and wonderful about theater and old hollywood and being -- trying to be profoundly stupid and smart at the same time. >> yes. >> and, yeah, i just feel -- i think so many people, as ridiculous and silly and joyful as the play is, it is also a brilliantly structured and written play. and the role of a lifetime. so while i'm so excited to go be ridiculous and make choices and have so much fun, i'm excited to play one of the great roles of our time. >> cole, you have different actors. >> no, we've been up for the same roles for years. >> yeah. >> why did you think betty was the right person?

>> there are some videos of betty doing a character, an actress in her dressing room getting ready for a show, and -- >> losing her mind. >> losing her mind. she speaks the same demented barbara stanwick. >> shirley templeesque crew ella deville in a blender. >> yes. >> what are you doing to prepare for this? you take over in january running through june at least, maybe longer. how are you getting ready for it? >> so far i'm just running my lines to myself. i have a 4-year-old and she's like, why are you talking to yourself? i'm performing. well, you're with me. first and foremost i'm a performer. >> mommy's working. >> right. yes. yes. mommy's sparkling. >> sparkling.

you can still see cole for a little while here and then in the capable hands be of betty from there. >> yes. >> congratulations on what you created and all of the success. "oh, mary" playing through june of next year. writer and star cole lescola, and betty gilpin, thank you both. >> we want to mention betty will star in the western limited series "american prime evil" premiering january 29th. mika? >> south korea's president has declared emergency marshall law in the country accusing the political opposition of controlling the parliament paralyzing the government with antistate activities and sympathizing with north korea. the president made the declaration in an unannounced late night address broadcast live on television. he did not say in the address what specific measures will be

taken. >> obviously very fraught times in south korea. it has been a democracy since the late 1980s. this story is unfolding as we speak right now and you can follow more of it throughout the day on msnbc. that does it for us this morning. >> yeah. we'll see you tomorrow at 6 a.m. ana cabrera picks up the coverage after a short break.

right now on "anna cabrera