had productive meetings. we're open to the possibility. we didn't hear a lot of full-throated endorsements. a couple said i'm on board. again, it doesn't take many. if there are eight, even six republicans, even five republicans who say no, she could be in jeopardy. this whole dynamic we're going to talk about on "morning joe" in a minute, donald trump and, yes, elon musk pulling the strings on everything that happens in the government before he's even president of the united states, is donald trump going to call these senators? is he going to call these republicans and say, "do this or else"? he is seeing how far he can push them on everything, including maybe tulsi gabbard. >> a preview of the tell umult come, no doubt. willie geist, thank you for today and all the years. >> congrats on a great run. >> thank you. appreciate it. thanks for getting up "way too early" on us. i'll see you tomorrow here on "way too early." "morning joe" starts now. this is absurd.

what we have here is a bipartisan deal that mike johnson, the speaker of the house, negotiated and brought to the house, that has been scuttled by donald trump and elon musk and is putting us on the brink of a government shutdown. >> house republicans will now own any harm that is visited upon the american people that results from a government shutdown or worse. >> speaker johnson saying on? >> i'm only one vote out of 220. the speaker could have handled this differently. at this point, i'm still supporting the speaker. i will tell you, voices both inside the house freedom caucus and outside the freedom caucus have been disappointed with what's happened this week. >> do you think johnson should stay the speaker nominee? >> johnson is going to be the speaker. he's not going to get him through with just the

republicans. he needs democrats to support him or he'll never make speaker. he just is not going to. >> extraordinary developments on capitol hill. democrats pointing fingers at republicans. republicans blaming speaker mike johnson. all while donald trump and elon musk push congress toward a government shutdown, ordering republicans yesterday not to support the bipartisan spending deal. good morning. welcome to "morning joe." it is thursday, december 10th. i'm willie geist. joe and mika have the morning off. with us, the host of "way too early" for one more day, jonathan lemire. also, msnbc contributor mike barnicle. the host of msnbc's "inside with jen psaki," jen psaki. and former treasury official and "morning joe" economic analyst, steve rattner. let's set up what happened yesterday. a bipartisan plan to fund the government and avoid a shutdown fell apart yesterday after president-elect trump and elon musk voiced their opposition to the bill. despite having the stamp of approval from congressional

leadership, trump and vice president-elect jd vance condemned the bill. also, demanding the legislation include a debt ceiling increase. writing in part, "increasing the debt ceiling is not great, but we'd rather do it on biden's watch. we should pass a streamline spending bill that doesn't give chuck schumer and the democrats everything they want." that came after musk spent hours cite sizing the sprawling bill on social media, posting about it over 100 times throughout the day. the president-elect threatened to support a primary opponent of any republican who went against his wishes. with the bipartisan legislation dead, vance went to the hill in an attempt to iron out another deal ahead of tomorrow's deadline. let's bring in julie cirkin. good morning. great to see you. so much to talk about, including the future of speaker mike johnson.

what exactly happened yesterday? this appeared to be going toward passage, bipartisan deal, everyone out of town for the holidays. now, as of midnight tomorrow, the government could be shut down. >> welcome to the next four years, willie. i think this is something that those of us who have covered the first trump administration, capitol hill during trump's first term, are keenly aware of, and so are the lawmakers who were in the building during the four years. the way yesterday was going, you played that bite from andy harris, the house freedom caucus chairman. i asked what he'd support speaker johnson because he and the group of conservatives in the se and senate talked about the plans for next year. it included the border passage, the tax cuts deal, and an hour later this must-pass government funding package they'd all but buttoned up, getting fully crushed and killed by the had the president-elect and his team of allies, including elon musk.

the speaker was in the capitol until late last night, huddling with the vice president-elect, steve scalise, the leadership team, to count the votes and see how they can get to yes on even a clean government funding bill with a debt ceiling lift now, something that house republican leadership have not even been talking or thinking about. certainly, trump has been sounding alarm bells on that for some time now. these kinds of negotiations take weeks, if not months to hammer out. they have about a day to figure this out. until the government, the lights are out. certainly, this is not something they want to be doing ahead of christmas say dags. boy, do they have work cut out for them. it'll be a long day. today is the last day the house can get going on this process to get the government funded in time. >> julie, as you say, this bill is more than 1,500 pages. that takes a long time. there's a lot in there. they thought they had the deal. my question to you is, was speaker johnson blindsided by the tweets that started yesterday from elon musk, by

this threat from donald trump? now, he's going to order primaries for anyone who crosses him on this. as you say, preview f coming attractions, if the government does something he doesn't like, he threatens primary and sticks elon musk on you. did republicans see this coming yesterday? >> we heard from senators to house members talking about how bloated this bill was. let's be clear, this wasn't a clean government funding bill. this had a lot of extra provisions on it, including, of course, the disaster leave, the farm bill, which is a must-pass item. additional assistance for farmers, too. don't forget, the pay raise for members of congress that hasn't happened in more than a decade. certainly, all of those things go against the grain of what we've been hearing from the incoming administration, from the incoming republican trifecta. it goes against the theme we've been hearing. i'm not sure it should have been

a surprise for johnson, who was holed up in his office throughout the day. we were thinking perhaps they could have rushed the bill, made the house vote on it and get out of town before this could linger and get the reception we saw later in the day. johnson sitting in his office was pretty telling, i think. we kept hearing consternation around the hill. again, when trump put the nail in the coffin, i don't think anyone expected him to speak out. when he did, it was definitely game over. i got a text immediately from a senior senate leadership aide telling me the c.r. is head and johnson really messed up. >> thinking back to earlier this year, the bipartisan immigration package that was worked on with james lankford, other republicans. they got to a place where republicans were happy, and donald trump decided he didn't want them to do it because he wanted it as a campaign issue. he just made a phone call to mike johnson and got rid of the thing. this does appear, as julie says, to be the way it's going to go.

you've got donald trump, who will be the president of the united states again, and elon musk, whatever his title is, clearly, he has perhaps equal power or just beneath the president of the united states to get these things killed. buckle up if this is the way we're going to run the government. >> buckle up, everyone, for 2025, because this is what it is going to look like. to julie's point, first of all, yesterday, the feeling in washington was this is done. it was a bipartisan agreement. this is done. everyone is packing up their offices, making their christmas travel plans. all of a sudden, it wasn't done, which happens occasionally in washington when there's policymaking and bills being passed. but this was a bit of a surprise to a lot of people in this town yesterday. it reminds me a lot, willie, i think we all lived through the first trump term when the team at the white house would say something and trump would say something that contradicted it on twitter or x or whatever you're calling it. now, you have the owner of that

platform as an additional person who may be contradicting what the plan is. maybe it's what the plan is from the white house come a month from now. maybe it's what the plan is from congress. this certainly sets up quite a challenging situation for mike johnson, who, as you read the reporting, he was in a position where he was needing to explain to elon musk and vivek ramaswamy how government funding works. as much as this was a very large bill, and lots of republicans didn't like it to julie's point, people who want to cut spending didn't like it, he was explaining to them. i was struck by what he said. he was talking about himself almost in the third person. he was saying, they said i'm not to blame, essentially. this was an impossible task. any time you're in a position of doing that, you know it is going to be a challenging path forward. so end where we started, buckle up, everyone. this is probably what governing looks like in 2025. >> i'm thinking of a photograph taken at army/navy game this

past weekend. front row in the box, it's trump, john thune, incoming majority leader, and speaker johnson. unified front, republicans in control. we're going to get a lot done. looming in the background of the picture, though, is elon musk. that's what we have seen now. all this talk about republicans this time around, trump, he's learned how to navigate washington, he's going to get things done, better organized, more disciplined, nope. this is the same chaos we saw the first time around, and it is paralyzing johnson's hold on the gavel. musk tweeted over 100 times yesterday. he and vivek ramaswamy were against this, and pushed, seemingly, trump and vance to do the same. we should vote it, steve, they're doing it for different reasons. trump wants to lift the debt ceiling. musk wants to slash. competing interests there. if the government shuts down, first, talk about the economic impact if it does shut tomorrow

night. then the unpredictability and chaos that will royal everything from government to markets next year. >> that is exactly the problem. we are facing a period of chaos, and the markets will be unhappy if it doesn't get resolved. trump wants to extend the debt ceiling because he doesn't want it coming up on his watch. you have members of the hard right, his base in effect, who will never vote for a debt ceiling increase. he doesn't want to get in the middle of that. he wants to push that out of the way. he also does want to get rid of some of the spending and some of trump's tweet yesterday was about the democratic priorities, and chuck schumer shouldn't get what he wants, so on and so forth, so here we are. look, we've playedbrinksmanship times before. shutdowns have been brief, and the markets have accepted that. as everybody else has been saying so far, we now add this additional factor of this larger-than-life force, the richest man in the world weighing in a hundred times on x

with his points of view. it's a big mess. what's also different this time is that democrats are saying, we're not going to bail you guys out. we had a deal. yes, it was a deal, a 1 ,500 pae bill, christmas tree, but we had a deal. now, you're twisting in the wind. mike johnson's margin is so thin, it is almost hard to imagine how he passes anything without democratic support. he's got these hard-right members who will never vote for spending, never vote for a debt limit increase. you've got a rock and a hard place colliding here. >> you know, it also exposes another incredible weakness within the republican party. two people who were not yet part of the official process, the president-elect and elon musk, they're not officially members of the party. i mean, they're members of the party but not part of the process. julie, other aspect of it that is potential bad news for american taxpayers, american

citizens, is what is in the bill. you mentioned it briefly earlier. things like a new football stadium for the washington commanders national football league team, other things like that, just thrown into the bill at the end of day. proving, on paper, that the congress of the united states, led by a republican speaker, cannot do its job. these are things that ought to have been passed during the course of ordinary parliamentary process during the last two years, and they loaded up on christmas eve and they can't get it done. so what does that pose for, a, the future of mike johnson as speaker with the thin margin, and, b, the prospects of the republican party just not being able to get anything done legislatively in the house of representatives? >> what a loaded question. more loaded than the original c.r. look, where do i start? let's start with mike johnson. he is a very precarious road ahead of him. it is interesting because going into the day yesterday, you

heard the interaction with the house freedom caucus chairman. they're standing there, complaining about the process, the bill, but say they support the speaker. i think it might look differently right now. the big question is what does trump do? johnson has been working for weeks, if not months, to get in trump's good graces, to get in his good corner. back then, he was even less a part of the process as somebody running for office again. he still had tremendous influence, and it is why johnson spent so much time cozying up to him, as did john thune, the ing senate majority leader. see what happens january 3rd. he was unofficially elected behind closed doors. some republicans said he might need democrats to bail him out. after this, i doubt it'll happen. that settles that, kind of. second part of the question, can they get anything done over the next two years, we have not seen things happen in regular order in quite some time. i'll say, during the first two years of the biden administration, they got a lot done. they got a lot of bipartisan

legislation done. they also got the inflation reduction act done. some pig big items they tried t pass. cutting the wonky procedural tool that would enable them to bypass the 60-vote threshold. one party is essentially needed to pass what it wants. budget constrains. that's what trump wants for the border, tax cuts. they'll need all republicans to stick together to get it done. my sources told me there is no interest from the incoming administration to work with democrats to cut any deals on the other side of the aisle, at least during the first two years of his presidency. >> you know, there is a ton of pork in this bill. 1,500 pages, obviously there's going to be. one thing republicans complain about is the football stadium question. there is no federal funding in the bill for a football stadium. it transfers control of the site of the old rfk stadium to the washington, d.c., government to redevelop. involves no federal funds. there's plenty to complain

about, but they're also making stuff up, too. before you go, the house ethics committee. secretly voting to release the findings of its probe into the alleged sexual misconduct and drug use by former congressman matt gaetz. the report expected to be public this week.criticized the move, saying his behavior was embarrassing but not criminal. his attorney general process was cut short after he was entangled in so many controversies, he just stepped aside, all threatening his confirmation. he has denied all of the allegations. there had been that deadlock vote, julie, at first not to release the report. looks like now it'll see the light of day. >> it is. i think it is in large part because, one, matt gaetz is no longer somebody attached to the president-elect. there is no republican that's going to have to go out on a limb, especially in the house, to vote to release a report that

could tank a potential nominee of the incoming administration. this report was the linchpin, the centerpiece for why matt gaetz's bid was a record eight days long. it was because of the information this report could contain. the committee spent on and off three s investigating this situation. gaetz had taken to x saying he can't bate this report. he had plenty of opportunity to speak to the committee and decided in september of this year he was done doing so. his comments were interesting. the bipartisan panel voted to release the report, which may be shocking but not surprising. gaetz still has plenty of bad blood among republicans in the house. they want this report to see the light of day. for whatever gaetz decides to do next, there could be damaging information in here. the committee did talk to a lawyer for a 17-year-old girl that allegedly had a sexual encounter with gaetz that he denied. that report could come out as soon as this week. definitely something that could have come out last night if the house passed the continuing

resolution, but they want to get out of town before this sees the light of day. they have to answer questions. >> expected to be ugly stuff in there. you lee, before we let you go, quickly, what do we expect with the shutdown deadline midnight tomorrow? is there even time? is there the will to get this clean c.r. through? >> well, now they need to rely only on republican votes, and johnson's margin is extremely tight. democrats are not going to help him. if they want it done by midnight tomorrow, they have to start the process today, going to the rules committee, trying to make sure those hard liners on the panel muscle this bill through. it is going to be a very heavy lift. i suspect we'll be here until the weekend. >> capitol hill correspondent julie tsirkin walking us through this difficult process. appreciate it. here we are, john. elon musk, donald trump sitting at mar-a-lago, wherever they're sitting, watching developments in washington going, no, thumbs down to that, and washington scrambles. >> in total chaos. i'm sure we know that this was exactly what his first term was

like. the number of times that republicans and at times democrats thought they'd have a deal, then he'd blow it up with a tweet or a statement. the new thing here is the role that elon musk plays. jen, let's spend a little more time on that. i mean, musk spent $277 million, that's the accounting, to help trump win this election. he's been given a powerful post. it's outside of government. he certainly is going to have a say in doge. the conflicts of interest are robust with his various companies. talk about whether he should have a security clearance. right now, what he has is donald trump's ear. but we know how this works. when someone starts to get a lot of attention, when a trump staffer or an aide or a friend or a family member even starts to outshine donald trump, donald trump doesn't much care for it. >> no, he does not. we'll see how long this lasts. because right now, even the killing of the funding bill here

is dr has elon musk getting more credit, more than donald trump. you have to wonder how donald trump feels about that exactly. the other piece here that i think an interesting theme we're seeing over the last couple of weeks in terms of what the threats look like is there is a lot of threatening about funding primary opponents. we have seen that. elon musk was involved with this, too. we have seen that as related to senator joni ernst and her lukewarm statement she put out about pete hegseth. all of a sudden, there was all of this activity behind the scenes and publicly threatening a primary o'moment pponent agai. that's also in the language that has been in some of the 100 tweets, however many there were, from elon musk here. it's clearly impacting republicans. i'm interested to see if that's a threat that continues, because it works. back to your original point here, elon musk is around trump

all the time. he was in the picture that you referenced that was at army/navy game, creepily kind of right over his shoulder. he seems to be living at mar-a-lago. i don't know how trump feels about that. maybe he is enjo ying it currently. he's also getting credit for having power over trump. according to history, that doesn't sit well. >> we've heard from republicans and former republicans referring to donald trump right now as vice president trump. it is not going to sit well. ahead on "morning joe," more on elon musk, appearing to have much, much more power and money than ever. steve rattner has charts on musk's skyrocketing net worth, just since donald trump's election win. antony blinken will be our guest this morning in studio. we'll talk to him about president biden's priorities on the world stage in the final days of his administration. you're watching "morning joe." we're back in just 90 seconds.

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he's also the richest man in the world, as you suggested. let's take a look at why. it's principally because of who companies. tesla, his electric vehicle company, which we're all particular with, has more than doubled its market value literally since the election. you can see down here, the stock price was piddling along, and now it shot up after the election. the company is now worth 25 times what general motors was worth, even though it produces a far fewer amount of cars. why did it shoot up like that? musk is obviously counting on government policy to help him keep out chinese imports, put in other ev regulations that will favor tesla, and so buyers are buying it. his other company, which may not be as familiar to people, is spacex. it is the most valuable private company in the world. spacex only does its valuation twice a year pause it's because publicly traded. since the election, it's raised some more money at a value that is 67% higher than what it

raised it at six months earlier. 67% up in one six-month period. why is that? spacex obviously is heavily dependent on government contracts and government support for its launches. in fact, the new head of na sarks nasa, proposed head of nasa, has been on a spacex rocket twice and is an investor. imagine they'll more or less get what they want. that is a $350 billion valued company, the largest private company in the world. musk has tes k la options, spac tesla options, and smaller parts here in openai, in x, futuristic things called the boring company and neuro link, all going up enormously in value. as you said in your lead-in, what's happened?

his network has gone up 135% since the election. $276 billion. he's worth $280 billion. the wealthiest man in the world. half of that, roughly, since the election alone. >> stunning. steve, you mentioned this with spacex and nasa, but conflicts of interest really concerned a lot of people if he is running this so-called doge agency. he could, could he not, have the power to say, "pull federal funding or pull federal contracts from a competing ev company," for example? >> yeah, this is sort of so far off the fairway, you're never going to find the ball. when you work in the government, and i did this, you are a subject to rigid conflict of interest rules. you are required to divest yourself of anything that could prove a conflict in your work for the government. obviously, he's not going to divest all this stuff. he's not even a government employee, which is another legal question to what he can or should be doing. so this is another classic example of kind of the swamp

coming to washington. trump and his people doing whatever they feel like regardless of what's appropriate, regardless of what the law is in some cases perhaps. >> it's really working for elon musk so far. steve, let's get to some more of your charts on the federal reserve, which announced y it has cut interest rates by an additional quarter of a percentage point. its third and final rate cut for 2024. federal chair jerome powell telling reporters the latest cut was not an easy decision. >> today was a closer call, but we decided it was the right call because we thought it was the best decision to foster achievement of both of our goals, maximum employment and price stability. we see the risks moving too slowly and needlessly undermine activity gnat in the labor markr move too quickly and undermine inflation. >> all three major indexes had

their worst day in months. chairman powell also indicated rate cuts are likely to slow down in the new year. steve back at the table with more charts to break this down. expected at a quarter of a percentage point, i think, steve, right? i guess the reason the markets went down, though, is because of the idea that this could be the end of the cuts for a while. >> yeah, and it was unexpected, what the fed said. i think the market was expecting that the fed's new set of projections, which we can talk about, was going to provide for four cuts next year. instead, the markets projections now only for one cut -- for two cuts, excuse me, next year. what this chart shows is simply the path of interest rates. you can see that they peaked about 5.5% and have come down over the past year by a full percentage point. i put in the mortgage rates. people may say, why haven't mortgages come down? they are actually tied more to the 30-year treasury, which has been going up somewhat in yield rather than down. if you take a look at the next

chart, you'll see that what the market had been expecting was much lower interest rates sooner. all the way at the bottom, it's september. what people thought in september was going to happen to interest rates, and then you can see the three-month period passing expectation of rates are staying higher and higher. why do people and the fed, in particular, think rates may not go down as fast as we thought? it's kind of good news in a way. the economy has actually been stronger than people expected and the fed expected, which you can see a bit on the next chart. they've changed their projections. they're now expecting the economy will grow, this black line, by 2.5% next year rather than the 2% they've projected previously. so the market and the fed for that matter, more importantly, think the economy is a bit stronger. on the negative side of it, the next chart, you can see what

they were thinking about inflation. the fed three months ago thought inflation would come down to 2%, which is their target next year. now they think inflation, which is kind of stuck in the three range, is only going to come down to 2.5%. that is part of why powell said what he said in his opening comments about it. now, why did the stock market go down so much? because higher interest rates are the enemy of stock prices. when interest rates go up or don't go down as fast as you expect, people move money into bonds and so money market funds and those with interest rates are more attractive than stocks. the stock exchange was shocked a bit, obviously, by the news yesterday that rates are going to -- are not going to come down as fast as they thought, and that's why the market rolled over. >> eve, i imagine another person not thrilled with the news will be president-elect donald trump, who prizes the stock market greatly.

if inflation is high, it'll affect his promise to lower prices. and his relationship with the fed, he's suggested he wants far more influence over the fed, even control over the fed. jerome powell, though, said no. >> yeah, those are all great points, of course, jonathan. first, in a way, trump got a little bit of a break. the stock market took its pain this year rather than next year. if this is the end of the stock market decline, and obviously we don't know, then he'll be able to -- his watch starts january 20th, of course. secondly, it's important to note that i think the fed was pretty clear yesterday that everything they did has nothing to do with trump's proposals. trump's proposals would actually make all of this worse because he wants tariffs, which are a tax, creates inflation. he wants to cut taxes a lot more. that would raise the budget deficit. that puts pressure on rates. he wants to deport people. that hurts the labor force which forces wages up and creates more inflation. all of this isn't taking into account what he might do.

he may have even more pain ahead of him. yes, he'll take on the fed. he can't fire jerome powell. jerome powell has already said, "i ain't going." he has another 15 or 16 months to go, and then trump can put his guy in. but you can't -- you can't fight the fed, in a way. what the fed is doing is necessary. if you put someone in there, and we've had this before, who doesn't respond to the inflationary pressures by keeping rates higher, who doesn't do the right thing, not what the president necessarily want, you can have real economic chaos. >> elon musk is a large example of this and a perfect example of this, but whenever anything happens, the rich get richer somehow. the average american family stumbles along. what does the rocky relationship that exists between president-elect trump and chairman powell, how does that impact the average american family? >> the average american family

is -- has a mortgage. they may have credit card debt or an automobile loan. a lot of these policies that trump is pursuing, as i said, could keep interest s higher for longer or push them up higher for longer. that's the impact on the american family. then, of course, what is the impact on the economy? things like tariffs slow the economy, slow economic growth, cost jobs. deporting immigrants you may think is good for the average american worker, it's not. you end up with worker shortages and the economy again slows and you have more inflation. none of this, in my opinion anyway, is good for the american family. on top of that, trump's tax proposals are highly regressive, meaning that people that are rich are getting a much larger percentage increase in after-tax income than people at the bottom. >> what a surprise. >> well, he did it before. 2017 tax cut, which he wants to extend, would essentially do the same thing. it basically gave more to people at the top, even percentage terms, let alone in dollars,

than to people at bottom. >> as you mentioned, tariffs would raise prices, as well. that's all in the stew. "morning joe" economic analyst steve rattner with his charts this morning. steve, really resonated with us at the table when you said the ball was hit so far off the fairway, you can't find the ball. we all went, yeah, i know the feeling. steve, thanks so much. good to see you. >> my pleasure. ahead, secretary of state antony blinken joins us live in studio to discuss the latest out of the middle east. plus, a live report from pennsylvania where the man charged with the murder of united healthcare ceo brian thompson will appear for a hearing on the efforts to extradite him to new york. also ahead, our conversation with director, producer, writer, and actor tyler perry about his new film "the six triple eight." "morning joe" is coming right back. fasenra is an add-on treatment for eosinophilic asthma that is taken once every 8 weeks and can also be taken conveniently at home.

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♪♪ live picture of reagan national. 6:38. a bill failed yesterday that would have allowed authorities to track drones amid mysterious sightings in the united states. chuck schumer and gary peters of michigan took to the floor to try to pass the safeguarding the homeland from the threats posed by unmanned aircraft systems act. hopefully that is an acronym. the bill would broaden the rights for state and local law enforcement to be able to use

software to detect drones. senator rand paul of kentucky, however, blocked the effort. >> because, at the time, public trust in government is in historic lows. this body must not rush to grant sweeping surveillance powers without consideration and debate by the committees of jurisdiction, which i pledge to do in january when we will be in charge of the committees. >> senator rand paul there. meanwhile, tulsi gabbard, president-elect trump's picks to lead the intelligence agencies was back on hill yesterday for her final rounds of meetings with senators before the new year. gabbard is seen as a controversial pick, with little intelligence experience and her views on syria and russia. "reform is not just necessary,

it's here. i proudly support tulsi gabbard." here's what james lankford of oklahoma told reporters. >> i'm going to be no help on that at all because i'm not heard any feedback one way or the other on it. >> where are you at this point? >> i had a great meeting with her, yeah, great meeting. we spent an hour and a half together talking through all the different things, to get her perspective on things. it was very helpful. >> senator john cornyn of texas posted a photo of his meeting with gabbard on social media, calling her impressive. he said he is looking forward to her confirmation hearing early next year. he did not endorse her nomination yet. nbc news reports susan collins of maine said she would reserve final judgement until after a background check and the confirmation hearing. gabbard has only met with two democrats so far, including senator john fetterman of pennsylvania, who said he is open to having ongoing dialogue with would-be nominees until their confirmation hearing.

jen psaki, decode washington speak for us, if you would. what do you hear in the statements from some of the senators? >> reserving judgment until the confirmation hearings doesn't mean the person is going to support them. especially for democrats. it's a respect or the process. the national security ones here are the ones who are of biggest concern with the most chatter. what is of interest to me is a lot of republicans have been holding their fire publicly. the same as what is happening privately. the gaetz nomination was ended privately. that's where important conversations happen in washington, not necessarily publicly. it seems like not much is going to happen the next couple days on this front. they have to keep the government open. when everybody comes back in january and there's preparation for these hearings, are people more vocal about their concerns, about tulsi gabbard, about pete

hegseth? or are they worried and concerned about this threat of primaries against them? if they're up for re-election coming up soon. that's the factor. the hearings, i think, though, the last thing i'll say here, the hearings, i think, which clearly seem to be on track to happen for all of these nominees, for hegseth, for pam bondi, for kash patel, could be qi quite fiery. we haven't seen hearings like that in some time, and it'll be an interesting thing to watch. >> mike, i want to pick up on jen's point about these hearings coming. i was talking to trump officials this week. matt gaetz, he took himself out of the running there. he realized he had no chance and bailed out privately. the rest have been instructed to fight. this is the strategy from the trump team. we're not going to ask any of our nominees to withdraw. i mean, they allow for the possibility that some other damaging revelation could emerge that could change the calculus, but at least for now, they're

saying, no, we want a full-court press. pressure these republicans. we're seeing that campaign already begin. we want to have these, trump's choices, get confirmed, which means having those hearings. those hearings, particularly for, you know, tulsi gabbard, yes, pete hegseth, kash patel, add robert f. kennedy to the list, they're going to be spectacles that could be potentially damaging to the momentum trump wants to have coming into office. >> robert f kennedy jr. could be the highlight. you buried the lead. that could be the highlight of the hearings because it involves polio vaccines, other vaccines that are critical for growing up, young families. that'll be critical. last week, as you know, i was in washington. always a dangerous thing, me being in washington. >> glad you're back. >> bumped into a couple people on house or senate intelligence committees. tulsi gabbard's game came up. the incumbent, avril hanes,

enjoys enormous respect on both sides of the aisle, enormous respect. the idea of tulsi gabbard succeeding her as the dni, director of national intelligence for the president of the united states, seems to frighten both republicans and democrats. the basic fright roots are locked in this, they know and feel strongly that countries like israel, france, great britain, germany, will not share their intelligence with the united states through the dni if it is tulsi gabbard. that's potentially lethal in term of a vote. >> again, what we've said all along, people like the ones you bumped into on the streets of washington say, there are other people who will be loyal to you, donald trump, which is what you want, but are qualified for the job. we'll see. chairman dick durbin joins the conversation as democrats look to press forward with the confirmation of more of president biden's judicial picks

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this is nice coverage. >> both of these teams have 17 interceptions. how about a fake punt? the shovel pass, how good was that? marshall nick holsnichols, the executes it perfectly. >> wow, look at that.

two-handed shovel pass. a big game for unlv and a fake punt. they held off cal 24-13 in the bowl. the win marks the best season ever in the fbs, capped by the program's first bowl game win since the year 2000. good for you, unlv. their coach left to go to purdue but did a great job building up the program. in florida, james madison got its first ever bowl win last night after beating western kentucky, 27-17, in the boca raton bowl. the 12-team college football playoff kicks off tomorrow night. number seven, notre dame, hosting number ten, indiana, in the first round. the winner moves to the quarterfinals to play second seeded georgia in the sugar bowl on new year's day. that's kind of a fun, in-state rivalry. it's not really a rivalry, but indiana going down the road to play south bend on a friday

night. should be fun. >> i was just thinking that. it's an unlikely rivalry. football anyway. it should be a fun one. i think more than anything, we're finally there. we're kicking off this college football playoff, newly expanded. some controversial selections along the way. we won't mention one particular s.e.c. school that didn't make it. >> roll tide. >> this is college football clearly experimenting, moving to 12 teams. see how it looks. let's see, the games are here. >> it's odd that alabama is not among the 12 teams. >> it's weird, right? >> i was looking at it yesterday, looking for alabama. they're not there. it's a big game for notre dame, by the way, versus indiana. game two of notre dame's season this year, they lost, i forget -- >> northern illinois. >> yup. so this is a big game for them. god bless them. but you're right, you know, narrowing it down, leaving out teams like alabama, is kind of shocking to, you know, normal football fans who are used to seeing alabama and other clubs in bowl games. >> of course, all the games overshadowed by next friday's birmingham bowl, where the

vanderbilt commodores, coming off their magical season, take on the georgia tech yellow jackets. >> that's the one. >> should be good in birmingham. in the nfl, chiefs quarterback patrick mahomes is trending toward playing this saturday toward the texans. he was a full participant in practice for a second consecutive day after suffering a bad ankle sprain, a high ankle sprain, during last sunday's win over the browns. the chiefs are in the middle of a tough stretch of three games in 11 days against good teams. ending on the road against the steelers on christmas day. what's the upside of playing him saturday? >> who are we to second-guess andy reid, but i'm second-guessing andy reid and patrick mahomes. chiefs are 13-1. they have a two-game lead over the bills for the top seed. you're playing twice in a matter of five days. like, mahomes, he's tough, but we have seen him banged up before. why not sit him on saturday? sit him on saturday, give him the day off, and rest him for

christmas, which the league wants him to play on christmas. the first time the league had a christmas day. after that, another ten days off before the season finale. i think there's more risk than reward for the chiefs if mahomes plays. >> totally agree. andy, sit him. sit him. wait for the bills game. >> we want to see him on christmas. week 16 of the nfl regular season starts tonight in l.a. chargers hosting the broncos on thursday night football. pretty good game, actually, thursday night. >> division rival game. two teams looking for a playoff spot. both very much in the mix. broncos, 9-5. chargers, 8-6. huge game tonight. should be a fun one. coming up, nbc's david rohde has new analysis on house republicans continuing to call for a federal probe into liz cheney over her work on the january 6th committee. we'll explain why he says there's a new major escalation and a sign of what may be to come in this second trump term. "morning joe" is coming right back.

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that's a beautiful live picture of the christmas tree. six days before christmas. that's right outside of our window at rockefeller center. welcome back. it is thursday, december 19th. jonathan lamere, jen psaki, still with us as we talk about the bipartisan deal to avoid a government shut dp that just fell apart yesterday because donald trump and elon musk voiced opization to it. despite having approval of leadership, vice president jd vance and trump put out a statement condemning the bill writing, increasing the debt sealing is not great but we'd rather give do it on biden's watch. that is after musk spent literally hours yesterday criticizing the sprawling bill on social media, posting about it more than 100 times

throughout the day. the president-elect also threatened to support a primary opponent to any republican who went against his wishes on this and we can assume other things as well. sources tell us house speaker mike johnson's team is looking at a clean short-term bill that continues funding at current levels and could include disaster relief funding and an extension of the farm bill. the white house released a statement saying in part that triggering a damaging government shutdown would hurt families who are gathering to meet with loved ones and endanger the services americans rely on. let's bring in our reporter sahil kapur. good to see you. for people wondering what happens here, it looks like the democrats and republicans were ready to go to the holidays but

now we have the potential of a government shutdown. how did we get here? >> it is a colossal mess. this bill looked set to pass the house and senate over the coming days. it had broad bipartisan support after it was inked by house speaker mike johnson and it was the classic bill that neither party really liked but it had real victories for each side. this all changed yesterday. very much out of the blue when some house republicans raised issue, it was a normal griping session until elon musk started tweeting a storm about it and then it fuelled the conversations. before you know it, trump came out attacking the bill and that's when it unravelled. there is a midnight deadline tomorrow to keep the government funded or face a shutdown. there is no plan, no bill that can get the support of the house of representatives and the senate and get signed by president biden. these are unchartered waters having a deal blow up so

quickly, so close to the deadline. one thing that seems to be happening is that trump seems to be recognizing the legislative traffic jam that is headed his way. even if they get this done, they have to come back in march and deal with democrats, trump and the leadership has to deal with democrats to get the government funded. there is still a 60 vote threshold for that. they need to do a debt ceiling increase in the middle of 2025. this has been xoen for a while now and suddenly trump is throwing this into the conversation when it was not in the discussions at all connected to government funding this year. and in the first is 100 days, republicans want to do a big reconciliation bill, border, extend tax cuts and confirm nominees. it is not going to go done early in the presidency. and trump seems to be realizing this late and now demanding that the debt ceiling be resolved now. democrats cut a deal and expected it to be signed.

they are angry. take a listen to hakeem jeffries. >> house republicans have now unilaterally decided to break a bipartisan agreement that they made. house republicans have been ordered to shut down the government and hurt every day americans all across this country. house republicans will now own any harm that is visited upon the american people that results from a government shutdown or worse. >> so as far as democrats are concerned as you saw there, there is no plan b. they will try to do a clean b, attach disaster aid but a lot of other things will have to go away. democrats are raising the question, what was elon musk's

role here? and who is running the show, trump or musk? and some are suggesting that trump may have been rolled by elon. >> where does this go? we heard that jeffies said we will not help you through this. we worked hard on a bill that we all agreed on and then the rug got pulled out because musk sent out a few tweets and trump threatened a primary. so what is next? >> house republican leadership, mike johnson has to announce a plan of action. he has to find a way to get enough votes to pass smpg through the house of representatives. it will certainly require democrat support. republicans never get the support because of too many rebels on the right who don't support these. there is a democratic controlled senate. so there is no way around. that. as far as the debt limit, this is out of right field from

donald trump but i did hear from one democratic lawmaker last night who said that the way that democrats would talk about this is if republicans agreed to abolish the limit and not keep authorizing the spending that has forced the government to engage in. take it off the table and don't allow it to be used hostage against a future president. that is not something that republicans have engaged in in the past but now it is a dire situation and the government is set to shut down tomorrow at midnight. the odds went up. >> we will keep an eye on the whims of elon musk and donald trump to see where this is headed. meanwhile, you have new reporting this morning on donald trump as he looks at open posts in the administration, picking people he has supported in the past but who have lost elections. what more can you tell us? >> it is an interesting trend we

spotted. a lot of personnel picks for the administration, including important jobs are republicans who ran their own races in recent years and lost while embracing the trump maga brand. there is david purdue, former georgia senator, kelly loeffler who was chosen to lead small business administration. and mehmet oz, pennsylvania senate candidate who lost his race is chosen to run csa, and kari lake to run the voice of america, and the oregon republican lisa who ended up losing. and doug collins lost a jungle primary to loeffler in 2020 has been chosen to run the department of veteran affairs. and lee zeldin in new york, he

overperformed in 2022, running close to trump but he did lose his race by 7 points. he was chosen to lead the epa. a trump transition official who is close to the process told my coing author for this, he values loyalty , hard stop, at times beyond all else. we are not surprised that anyone you mentioned was picked. he is trying to change washington and wants people who he knows he can trust. democrats are asking why is trump stocking his administration with electoral losers. they are wondering are they the best and brightest or is he rewarding the loyalists and trying to make them whole in some cases when they may have sacrificed they're lectoral careers to support him. >> yes, it is the latter, let me answer that. fascinating piece to read through, youpg. herschel walker getting a lot of

mileage out of that relationship he built with donald trump and now landing him in the bahamas. >> with no experience in international diplomacy. but let's remember, walker was part of a famous nfl trade. if we goes to the bahamas, think about who the bahamas is sending back for herschel walker. but it is not asurprise, jokes aside, loyalists are who get the posts. but for trump, there are some raising eyebrows. >> i'm getting resentful of attacks on herschel walker, that man ran for over 7,000 yards in national football. >> he had a great career. >> what more do you need to be an ambassador to bahamas? >> i think it is more about

georgia. house republicans following donald trump's lead on just about everything as a report recommends that former congresswoman liz cheney be investigated and possibly face criminal prosecution for her role on the january 6th xhoet which looked into donald trump and the attack on the capitol. trump posted about the report saying cheney could be in a lot of trouble while also thanking the person who spearheaded the report. it comes after trump told kristen welker that cheney and other members of the january 6th committee should be jailed. >> cheney did something that is inexcusable, along with thompson and people on the unselect committee, political thugs and creeps. honestly, they should go to jail. so you think liz cheney should go to jail? >> for what they did, i think everyone on the committee.

everyone who voted in favor. >> are you going to direct your attorney general to send them to jail? >> no, i'm going to look at that. i'm going to focus on drill baby drill. >> you tapped these people to lead the justice department and fbi. >> they can do whatever they want. >> biden can give them a pardon if he wants to and maybe they should. >> they should be in jail. let's bring in our national security editor, david rowe. you have been covering this story closely. to catch urviewers up, what exactly was this referral from barry latter and this question that donald trump urged them to look into. >> it is an escalation. and it is interesting you play the clip of that interview. before the interview, the focus in trump's circle was calls for jack smith to be investigated and letitia james, the attorney that went after trump civilly. after that, you have an

announcement by house republicans. it is one house republican saying she violated multiple federal laws and explicitly calling for an fbi investigation of liz cheney. the evidence of this is thin or nonexistent. this surrounds cassady hutchinson's testimony. she changed lawyers. she had one paid by trump's circle to represent her. she got new lawyers and testified before the committee. her current lawyer put out a statement saying she wanted to testify. this new lawyer helped her do that and there is nothing improper here at all. >> what happens from here? if there is no evidence, they can tie people up and make people hire lawyers. cassidy hutchinson was a key witness and was in the room and showed that the 24-year-old staffer was the adult in the

room as everyone looked the other way. what happens from here? >> this puts the focus on trump nominee cash takash patel. he wrote of his years to expose the deep state. he talks about liz cheney and names about 60 other people to be current members of the deep state. he says they committed crimes. these include people like bill barr, people like patloney. >> what crimes? >> there is a perception by republicans that all of the investigations against trump were completely unjustified from the trump russia investigation to him keeping classified documents to his role on january 6th. democrats obviously disagree. but the book is full of claims that these 60 people he names, republicans and democrats, joe

biden on the democratic side, kamala harris, bill barr and republicans like that have also committed crimes. i think patel if confirmed by the senate will investigate liz cheney. >> i think it is important to underscore there is no evidence, none, that any crime was committed by any of the individuals. and jen psaki, kash patel has kind of flown under the radar with so much attention on other picks like pete hegseth. that will change come confirmation hearings. but weigh in on what this is about. it is about yes, perhaps an investigation into liz cheney and they will dream up a charge. but we should note, there is no sign of it yet. but it is about intimidation and tying people up. not just getting retribution for what happened over the last four to eight years but trying to set a chilling effect for the next four saying don't investigate us, we will come after you. >> it's about prompting people

to be o bedient in advans. we have heard many peepople talk about thits. it is not only that there has not been a lot of criticism, it has been silence in terms of any concern expressed by republicans in the senate about the kash patel nomination to lead the fbi which is a ten year term. that is not a partisan position. it is not one that typically, obviously there is nominated by democrats or republicans but they serve over multiple administrations for a reason. this is a guy who literally has an enemies list in his book that is baseless. there has been no real opposition. we will see if there is changes with the hearings. the last piece i would note is there has been a lot of talk of preemptive pardons. the more trump and people around him mention it, the more it seems like a good idea.

but even if a list of people is on the list, they can still be investigated, and hauled in front of congress which is run by republicans. they can still have their names tarnished, still forced to spend tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees. and part of this is tying up these voices, intimidating people, and forcing people to be obedient in advance which should be chilling to people. it is not just the media. it is voices of opposition within the republican party, obviously democrats outside groups, that's the clear goal here. threatening, creating fear, fear as a form of silencing people. >> so david, if jen is correct and jen is almost always correct. if cassidy hutchinson got a preemptive pardon, there is no end to her ordeal. she can be publicly humiliated

by the opposition on the committee and there is noened to this. >> in terms of congress, absolutely. i have talked to a half dozen people or more who were on the list in kash patel's book and they expected to both come from congress and fbi. but it is being investigated criminally by the federal government is a pretty overwhelming experience. and it is a message. trump is clever when he says in the interview, they should do what they want and i'm not telling them what to do and then he says they should go to jail. he has done this for years. he keeps his fingerprints off of it but loyalists see the signals. >> he doesn't have to say anything explicitly. fascinating reporting from david rode. we will continue to follow this. the new book, where tyranny begins, the justice department, fbi, and war on democracy is on

sale now. jen psaki, great to see you. we will watch inside with jen psaki, sundays at noon and mondays at 8:00 p.m. eastern. still ahead on morning joe, the suspect charged in connection with the killing of united healthcare ceo brian thompson could appear in an extradition hearing later this morning in pennsylvania. we'll be right back. this morning in pennsylvania. we'll be right back. 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. this week on chewy, shop and get a $30 egift card to use on treats they want,

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luigi mangione, the suspect in the murder of ceo brian thompson will appear in court later this morning. the 26-year-old will be present at an extradition hearing at a new york city law enforcement seeks to have him transferred to manhattan to have him stand trial. priscilla thompson is live at the courthouse in pennsylvania. good morning, what's the latest there? >> reporter: good morning. in little over an hour, mangione is expected to appear in person in the courthouse behind me right at 8:30, related to the charges in pennsylvania, charges like weapons and forgery. then he will face a different judge who will preside over the extradition hearing. he does intend to waive extradition which would effectively pave the way for his

return to new york. so it is very possible he could be leaving this hearing today in the custody of the nypd. they would transport him to the manhattan criminal court where he would be fingerprinted and processed like xn else making his way through the system. then he will go before a judge for arraignment. so the charges against him will be read and he will have an opportunity to plead. a reminder, the charges include a first degree murder charge in furtherance of terrorism and two counts of second degree murder along with possession of a weapon and forged instrument. he could face life in prison without the possibility of parole. today we are learning that the feds could potentially look at the possibility of filing federal charges against him and already mangione's attorney is responding to that saying that this is a pile on top of an already overcharged case and vowing that they will fight

whatever charges come in whatever courtrooms may be. that's where things stand as we await the hearing and the possibility of him returning to new york city today. >> he will be back in new york as soon as today. priscilla thompson reporting for us from pennsylvania, thanks. there are new details this morning surrounding the deadly shooting at a private christian school in wisconsin earlier this week. federal agents have detained a 20-year-old man in california that authorities say allegedly was communicating with the teenage shooter. nbc news correspondent shaquille brewster has the latest from madison. >> reporter: overnight, we learned a man in california was detained for his connection to the wisconsin shooter. authorities say natalie rupnow shot and killed a student and teacher before taking her own life. alexander paffendorf had been communicating with the teen and

planning a mass shooting. the duchlt says he admitted he would arm himself with explosives and a gun and would target a building. authorities went to his home to confiscate his weapons and ammunition an update as the wisconsin community is still in mourning. >> it is hard to see a community so torn apart. >> reporter: for the first time the two victims shot and killed have been identified. 14-year-old freshman ruby vergara, remembered in a school statement for her gentle and kind heart. the other victim, 42-year-old staff member erin west served students with grace, wisdom and humor. new video shows students retrieving belongings from the school they were forced to leave behind after leaving the shooting. >> you can't believe the horror. >> reporter: charles moore, the head of the network of christian

schools that includes abundant life says two students still hospitalized are in grave condition. >> that's on our hearts and minds every day. >> shaq brewster reporting from madison, wisconsin. our hearts and prayers go out to the family of 14-year-old ruby and ms. west killed in the school. coming up, in moscow, keir simmons questioned vladimir putin on a range of topics, telling the russian president, given recent events, putin would be a weaker leader when he eventually faces off with donald trump. we will show you how putin responded. and secretary of state anthony blinken will join us live in the studio on the state of the war in ukraine and where he sees u.s. foreign policy headed in the new trump administration. morning joe is coming right back. administration morning joe is coming righ back

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tracks your glucose in real time, and over time it can help lower your a1c. ♪♪ this is progress. learn more and try for free at freestylelibre.us ♪♪ right now in moscow, russian president vladimir putin holding his annual hours long news conference. here's what nbc chief international correspondent keir simmons asked him a short time ago. >> keir simmons from nbc news. two questions in english if you don't mind, the first one is

about president-elect trump. mr. president, you have failed to reach the objectives of your special military operation. large numbers of russians have died including a general assassinated here in moscow this week and the leader of syria who you supported has been overthrown. mr. president, when you face president-elect trump, you will be the weaker leader. how do you propose to compromise? what are you going to offer? >> you asked what we can offer or i can offer to the president-elect trump when we meet. i do not know when we are going to meet because he does not speak about that. i have not spoken to him for more than four years now. you said that this conversation will take place where i'll be in

a weakened state. well, distinguished colleague, despite all persecutions of our media, you are allowed to work here freely, is that good already to you and the people who pay your salary, the united states, would really like for russia to be in a weakened state. i'm of a different opinion. i think that russia became much stronger over the past two or three years. why? because we are becoming a truly sovereign country. >> keir simmons asking questions in the room with vladimir putin who continues to speak now. joining us now is the great andrea mitchell joining the table. so good to see you. >> you too. >> you have had your fair share of questioning of dictators and

authoritarians around the world. what did you hear in that exchange? >> i was so impressed with keir simmons. how cool is he standing up there before the world and in that -- with that leader, standing right there. but the point is that he is in denial. first of all, the ukraine war has not gone well for him. he's not going to win the ukraine war but he does have a lot of leverage and negotiations. now he has donald trump coming in who wants an end to the war and says he could end it in 24 hours. so he has that advantage. at the same time, president biden and his administration, as secretary of state blinken will tell you i'm sure is surging weapons and munitions, money into ukraine in these last days before the transition, and trying to set the stage to at least give zelenskyy better leverage at the bargaining table. there will be a negotiation, that's clear. i was talking to the outgoing

democratic chair of the foreign relations committee, which we will play later today and he said this s war will end and putin will not win but there has to be a negotiation. the democrats, strong supporters of ukraine as well as republicans accept the reality and so does zelenskyy. >> it is interesting to hear on that idea that trump put forward that he could solve that in 24 hours in the person of the year interview and then conceding that it is a little more difficult than that perhaps. but clearly, vladimir putin has been playing the waiting game, hoping, expecting that donald trump would come to power and give him favorable odds at the negotiating table. >> yeah, as soon as the invasion of ukraine didn't go as planned. it was supposed to be a couple of days and they would take kyiv, he has been trying to wind down european resistence and at this point, they have held together. and now it is a gift to donald trump because we know how much

trump favored him in his first four years. i will be curious as to what you think. if the u.s. does start to withdraw, the pressure on zelenskyy to get to the table, will europe also say it is time for this to end and time to start talking negotiations? >> up until now, no but look what's happening in europe, collapse in germany of the coalition. in france, now talking about canada, trudeau as well, another key nato member. and erdogan feeling his oats. and the feeling is that russia is withdrawing from its base in syria and has collapsed as iran did there. so there is a tradeoff. russia -- that was a big defeat for russia. at the same time, europe is not as big of a counterweight. nato will be weaker. donald trump is coming in at the best possible time to maximum leverage. >> what is the role of china still in ukraine?

>> china is supporting russia and doing it just up against that red line, not giving them weapons per se but giving them the components for weapons. so it is certainly helping them but the big factor is north korea. the troops don't seem to be better on the battlefield but they are canon fodder. and they are getting technology for the missiles so they are better targeted from russia. but they are giving missiles to russia and they are getting support from iran with the drones. at this point, iran is also on its back feet. there is a lot in play right now. incredibly important time. >> andrea, stay with us. we are going to add a chair at the table as we bring in secretary of state antony blinken when we come back on morning joe. we come back on morning joe. my moderate to severe crohn's symptoms kept me out of the picture. now i have skyrizi. ♪ i've got places to go and i'm feeling free. ♪

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we got your work cut out for us but i'm confident we will succeed. the united states has enormous sources of strength and we will build upon them. america's values are noble and powerful and we will recommit to them. and america's leadership is needed around the world and we will provide it because the world is far more likely to solve problems and meet challenges when the united states is there. america at its best still has a

greater capacity than any other nation on earth to mobilize others for the better. >> that was the freshly minted secretary of state antony blinken in his first public remarks to state department employees the day he was sworn in nearly four years ago. and secretary blinken joins us now near the end of his term. thank you for being with us this morning. good to see you. so much ground to cover and a lot of questions. but you are back recently from the middle east. let's start there. we had jake sullivan sitting in that chair talking about how encouraged he was about the possibility this time for a cease fire for a usual suspect, dealing with terrorism organization. where are you with getting the hostages released? >> we are encouraged because this should happen. it should happen because hamas is at the point where the

calvary that they would come to the rescue is not. in the absense of that, the pressure is on hamas to finally get to yes. we should be able to get there but look, we have to be realistic. we have had the lucy and the football moments several times where we thought we were there and the football gets pulled away. so the question is, is hamas capable of making a decision and getting to yes? we have been fanning out with every possible partner on this to try to get the necessary pressure exerted on hamas. we have bill burns headed out in the region right now. jake sullivan, brett mcgirt, we want to get the hostages home and get a cease fire so people can have relief in gaza. >> what is the difference between the cease fire that came relatively quickly with hezbollah in the north? >> the seize fire with hezbollah

came up because both sides wanted it. hezbollah needed the relief. israel wanted it too because their mare objective was making sure they could get a secure buffer area so that people who had been chased from their homes in northern israel because of a barrage of hezbollah rockets could come back home. and the deal we were able to negotiate with trance, getting the cease fire and getting hezbollah to move back and getting the leb news forces to move in and fill the space, that made it a good deal for everyone. the israelis didn't want to get bogged down in lebanon. hezbollah had taken a tremendous amount of hurt and pain. so both sides wanted it. the question now with gaza, as it has been pretty much all along, is hamas prepared to say yes. that's where we are. >> and mr. secretary, andrea mitchell here, you just were talking very positively about it, the national security advisor was positive about it but in the last 24 to 48 hours,

you heard from the defense minister, minister katz in the golan heights. and he seemed to be raising the stakes. we were told that hamas was told they could stay temporarily in the key corridors which was not the position for months. now he seemed to be indicating that israel would stay longer and this would be a real occupation. there were signals coming that wait a second, this deal may not be so possible even before the inauguration. what is your read of that? >> first, a lot gets said and a lot gets said for political reasons. you have to work through that and look at what each side is prepared to do. here's something else we noticed in israel's interest. it is in israel's interest to find a way to take an off ramp in gaza. israel set a couple of objectives after the horrors of october 7th to make sure it

never happens again. dismantle the military operation of hamas, to get the leaders responsible for october 7th. they have done that. having done that, this is a moment to take that off ramp but you got to get the hostages back. the alternative is this, an enduring israeli occupation of gaza which we reject. we reject it among other reasons but it is not in israel's interest. they are left holding the bag on a longterm insurgency. for all of the hamas militants killed and taken off of the battlefield, there are thousands more. they have the capacity not to do another october 7th but to make life a living hell for any occupying force in gaza. it's not in israel's interest to do that. in order for this to work, we have to have an agreement on hostages and the day after plan. we have done a lot of work as you know on the last months with arab partners, israel, palestinian authorities. and if and and when we get the hostage deal over the line, the next is to get the plan agreed

so we know what fills in and takes the vacuum in gaza. >> i have to ask you about syria. i was with deborah tice, austin tice's mother the other day. and she is pointing out that u.s. is not on the ground in damascus. the brits and french are going in. it is an opportunistic moment and a tense moment. turkey is perhaps exerting too much interest but all that said, do we think we can get austin tice out? she has appealed now to vladimir putin as well as getting a promise from netanyahu that he will not strike syria where austin may be. but why can't the u.s. go in with special forces covertly, maybe you can't confirm that, and try to find him? >> so two things. i saw the entire family about

ten days ago in washington before i went back to the region. i committed to the family that we would leave no stone unturned in finding austin and bringing him home. since then, we have fanned out everywhere with every possible source, every possible actor who might be able to get information. this involves anyone and everyone who has some relationship with the different rising authorities in syria. we have been in direct contact with them ourselves. we have other partners on the ground. and we are looking to get on the ground ourselves as quickly as we can. but the most important thing is this. any information, any lead we have, we are following it. we have ways of doing that, irrespective of where we are. i can tell you this is the number one priority is to get austin. >> we showed you a minute ago, keir simmons questioning vladimir putin. he asked vladimir putin if he

would help find austin tice. here's that exchange. >> the mother of a missing journalist in syria has written to you to ask for help to try to find him because she says you have such connections with the syrian government and former president assad. are you prepared to ask president assad for information about what happened in syria to try to find the missing including this american journalist? >> i have not spoken to assad since he came to moscow but i will have a conversation with him. as adults, we understand, a person went missing 12 years ago in syria. we understand what the situation

was, does president aodd himself know what happened to the u.s. citizen, to the journalist who performed his journalist duties in the combat region. none theless, i will ask this question to him. >> putin there saying he will ask assad about austin tice. and assad is now a refuge in moscow. let's turn to the war in ukraine. the incoming administration is promising a different approach to the conflict than the biden team. what more are you trying to do between now and january 20th? >> i want to make sure we are giving the incoming administration and ukrainians the strongest possible hand to play going into 2025. the ukrainians have to make decisions on carrying on the fight or negotiating and trying to bring this to a cease fire. the fundamental question is whether russia is prepared to do that and do that in good faith. if it moves tothat , we want to

make sure the ukrainians and trump administration have the strongest possible deal. that means trying to reinforce ukraine's position on the battlefield, making sure it has the money, munitions, and man power to carry on. it means continuing to exert maximum pressure on russia and russia is feeling the burden of all of the pressure with dozens of other countries over the last two plus years. everything that russia tries to do takes longer, costs more, and is harder to do. and of course the losses on the battle field are extraordinary. putin keeps throwing these young men into a meat grinder of his own making. but i think president trump if he, when he comes in, if he wants to move to an agreement, he want to make sure he has a strong hand at any negotiation. i think if this gets to a place where there is a cease fire and it is a cease fire that is on

just and durable terms but there has to be an assurance that russia will not just rest and attack in two years, five years. that is critical. if we get that, ukraine is on a path to success. it is an independent country and not erased from the map. that's what putin wanted to do and he failed. it can stand on its own feet economically. that is the best view to putin and i know trump will want a good deal going forward. >> mr. secretary, we have been talking about and you have been living with a region of the world that is one long burning fuse from the turkish border down to the gate at gaza and egypt. and it is a constant burn every day, every hour, each day. but in syria, who runs or operates the authority in syria today damascus today? are the russians still in syria? do we know what happened to

assad's intelligence trove? what is going on today in damascus? >> right now, this is a moving target. you have a group that has emrmged, hts, supported by turkey, that has made this move and has swept across much of the country. so they are in the dominant seat but not the only seat. there are other factions there in different parts of the country, different groups have more or less authority. the real question is this. we came together with countries around the region in jordan a few days ago, turkey, jordan, egypt, gulf states, iraq, european countries as well to try to see if we could agree on what we expect of any new authority that emerges in syria. and we did. there is a strong expectation that if this authority that emerges is going to have the recognition and support it wants, it has to make sure it

respects minorities, it is inclusive, that it deals with chemical weapons and doesn't become an ally of isis and a number of other things that we set out. i think the question is this. as this group, hts is looking at the future, and the leader golonnie has had said some things. there are two lessons. one is the lesson of assad. one of the reasons that he is where he is because he refused to engage in a political process to put the country back together. the other reason is his patrons became distracted by problems of their own making that we xas er baited, iran. it tried to project a moderate face which was not the true face of the taliban. it is incredibly isolated. if the new forces try to bring

the country together and do it in a way that meets the criteria that many countries put out, it has a chance not to be dominated by a dictator, not to be dominated by an outside power or isis or terrorist group. that's the opportunity. >> and mr. secretary, elon musk, meeting with foreign leaders at the president's side, travelling with him, living in mar-a-lago, jumping into a call with zelenskyy, going to paris as the president-elect did, how complicated is this for american foreign policy going forward? who is in charge here? the resolution has blown up after one tweet from him. and at the same time, what are the conflicts of interest implicit in this because he is one of the biggest defense contractors, spacex now questioned on if there have been

adequate disclosures in a pentagon report, but how can this work for an american secretary of state going forward in terms of foreign policy? >> well, we have one president at a time. >> it doesn't seem so right now. >> what we are doing on the ground every single day trying to move forward on syria and getting a hostage deal done, and moving ahead in ukraine. we are in close communication with the incoming administration. countries around the world wants to know what the administration thinks so it is natural to have communications. and in some ways, it is helpful to us because we want to make sure we are handing over the baton in a way that the next administration can come in and run at full speed because the world is not waiting on our transition. we don't have the luxury of a timeout. so it is important that the baton passing happens in a smooth and effective way. we are using every minute we have to try to make more progress. we also have an opportunity here to hand off a very different

vision and mrapz to realize that vision for this region that you were talking about, the middle east. we can see a different future in the middle east. we can see a future where israel is integrated in the region, has normalized interests in saudi arabia and the other powers it doesn't yet have the relations with including the secretary architect we brought when iran attacked israel. we brought the countries together in defense of israel. that can be the future. iran will be isolated and will have to make decisions about its future. but it requires two things . it requires ending the war in gaza and we are working on doing that, we are working on a plan so that gaza can rebuild after that war and israel can get out. and it requires some kind of pathway for the palestinians to have a state to which they are required. so many communities are traumatized, israelis, palestinians but we know that is required. we are working on all of this. we are ready to go if we have

the opening. if not, we will hand it off to the trump administration. trump did a great thing the first time with the abraham accords, with bahrain. now the opportunity is there. i think this is something the president will be focused on to broaden that out with the saudis. the work we have done on putting in place the elements of that deal including what we and saudi arabia would do together, what they would do with israel, all of that is now there. my hope is that we will move as far as we can. it won't be complete but we will be able to hand it over and the next administration can decide how it wants to proceed. but this would be an extraordinary success over multiple administrations to exactly change the region and the future for its people. >> on that question on the handoff, you met with senator rubio yesterday who will be your successor it looks like, he has bipartisan support as secretary of state. a lot of people think in the

scope of some of the other people who have been put forward, we were talking about someone like tulsi gabbard and pete hegseth and go down the list, that he is a much more acceptable perhaps. what can you say to people who are genuinely concerned about where the country goes on january 20th which is under donald trump, and under some of the people who might be leading incredibly important positions, what is your message to concerned voters for where the country is headed after the biden administration leaves? >> i can tell you this at the risk of doing damage to senator rubio, we had a very good meeting. he is someone i have great respect for, deeply experienced on the intelligence committee. he knows the world. he knows the issues. he is very thoughtful about them. at the same time, mike waltz, my

colleague jake sullivan has spent time with him. i think we both have real confidence. a country that is engaged that is leading in the world. here's what we know. if we are not leading then someone else is and someone that is not reflecting our values. ornone is and then you have a vacuum that is filled with bad things before good things. senator rubio, mike waltz, others we know, see that and believe that and so does president trump. believe that and so does president trump. >> all i can tell you is, the conversation we have had has been very positive, very subsidence and my expectation is they will carry over the strong u.s. engagement in the

world. >> we will see soon. secretary of state antony blinken, thank you for your time and for all your work over the past four years. we holidays to you. still ahead, we get the latest from capitol hill where democratic lawmakers are calling out republicans for suddenly scrapping a funding deal after receiving pressure from donald trump and elon musk. will there be a shutdown? plus, the dispatches talking about a new maga establishment. on sunday today our guest will be a genuine american icon, carol burnett. my conversation with carol about her show business, her life as a groundbreaking icon and her starring role, emmy nominated role in the series palm royale. carol burnett on nbc -- msnbc

sunday today. we are right back with "morning joe". ♪ ♪ joe". ♪ ♪ eated? stop typing, and start talking. it could be a medical condition called peyronie's disease, or pd. and it could be treated without surgery. find a specialized urologist who can diagnose pd and build a treatment plan with you. visit makeapdplan.com today. my moderate to severe crohn's symptoms kept me out of the picture. with skyrizi, feel symptom relief at 4 weeks. many people were in remission at 12 weeks, at 1 year, and even at 2 years. don't use if allergic. serious allergic reactions, increased infections, or lower ability to fight them may occur. before treatment, get checked for infections and tb. tell your doctor about any flu-like symptoms or vaccines. liver problems leading to hospitalization may occur when treated for crohn's. ♪ control is everything to me. ♪ ask your gastroenterologist

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this is absurd and what we have here is a bipartisan deal that mike johnson, the speaker the house, negotiated and brought to the house donald trump and elon musk and is putting us on a brink of a government shutdown. >> house republicans will now own any harm that is visited upon the american people that results from a government shutdown or worse. >> you have confidence in speaker johnson? >> i don't know. i am only one vote out of 220. look, i think the speaker could have handled this differently.

at this point, i am still supportive of the speaker but i will tell you voices inside and outside the freedom caucus have been very disappointed in what happened this week. >> do you think johnson should stay the speaker nominee? >> johnson is going to be the speaker, he will not be able to get through with just the republicans. he will need democrats to be speaker. >> extraordinary developments on capitol hill. democrats pointing fingers at republicans for republicans claiming speaker mike johnson while donald trump and elon musk push congress toward a government shutdown. he told republicans not to support the bipartisan spending deal. good morning. i am willie giese. welcome to "morning joe". joe and mika have the money on. jen psaki

official in morning joe economic analyst steve ratner. we will get to capitol hill in just a moment but let's set up what happened yesterday. the plan to fund the government and avoid a shutdown fell apart yesterday after president-elect trump and elon musk voiced opposition to the bill despite the stamp of improvement -- approval. they also demanded the legislation include a debt ceiling increase, writing apart, increasing the debt ceiling is not great, but we would rather do it on biden's watch and we should pass a streamlined spending bill that doesn't give chuck shumer and the democrats everything they want. that came after musk spent hours criticizing the sprawling bill on social media, boasting about it more than 100 times

throughout the day. the president-elect also threatened to support a primary opponent to any republican who went against his wishes. with that bipartisan legislation dad, j.d. vance went to the hill in an attempt to iron out a new deal ahead of tomorrow's looming deadline. capitol hill correspondent julie tsirkin joins us now. great to see you. gosh, so much to talk about here, including the future of speaker mike johnson. let's talk about what exactly happened yesterday. this appeared to go to passage, it is a bipartisan deal, everybody is ready to get out of town for the holidays and now, as of midnight to the next four years, willie. this is something that those of us who covered the first trump administration on capitol hill during trump's first term are keenly aware of it, so are the lawmakers who were in the building during those four years.

the way yesterday was going, you played that from the freedom caucus chairman. i asked him the question if he would still support speaker johnson because he and a group of conservatives in the house and senate spent about 35 minutes going one by one, talking through their plans for next year, which include that border package, that ambitious tax cuts deal and an hour later, this must pass government funding package they had all but buttoned up got fully crushed and killed by the president-elect and his team of allies, including elon musk. look, it is not good news for the house speaker. he was in the capital, as you mentioned, until late last night, huddling with the president-elect, steve scalise and his leadership team trying to count the votes to see how they could get to yes on even a clean government funding bill with the debt ceiling left now which the speaker should not have been talking or thinking about. trump has been sounding alarm bells on that for some time now. these kinds of negotiations take weeks, if not months, to hammer out. they have about a day to figure this out. until the government lights are

out, certainly, this is not something we want to be doing ahead of christmas vacation. they have a lot of work cut out for them. it will be a very long day. today really is the last day the house can get going on this process to get the government- funded in time. >> julie, as you say, this bill long time. there is a lot in there and they thought they had a deal. my question to you is, was speaker johnson blindsided by these tweets that started yesterday from elon musk about this threat from donald trump, now he will order primaries for anybody who crosses him on this and, as you say, it is a

preview of coming attractions, by the way, here is how the government will run when they do something he doesn't like him he was sick elon musk on you. the republicans see this coming yesterday? >> republican spent pretty much the whole day, we heard from senators to house members talking about how bloated this bill was. let's be clear, this was not a clean government funding bill. this had a lot of extra provisions on it, including, of course, disaster relief, the farm bill, which is a must pass item an additional assistance for farmers, too. don't forget the pay raise for members of congress that has not happened in more than a decade. certainly, all those things go against the grain from what we have been hearing for the incoming administration, from this incoming republican trifecta, cutting waste, that goes against the thing we have been hearing. i'm not sure it should have been a surprise to johnson, who spent the entire day pretty much holed up in his office. we were outside, waiting for him to open the floor in the middle of the day, thinking perhaps i could've even rushed this bill and made a houseboat on it and get out of town before this could sit out there and linger and get the kind of reception we saw later on the day. johnson, sitting in his office, was pretty telling, i think. we kept hearing consternation around the hill. with trump putting the final nail in the coffin, i don't think anyone expected him to speak out. when he did, it was definitely game over. i got a text immediately from a senior leadership aide at that time at said it was dead and

johnson had given up. >> when we talked to earlier this year with the bipartisan immigration package that was worked on with james langford and other republicans. they got to the place where republicans were happy and donald trump decided he did not want them to do it because he wanted it as a campaign issue. he made a phone call to mike johnson this, as julie says, appears to be the way it is going to go. o you donald trump, will be present in the united states again and of elon musk, whatever his title is, clearly he has equal power, just beneath the president of the united states to get these things killed, buckle up if this is the way we are gonna run the government. >> that is what i was going to say, buckle up for 2025. this is what it is going to look like. to julie's point, first of all, yesterday, the feeling in washington was, this is done. it was a bipartisan agreement. this is done. everybody is packing up their offices, making their christmas travel plans and, all of a

sudden, it wasn't done. which happens occasionally in washington, whether it is policy making and bills being passed or what but this was a bit of a surprise to a lot of people in this town yesterday. it reminds me a lot, willie, i think we all lived through the first trump term when the team at the white house would say something and trump would say something that contradicted it on twitter or x or whatever they're calling it, now you have the owner of that platform as an additional person who may be contradicting what the plan is. maybe you is what the plan is for the white house a month from now, maybe that is the plan from congress. it certainly sets up quite the

challenging situation for mike johnson. as you read the reporting, he was in a position where he was needing to explain to elon musk and vivek ramaswamy how government funding works. as much as this was a very large bill to julie's point a lot of republicans did not like it, people who want to cut spending did not like it but he explained that and i was struck by what he said when he was talking about himself almost in the third person, he was essentially. this was an impossible task. anytime you were in the position of doing that, you know it will be a challenging path for. yes, contemporary has started, buckle up, everyone, this is probably what governing looks like in 2025. >> i am thinking of a photograph taken at the army- navy game this past weekend, the front row in the box where they are sitting, it is trump, john thune, the incoming majority leader and mike johnson, they were going to get a lot done. in the back row of that picture is elon musk. that is what we have seen now, where all this talk about republicans this time around, trump, he has learned how to navigate washington, is going to get things done, his beggar is not better organized, nope . this is the same chaos we saw his first time around and it is imperiling speaker johnson, you know, his underscoring of elon musk's power. he tweeted over 100 times, he and vivek ramaswamy both came out against this and trump

advanced to do the same. we should know, steve, they are doing it for different reasons. trump wants to lift the debt ceiling and musk has a competing interest there. the government shuts down, let's first talk about that, even though they will lose their shock tomorrow night but there is a separate ability and chaos that will rule everything from the government to markets next year. >> yeah, look, that is exactly the problem we are facing . there is a period of chaos in the markets and they will be unhappy about it if it does not get resolved. trump was to extend the debt ceiling as he does not wanted to come up on his watch. members of the hard right, his face, in fact, will never vote for a debt ceiling and he doesn't want to get in the middle of that so he wants that out the way. he also does want to get rid of some of the spending. trump's tweet yesterday was about all these priorities and

what they want and so on and so forth. so here we are. when we play this , we have seen this many, many were admittedly very brief and the markets have accepted all that. but as everybody else has been saying so far, we now have this additional factor of this larger than life force, the richest man in the world, weighing in 100w129 with his point of view. so it is a big mess. what is also different this time, democrats are saying, we are not to bill you guys out. we had a deal. yes, it was a deal. there were all kinds of stuff that was a christmas tree but we had a deal. you guys again a twist in the wind. mike johnson's margins are so thin, it is almost hard to imagine how he passes anything without democratic support because he's got these hard right members who are never for altar spending, never for a debt increase so you are between a rock and a hard place. >> it also exposes another incredible weakness within the republican party.

two people who are not yet part of the official process, the president-elect and elon musk. they are not officially members of the party. i mean, they are members of the party, but they are not part of the process. julie, the other aspect of it, potential bad news for american taxpayers, american citizens, is what is in the bill. you mentioned it briefly earlier. things like a new football stadium for the washington commanders national football league team. other things like that, just thrown into the bill at the end of the day, proving, on paper, that the congress of the united states, led by a republican speaker, cannot do its job. these are things that ought to have been passed during the course of ordinary process during the last two years and they loaded up on christmas eve and they can't get it done. so what does that pose for, a, the future of mike johnson as speaker with a thin margin and, b, the process of the

republican parties and their prospect do not get anything done legislatively in the house of representatives? >> what a loaded question, look, where do i start? let's start with mike johnson. he ahead of him. it is interesting because going into the day yesterday, interaction with the house caucus chairman, they were all standing there, complaining about the process, the bill, but still say they support the speaker. i think that might look a little bit differently right now. the big question is, what does trump do? johnson has been working for weeks, if not months, to get in trump's good graces, to get in is good going to. back then, you was even less a

part of this process of someone running for office again but he has tremendous influence which is why mike johnson spent so much time cozying up to him, so did john thune, by the way, the incoming majority leader. let's see what happens january 3. he was unofficially elected behind closed doors. some republicans, as you claim, said he needs democrats to bail them out. after this, i doubt that will happen. it happened a couple months ago so that settles that, kind of. to the second part of your question, which is, can they get anything done over the next two years? we have not seen anything happen in a regular order in quite some time, i would say the first two years of the biden administration they got a lot done, a lot of bipartisan legislation done, they also got the inflation reduction act done, some big items they tried to pass. also, using reconciliation, cutting

them to bypass that 60 vote threshold, essentially one party is needed to pass what they want if it has to do with those budget constraints. that is what trump is looking to do on the border, on tax cuts and they are going to need all republicans to stick together to get it done. my sources tell me there is no interest from the incoming administration to work with democrats to cut any deals on the other side of the aisle, at least during the first two years of this presidency. >> you know, there is a ton of pork in this bill, 1500 pages, obviously. there will be one thing republicans complain about, the football stadium, there's actually no federal funding in this bill for a football stadium. it just transfers control of the site of the old rfk stadium to the washington, d.c. television -- government to develop. they are making stuff up, too. julie, before we like you, this talk about the house ethics committee secretly voting earlier this month to release the findings of its probe in the alleged sexual misconduct and drug use of former congressman matt gaetz. according to two sources, the report will be made public as soon as this week. gaetz went on social media to criticize the move and said his heavier was embarrassing but not criminal. gaetz resigned from the house after beating chosen for

attorney general. he stepped aside because of the controversies. threatening his confirmation, he is denied all of those allegations. there have been that deadlocked vote, julie, first not to release a report. now it looks like it will see the light of day. >> it is. i think it is in large part because one, matt gaetz is no longer attached to the present life. there is no reporter that will have to go out on a limb and no one has to release a report to contain a potential nominee of the incoming legislation. this was the linchpin, the centerpiece for why matt gaetz's bid was a record eight days long. it was because of the information this report could contain. the committee spent three years investigating the situation. gaetz took to x to say he can't debate the report. i will remind you he had plenty of opportunity to speak to the

committee and decided in september this year he was done doing so. i think his comments were interesting but the fact the committee, the bipartisan panel, voted to release the report may be shocking but it is not surprising. i think it is because gaetz still has plenty of bad blood among republicans in the house. they want the report to see the light of day . for whatever gaetz decide to do next, there could be damaging information. the committee did talk to a lawyer for the 17-year-old that allegedly had the sexual encounter with gaetz that he denied. that report will be out this week. definitely something that could have come out if the house had passed the continuing resolution but they want to get out of town so they don't have to answer questions about that. >> julie, before we let you go, quickly, what do we expect with the shutdown deadline at midnight tomorrow? is there even time or will to get this cleaned cr through? >> now they need to rely only on republican votes. if johnson's margin is extremely tight, democrats are not can help him. they want to get it done by midnight tomorrow, they have to start the process today, go to the rules committee and make

sure the hardliners on the panel hustle the bill through. will be a very heavy left and i expect we will be here to the weekend. >> julie tsirkin doing a great job walking is through this very complicated, difficult process. donald trump, elon musk, sitting in mar-a-lago or wherever they are sitting, watching developments and saying, comes down to that and washington scrambles. >> total chaos. i am sure we know this is exactly what his first term was like and the number of times that republicans and at times, democrats, thought they had a deal and he would blow it up with a tweet or a statement. the new thing here is the role elon musk plays and the time on that. musk spent $277 million, that is still counting, to help trump win the election. he has been given a powerful post outside of government, but he certainly no -- knows he will have a say. there are various companies about whether he/she -- he should have a security clearance for right now what he has is donald trump's ear. we know how this works. when someone starts to get a

lot of attention, whether a trump staffer, aid, friend, family member even, when they start to outshine donald trump, donald trump does not much care for it. >> no, he does not. we will see how long this lasts. even right now, the killing of the funding bill here is, elon musk is being given credit for that really, more than donald trump is. you have to wonder how donald trump feels about that exactly. you know, the other piece here i think is interesting, an interesting thing we have seen over the last couple weeks, in terms of what the threats look like, there is a lot of threatening around threatening primary opponents. we have seen that and elon musk was involved in this, too. we have seen that as a related to senator joni ernst and her lukewarm statement to put out about pete hegseth. all of a sudden, there was all of this activity behind the scenes and publicly, threatening a primary run

against her. that is also in the language that has been in some of the 100 tweets or however many there were, from elon musk here. that is clearly impacting republicans. if that is to be continued because it works. ontinued to go back to your original point here, elon musk is around trump all the time. he was in that picture he referenced at the army-navy game, creepily right over his shoulder. he seems to be living in mar-a- lago, i don't know how trump feels about that, maybe he is enjoying it currently. he is also getting credit for having power over congress over trump. how does that sit with trump? we know from history, typically, it does not sit well. >> some republicans and former republicans are afraid of trump and that will not sit well. still ahead on "morning joe", moran elon musk, appeared to have much, much more power and money than ever. steve rattner has charts of

elon musk's skyrocketing network just as donald trump's election wins . we are back in 90 seconds. 90 seconds. bent finger appointment in 30 minutes. you got this. one — remember, i don't want surgery for my dupuytren's contracture. two — i don't want to wait for my contracture to get worse. three — i want a treatment with minimal downtime. four — i want a nonsurgical treatment. and five... and if nonsurgical treatment isn't offered? i'll get a second opinion. let's go! take charge of your treatment. if you can't lay your hand flat, visit findahandspecialist.com to get started. ♪♪

presently donald trump's election win has been extremely profitable for elon musk, whose worth has grown by $276 million

meaning musk's net worth now is close to a half trillion dollars. steve rattner has some charts on this. steve, what you looking at? >> not only is elon musk may be their second or first most powerful man in washington, he is also the richest man in the world, as you just suggested. let's look at why. it is principally because of two companies, tesla , his electric vehicle company which we are all familiar with, has more than doubled its market value literally since the election. you can see down here the stock price was kind of pedaling along and now we just shot up after the election. the company is now worth 25 times what general motors is worth, even though it produces far fewer cars. why did it shoot up like that? because musk is obviously counting on government policy to help him keep out , chinese

imports and other regulations with tesla so buyers will buy it. his other company, spacex, it may not be as familiar to people. it is the most valuable private company in the world. spacex only does its evaluations twice a year because it is not publicly traded. what has happened since the election is that it has raised more money and is valued at 67% higher than what it raised in six months early. 67% up in one six-month period. why is that? because spacex is obviously heavily dependent on government contracts and government support for its launches. the new head of nasa, the proposed head of nasa, has been on the spacex rocket twice and has invested in spacex, so i imagine they will get more or less what they want. that is now at $350 billion company, the most valuable private company in the world, as i said. when you put it together, what you have? musk has tesla shares, he's got spacex, he's got tesla options, which are just another piece of the puzzle and then he's got a bunch of stuff that looks pretty small here, but

billion, a.i., x, futuristic things, and neural link, all of which have jumped enormously in value. as you said in the lead in, what has happened, his network -- network has gone up 135% since the election, $276 billion. he is now worth $480 billion, the wealthiest man in the world, half of that roughly since the election alone. >> stunning. steve, you mentioned this with spacex and nasa, conflicts of interest really concern a lot of people if he is running this d.o.g.e. agency, he could, could he not, have the power to say hold federal funding were pulled federal contracts from a competing ev company, for example? >> this is so far up the fairway here, you will never even find the ball. when you work for the government, and i did this, you are subject to interest and conflict of interest rules. you are required to divest yourself of anything that could prove a conflict in your work for the government. obviously, he is docketed to best all this stuff. he is not even a government employee, which is a whole

number of questions. this is another classic example of kind of the swamp coming to washington and trump and his people doing whatever they feel like, regardless of what the law is, in some cases, perhaps. >> steve, stay with us. we will talk about the you selloff on wall street after the fed's latest moves to tackle inflation. plus, we go live to cnbc headquarters and a fourth hour check of the markets coming up. . don't use if allergic. serious allergic reactions, increased infections, or lowered ability to fight them may occur. before treatment, get checked for infections and tb. tell your doctor about any flu-like symptoms, or vaccines. with skyrizi, nothing on my skin means everything. ♪nothing is everything♪ ask your dermatologist about skyrizi today. okay everyone, our mission is to provide complete, balanced nutrition for strength and energy. yay - woo hoo! ensure, with 27 vitamins and minerals, nutrients for immune health. and ensure complete

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steve, let's get two more your trucks on the federal reserve, which announced yesterday it has cut interest rates by an additional quarter percentage point, is third and final rate cut for 2024. fed chair jerome powell telling reporters the latest cut not an easy decision. >> i would say today was a closer call but we decided it was the right call because we thought it was the best decision to foster achievement of both of our goals. we see the risks as two sided,

moving too slowly and undermining economic activity in the labor market moving too quickly and undermining progress on inflation. we are trying to steer between those two risks. >> the start talking -- the stock market plunged after the that with the worst day in months. the chairman also said rate cuts are likely to slow down in the new year. steve is at the table with more charts to break it down. it is expected at a quarter percentage point, steve, right? i guess the reason the market went down is because of the idea we will have these stop for a while. >> i think the market was expecting that the feds new senate projections, which we can talk about, was going to provide for four cuts next year. instead, the market is projecting now two cuts next

year. with this structure, there is simply a path of interest rates. you can see they peaked at about five and & and have come down over the past year by a full percentage point. i put in the mortgage rate because some people may say, why have mortgages come down? mortgages have not come down because they are tied more to the 30 year treasury, which is going up somewhat rather than down. if you take a look at this next chart, you will see what the market had been expecting was much lower interest rates sooner. all the way at the bottom is september. more people thought in september what was going to happen to interest rates, you can see month period passing expectations of rates are staying higher and higher. why is the fed, in particular, thinking rates may not go down

as fast as we thought? it is kind of good news, in a way. it is because the economy has actually been stronger than people expected and then then the fed expected. you can see on the next chart, they changed projections. they are now expecting the economy will grow, that is this klein, by two and half% next year, rather than 2% they projected previously. so the market and the fed, for that matter, more importantly, think the economy is stronger. on the negative side of it, the next chart, you can see when thinking about inflation, the bed, three months ago, thought inflation would come down to 2%, which is their target next year. now they think inflation, which is stuck in the three range, will only come down to 2 1/2%. that is part of why powell said what he said in his opening comments about it. why did the start market go down so much? because higher interest rates are the enemy of stock prices. interest rates don't go down as fast as you expect, people move their money into bonds and money market funds and other things that pay an interest rate that the yield is more

attractive than stocks. so the stock market was really kind of shocked a bit, obviously, by the news yesterday that rates are knocking to come down as fast as they thought. that is why the market rolled over. >> steve, i imagine another person with this news is not thrilled, is present like donald trump. that makes it challenging for his promise to lower prices and challenges his relationship with the fed. as we know, he wants far more influence over the fed, even control over the fed and jerome powell has said no. >> jonathan, first, there is a little bit of a break, the stock market took its pain this year rather than next year. if this is the end of the stock market decline, obviously, we don't know, then his watch starts on january 20th, of course. secondly, it is important to note that i think the fed was pretty clear yesterday that everything they did has nothing to do with trump's proposals. msnbc has reported trump 's

proposals will make this worse. he wants to raise inflation and cut taxes a lot more. that will raise the budget deficit. that puts pressure on rates . he wants to deport people. that will hurt the label -- labor force and create more inflation. all of this is actually not even taking into account what he might do. he will have even more pain ahead of him. yes, he will take on the fed. he can't fire jerome powell. jerome powell has already said, i ain't going. he has 15 or 16 more months to go before trump can put his guy in. you can't fight the fed, in a way. with the fed is doing is necessary. if you put someone in there, we have had this before, who does not respond to the root of

inflationary pressures and who does not do the right thing, not necessarily what the president wants, you can have real chaos. >> we have seen elon musk is a large example of this, a perfect example of this, whenever anything happens, the rich always get richer somehow. the average american family stumbles along. what does the rocky relationship that exists between president trump, president-elect trump and chairman powell? how does that impact the average american family? >> the average american family has a mortgage. they may have credit card debt or automobile loans. a lot of these policies that trump is pursuing, as i said, could keep interest rates higher for longer . that is the impact on the american family. then, of course, you have the question of the impact on the economy. things like tariffs slow economic growth and cost jobs. deporting immigrants, you may think that is good for the average american worker but it is not. we have american worker shortages and the economy has

more inflation. none of this, in my opinion anyway, is good for the american family. on top of that, trump's tax proposals are high in aggressive. that means people who are rich will get a much larger percentage than people at the bottom. he did it before. the 2017 tax cut which he wants to extend, it essentially did the same thing. it basically gave more people at the top, even in percentage terms, let alone dollars, more than people at the bottom. >> as you mentioned, his tariffs will raise prices as well. "morning joe" economic analyst steve rattner with his trust is one. you really impressed us when you said it was so far off the fairfield you can even find the ball. i know the feeling. steve, thanks so much. coming up, the house ethics committee is poised to release the findings of its investigation to the conduct of former congressman matt gaetz. it follows a secret vote on capitol hill. we are learning the new

developments when "morning joe" comes right back. ♪ ♪ back. ♪ ♪

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eastern, 6:00 on the west coast. welcome to the fourth hour of "morning joe." i'm jonathan lemire, and i'm grateful to report that mike barnicle still with us. joining us also, managing editor at "the bullwork," sam stein. thank you for being here as well. we've got a lot to get to. we'll dive right in. congressional lawmakers are back on capitol hill this morning in search of a deal to avert a government shutdown at midnight tomorrow. this after president-elect trump and the very loud voice of elon musk conveyed their opposition to the bipartisan plan to fund the government. nbc news capitol hill correspondent ryan nobles brings us the latest. >> reporter: in the span of just a few hours, a massive bipartisan spending deal agreed to by leaders in both the house and senate, went from being on a glide path to passage to dead on arrival. killed by president-elect trump, urged on by his influential

adviser, billionaire elon musk. now congress is racing to avoid a shutdown which would halt some government services and leave many federal workers and military members without a paycheck around the holidays. >> we're in the middle of these negotiations. >> reporter: the original deal hatched by speaker johnson, included $100 billion in disaster relief and $10 billion in aid for farmers, but it also included a long list of pet projects from lawmakers from both sides like a provision to increase the pay of members of congress. some hardline republicans already opposed. >> this is a [ bleep ] sandwich. i don't know how else to say that. we're being forced into this. >> reporter: musk will lead trump's effort to cut government spending. he's been close to the president-elect throughout the transition period. the billionaire regularly posing a tax on the bill saying, who votes for this outrageous spending bill deserves to be voted out in two years. trump himself quickly followed suit, encouraging his gop colleagues to get smart and tough. if democrats threaten to shut

down the government unless we give them everything they want, then call their bluff. >> this is why we won on november 5th. everyone is sick and tired of overspending. >> reporter: speaker johnson noting musk's influence earlier yesterday. >> elon, vivek, and i are on a text chain together, and i was explaining to them the background of this. remember, guys. we still have just a razor-thin margin of republicans. >> reporter: now he's back to square one, forced to rewrite the original bill for a much smaller version. house democrats are warning their support for a new package is no guarantee. >> house republicans will now own any harm that is visited upon the american people that results from a government shutdown or worse. >> that was nbc's ryan nobles with that report. joining us now, nbc news senior capitol hill correspondent garrett haake and senior writer

for "the did spatch," david drucker. let's start with you, garrett. you just got off the phone with president-elect trump just moments ago. what did you learn? what is he saying about the possible shutdown, and also the future of speaker johnson? >> jah. >> yeah. it was a very interesting conversation. he said if there's going to be a shutdown, let it be now. let it happen on a democratic president's watch. he wants to see these issues in terms of spending and the debt ceiling, which is really emerged as kind of the sleeper issue here which he is very focused. if he wants to see it all get dealt with now essentially before he comes into office in january, and clear the decks. now i asked him if he still had confidence in speaker johns.joh he said, we'll see. he was unhappy with the resolution put forward. he called it a democrat trap. the most interesting part of our conversation was about the debt ceiling, this concept which the united states is the only country in the world to have, to sort of artificially try to

control debt. it has only ever been raised. it has never been breached. there's a lot of sort of theory out there about what could happen if it is. i asked the president-elect if he would support not just raising it again to some distant date, but to get rid of it entirely. he said that would be the smartest thing that congress could do. he thinks the entire debt ceiling concept is essentially purely psychological. it clearly doesn't do anything to actually control debt, and he said if democrats have suggested in the past that's something they want to do, if they want to go down that road, he would support it entirely he told me. just another sign of how fundamentally different this incoming republican administration is going to be than any other republican administration any of us have ever dealt with. >> you're right to point out some democrats would probably agree with getting rid of the debt ceiling limit, but trump's protests aside, joe biden, a democrat is president, but it's hard to imagine republicans not taking the blame for the shutdown. i'm also curious, garrett, what he had to say about elon musk,

because this sudden momentum switch which led republicans to come out and defeat this sort of began with elon musk on twitter tweeting over a hundred times to the point there's a lot of speculation if musk's influence rivals that of trump. >> right. who is -- was the tail wagging the dog here? what's going on? i tried to ask trump about this. he said, look. i told elon musk, if he kbrees -- agrees with me on this bill, he ought to say so. he said musk's concerns were somewhat different from his, that musk was mostly focused on it from a cost-cutting perspective as is his, you know, want as the head of this doge commission, this sort of outside consultancy effort if you will to try to increase efficiency and cut spending in the federal government. so their concerns were slightly different, but the president-elect said he was very much on track with everything elon musk was saying yesterday, in his efforts to get this cr spiked before it could be voted on. >> so garrett, in the -- in the

circle around donald trump, when mike johnson is saying we just heard him say it. elon and i are on a text chain together, the impact of that, assuming that musk has equal power, perhaps more power in some indications than the president-elect of the united states, what impact do you think that's having on that inner circle? >> well, look. i think it makes everything more challenging for speaker johnson and his team who are used to doing things in the way they have been done on capitol hill. i mean, there's a lot of talk about, you know, the idea that we're going to reinvent the wheel here, but what i saw coming in yesterday was a very traditional end-of-year christmas tree bill in which all the work gets dealt with before they're out of town. i don't think anyone disputes elon is brilliant, but he doesn't understand the way this process has been done, and it's clear he doesn't care, and i think there's a number of different ways you can look at

in that. it is clearly disruptive and some republicans think it's in a good way, but it has shown a good monkey wrench in getting this done before the government shuts down, before the end of the year. we're going to have a speaker early next year and an inauguration. all these things that have to happen. so you're selling lawmakers on a bill, on a piece of government work product that they're used to doing, and you're selling and explaining a concept to elon musk and vivek ramaswamy coming from the outside at the same time. that is a very difficult task to do simultaneously about the same piece of legislation that you're having to write in realtime. >> nbc news capitol hill correspondent, garrett haake, just off the phone with president-elect trump. garrett, thank you so much. sam stein, there have been some thought here that this is donald trump's second go at this, that he has experience now. he knows how washington works, you know, they point to his campaign, and for him anyway, it was more discipline than others he's run in the past. in a acceptance, that with republicans controlling the house, the senate, trump firmly

in charge of the white house, they're going to get things done. well, looks like it's more of the chaos that was so familiar to us over his first four years. >> yeah. garrett was pretty diplomatic in the way he was reporting that out. i mean f you stood back and looked at this, you would say this is madness, and it is kind of madness, right? we have the world's richest human being, a tycoon with billions of dollars in government contracts who owns one of the most influential platforms in the country, essentially dictating whether or not our government will remain open although he doesn't really understand what's in the bill. he has several provisions he was pointing to that were just factually not true, and arguably he is leading around the president-elect of the united states, and then making matters even weirder, this morning you have senator rand paul suggesting that elon musk should be the new speaker of the house

deposing mike johnson who is the guy -- i'm just going to keep going here, who was the guy who led the effort to keep donald trump in office in 2020, who is now going to be cast aside because he negotiated a bill that everyone agreed to, and then last-minute it was blown up. i mean, it is madness, and i think we should just call it what it is because this is not a way to run the government, and yeah. sure, i guess donald trump is comfortable with a government shutting down on joe biden's watch, but if you think about that, i mean, what does that actually mean? it means that people will be out of work, that functions will be hampered right on the holiday season, and more specifically, the provisions in this bill, disaster relief for western north carolina was devastated by hurricanes. it was a huge part of the campaign against kamala harris. just going to be the cast aside. aid for farmers who trump said he was the biggest champion of, cast aside. do these things not matter?

for trump, they matter, but for elon musk, because he is not accountable to anybody, not an elected official, they don't matter, and that's the problem here going forward is that elon does not have accountability. the only person he's accountable to is donald trump, and so unless those two start fighting with each other openly, this is what we're in for. >> yeah, and certainly the clock may be ticking on that, but you're right, sam. madness is the appropriate word. dick durbin will join us on this in just a few moments, but right now, david drucker, your latest reporting has the headline "a new maga republican establishment rises." tell us about that, and how it relates to what's playing out on capitol hill right now. >> right. well, the president-elect of course, is promising to primary anybody who doesn't go along with his plan. whatever it turns out to be, he's not really sure what he wants at the moment. one of the things that will be different this time around than the first time around for trump is the fact that in the four years he's been out of office,

an entire ecosystem of groups and seasoned media influence has -- has sort of matured and is now in place, ready to court his legislative agenda and his executive actions. right? and so in his first four years, a tweet from trump could be pretty devastating and we saw how it would repeatedly blow things up, whether they were spending deals or things like that, but it was somewhat easier for members of congress on the republican side to navigate that at times once they just got used to sort of managing trump. what you have now is in a sense, the same kind of republican party structure writ large that had existed pre-trump. it just exists for trump, and so whether they want to push trump in a particular direction, we've seep that with elon musk over the last 24 to 48 hours, or

whether they want to support trump, you're going to have multiple groups, multiple influencers, media figures, not just fox news that are there to really pressure republican lawmakers and support the president-elect, whether we're talking about his nominees for senate confirmed positions or his legislation, and that's one of the things that will be put into action in the days ahead. i just want to say one thing though about this conundrum that donald trump has forced on the party. democrats here have a voice because of the senate, appropriations bills and debt ceiling legislation requires 60 votes and whether you do it now or you do it after trump takes office, it's going to require democratic votes, and the republicans look like they're making some of the same mistakes both democrats and republicans have made before them, which is trying to govern like they have large majorities when they have slim majorities, trying to govern like they have broad mandates when they have very

narrow mandates, and they have not figured that box out yet. this new republican establishment may be able to get republicans to stay ied behind trump, and i really think they'll be able to do a decent job of that, at least over the next year and a half, but one thing that they're not going to be able to pressure, one part of the government they won't be able to manage, are democrats who answer to their own voters and have their own interests, and unless you get rid of the filibuster which is not going to happen over the next two years, they're going to find themselves in a box within the democratic votes. they'll have to trade in order to get things they want from democrats, and that is not going to change. >> well, let's bring in one of those democrats right now. senate majority whip, dick durbin of illinois. he is also chairman of the judiciary committee. senator, thank you so much for joining us this morning. let's start right there. your analysis on what we have seen in a head-spinning 24 hours there on capitol hill. the deal falling apart.

a government shutdown looms, and donald trump and elon musk's help making a lot of demands of fellow republicans. >> well, we have a bipartisan compromise. we've worked it out and it includes some elements that go beyond a simple continuing resolution. for example, disaster assistance. you've gone through some of the specifics already. there have been natural disasters. there have been terrible disasters like the baltimore bridge, for instance, scott key bridge that came down in an accident that interrupted the commerce on the east coast. we want to solve those problems, and the republicans have asked us, and many of us have joined in on an effort to help rural america, emergency assistance there. so it's a bipartisan compromise. we should move forward and vote on it. >> senator, the introduction of a christmas tree bill at this late stage of the session is not unusual. it's happened many, many times before. you've dealt with it effectively and efficiently despite the horrendous add-ons to some of these bills, but this time it's different. this time you've got trump and musk or musk and trump depending

on who you think has priority, inserting themselves into the issue, delaying the issue, and perhaps putting people out of work and having the government shut down, and this might be, and i want to know your view of this, a preview of coming attractions legislatively. chaotic legislatively. what do you think. >> well, it does concern me that we have these two individuals who are not elected at all dictating what the terms of a federal budget is going to be, what the compromise will be, and obviously they don't have a very good memory. let's look at one specific. elon musk, he's a very talented businessman. i have met him several times. i'm impressed by him, but he seems to have forgotten there was a moment where tesla faced bankruptcy. his company was about to go under on the ash heap of business history, and who saved him? he turned to president obama and

asked for a $600 billion government loan to save tesla, which he received. so there was a time when he believed that the federal government was the only place he could turn to save his company and now he's selling this, you know, let's be rugged individualists. he has a very limited memory when it comes to his actual experience. >> senator, sam stein here. look. you sit on judiciary. we've seen already threats by donald trump and some of his allies to prosecute and potentially jail members who served on the january 6th committee. as the nomination of kash patel for fbi director comes before you, as you see these threats happening, two questions. one, what are you going to do about them, and two, would you advise president biden to issue pre-emptive pardons for people like liz cheney who are clearly under threat from the incoming administration? >> no, i don't support the pre-emptive pardons. adam schiff who has now joined us in the senate and judiciary

committee said that's unnecessary. i agree with him. let's be honest about this. we want to go through the process and do it in an orderly way. first, an fbi investigation of kash patel, and attorney general in detail, we want to go through the thousands of pages of background, and then bring them before the committee for a public hearing. ask basic questions. do we want to create a law enforcement official at the highest possible level, kash patel, for the fbi post? he comes to it with a prejudice and a determination, and agenda, a political agenda that he wants to execute. these are legitimate questions of any nominee of either political party, and we're going to ask them because we have the constitutional responsibility to do so. >> senator durbin, trump has railed against the work the senate is still doing to confirm federal judges nominated by president bidens but work continues to pace. talk to us about what will happen in the coming days here in an important milestone achieved.

>> well, we have two more judges to consider who are on the calendar, and we may bring them up for a vote as early as today. if they are successful, and i believe they will be, we'll have approved 235 federal judges under the biden administration. that's a record number, and i'm especially proud of the fact that over 85% of these judge nominees were a bipartisan vote, republicans and democrats came together to support. them. that's a good thing. >> dick durbin of illinois. thank you for joining us this morning. >> thank you. and david drucker, let's go back to you here. i mean, a few moments ago, you smartly warned about the dangers of overreach, misinterpreting the election win as a landslide, thinking there's more of a mandate than one has. republicans are playing with fire right now and donald trump can protest and say, if the government shuts down, it will happen under joe biden's watch. but i think there will be a political price to be paid for

the republicans who are the ones who are potentially held responsible. talk to us as to whether you think the government is going to shut down tonight, and what happens next, or tomorrow night. >> yeah. well, your guess is as good as mine in this case. i mean, sometimes trump blusters and then he backs down when he is confronted with the realities of governing and congress. the thing about shutdowns is that the public usually almost always does not see them as a legitimate tool of political combat, and so they may favor spending cuts. they may favor spending increases. they don't feel like shutting down the government is a way that you're supposed to leverage that and the party that is held responsible for the shutdown usually suffers, right? we saw in president trump's first term, there was a point during that tenure where senate democrats were held responsible for a government shutdown, and they paid the price for it. they eventually backed down, and we saw at other times president

trump held responsible for a shutdown. he eventually backed down, and so i think part of this would be how the public interpreted who was to blame for this. ultimately, i think what republicans have to figure out, if they care to figure it out, and it's harder now because you're not just dealing with let's say the pressure of let's say conservative media or conservative influencers or even wayward members of congress who just, you know, are usually rekals trin in matters like these, have you're dealing with musk and his megaphone, and the fact this he is so attached at the hip to the president-elect and there's that extra voice there to work through, but the question is, how they ultimately decide they want to deal with the fact that they still need democratic votes to get things through the senate when it comes to government funding and a debt ceiling whenever it is they want to get it done. there's a lot that they're going

to be able to do through that reconciliation process where you skirt the filibuster and therefore do not need democratic votes in the senate. assuming you can get through a house with a republican majority of less than a handful of seats, less than a handful of seats and for the time being, one or two seats maybe at best, you're still going to need at least seven democratic votes in the senate if all republicans hold together, at least, and then -- and so you're going to have to figure out how you want to do that, and i don't think what we've seen from today that the president-elect has come to the table with a sort of fresh idea of how to -- of how to do that, and i think that's what -- what's going to make things sort of interesting as we move ahead. >> interesting to say the least. senior writer for "the dispatch," david drucker. thank you so much for joining us this morning. let's take a look now at some of the other stories making headlines. the billionaire owner of the

"los angeles times" has reportedly asked the paper's editorial board to, quote, take a break from writing about president-elect donald trump. he was asked editors to send him the text of my editorial and the name of its writer before publishing. he had earlier barred an editorial critical of trump's cabinet picks and previously had blocked the board from endorsing kamala harris for president. mike, let's get your take on this. i mean, you and i both worked at daily newspapers. you of course, have a wealth of experience and newspapers in thinking about their role, the media's role in a democracy. an owner, you know, owners sometimes have sway and influence over a paper's publications, but this seems like a remarkable step, and to tell the editorial pages do not use donald trump's name, where are we? >> you know, traditionally as you know, jonathan, there's a separation between church and

state, separation kind of between the editorial product, the editorial pages and the nunes pages, but it's still one unit, and publishers, the owners of the newspapers have always respected that. in this case, what the doctor is doing, and he's a billionaire medical doctor, owner of the paper, he is just crushing the morale of everyone working at the "los angeles times," just crushing it, basically inflicting himself and his own political views on the editorial product and going beyond that by saying, no. i want the names of opposition writers and we want to balance that by maybe a friend of his writing something to balance off what's on the op-ed page. it's a crushing defeat for american journalism. >> one of many. turn back to the headlines. officials nnounced yesterday that murder hornets -- remember them? they've now been eradicated from the united states. five years after the invasive species was first identified in washington state.

the multi-year effort to eradicate the northern giant hornet involved extensive collaboration between multiple state, federal, and international agencies. the world's largest hornet was dubbed the murder hornet for its dangerous sting that could penetrate a beekeeping suit as well as the ability to kill an entire honey beehive in just 90 minutes, but take that, murder hornets. we win this round. and you can use chatgpt by giving it a ring on the phone. openai announced yesterday that users in the united states can now call 1-800-chatgpt, and talk to its viral chat bot. callers can ask chatgpt anything they would normally ask the a.i. assistant and have a live, interactive conversation. the company said callers will get 15 minutes free per month for now. users outside the united states can send messages to the same number for free using whatsapp.

you can call chatgpt on the phone. what could possibly go wrong? >> so much in life has just gone right by my e. it's incredible. what were you saying in my ear? >> see? life just went by mike right now as he was supposed to go to sam stein. sam, i'm calling you -- go ahead. chat it up. >> i was wondering, is it too late to bring the murder hornet back? can we get it back online? or no? sick the murder hornet on these. everyone, stay right here. we'll take a quick break, and coming up, the federal reserve cut interest rates yesterday with fed chair jerome powell saying the economy is in a really good place, but he also sounded a cautionary note about additional cuts next year. we're bringing those details. plus, amazon workers at several facilities walked off the job this morning during the height of the holiday rush. >> yikes. >> mike, i hope you got your shopping done early. cnbc's dom chu and nbc's

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what i would say today was a closer call, but we decided it was the right call because we thought it was the best decision to foster achievement of both of our goals, maximum employment and price stability. we see the risks as two-sided, moving too slowly, and needlessly undermine economic activity in the bor market or move too quickly, and needlessly undermine our progress on infla igs. we're trying to steer between those risks. it's common sense thinking that when the path is uncertains , y go little bit slower. you just slow down. >> that was fed chair jerome powell yesterday after the federal reserve announced it cut interest rates by an additional quarter point. the move sent the stock market plunging. we'll get into why, but things are looking up so far today. let's now bring in cnbc's dom

chu and nbc news senior business correspondent, christine romans. dom, we'll start with you. that quarter-point cut, widely expected, but it was what else jerome powell had to say that seemed to rattle the markets. >> yeah. i mean, jonathan, it was the idea of a hawkish pause, right? and that's what kind of sent a little bit of that ripple effect through the marketplace. a huge down day for the markets overall mostly because many of the investors on wall street who have been pushing stocks up to these near record-high levels at this point have been doing so with the idea or the thinking that the fed would continue on a path of lowering interest rates next year. now the fed, to be fair, still said that they are on a path to lower interest rates, just not by as much as previously thought. because of this notion that inflation is till still a probl and by the way, inflation is still a problem not just from the straight numbers standpoint, but americans feel as though

it's still a problem, and when you have that kind of a sentiment situation where people still fear that inflation is going to be bad, they start to change their behavior in different ways. that's going to be something to watch as well. but also, this idea that wall street tends to move dramatically sometimes with regard to expectations. they tilt very much one way or the other. in this case here, there was this kind of evidence in the interest rate markets that people were expecting anywhere from three to four interest rate cuts so this is a recalibration, and markets are slightly bid to start the day ight now. it's trying to figure out, jonathan, trying to figure out what the assumptions are going to be, where interest rates and then by extension, how the economy does. >> so christine, the fed chair sounding some notes of caution. >> yeah. >> with some pretty evocative imagery about walking into a darkroom and walking into furniture which we've all done. he's doing so even before, i believe, factoring in the economic policies that donald trump may bring to the table. >> yeah. >> including tariffs which would

only send inflation higher. >> and the fed chief privately and publicly always says they react to what happens in washington. they don't tell elected lawmakers what to do. they just react once they do it. he said yesterday over and over again, how robust the job market is, how strong the american economy is, how remarkable the american economy is, and just this morning, we saw gdp revised to 3.1%. that's really good. so the fed usually cuts rates when it's trying to goose an economy. this is an economy that doesn't look like it needs to be goosed. one of the reasons, so it's like wall street is having a freakout because the economy is too good, essentially, to be trying to nudge it and support it here, so it's a really interesting moment where he has to walk this walk heading into the uncertainty of a new administration with a lot of very, very big campaign plans that many economists say would be inflationary. >> trump suggested he wants more say over the fed. he said, no, sir. that's not how this works.

let's get to another headline. nearly 9,000 amazon workers are on strike this morning. threatening to delay deliveries during this busy pre-christmas season. nbc news correspondent priya priya srithar has the details. >> reporter: this morning, a holiday headache that could derail shoppers days before christmas. the union announcing some workers at amazon facilities and delivery drivers will begin striking. >> we want reasonable benefits and we want sick pay without being fired. >> vacation time, better safety. >> reporter: the teamsters city workers will join picket lines in new york city, atlanta, california, and illinois. and that others are prepared to join them. the group's president writing, if your package is delayed during the holidays, you can blame amazon's insatiable greed. the teamsters say nearly 10,000 delivery drivers and workers at

amazon facilities have joined the union. amazon employs 1.5 million in its warehouses and corporate offices. it's striking over pay and working conditions. >> the pain we have packing 300 to 400 packages a day. >> it's just horrible. >> reporter: while amazon says the teamsters, quote, intentionally mislead the public saying in a statement early they are week, disputing that the union represents thousands of employees and drivers and saying it attempted to coerce amazon employees and third-party drivers to join them. amazon also says it doesn't expect an impact on its operations, but labor experts say the timing of strikes is strategic. >> you want to make sure that the customer desperately wants to get their packages. that puts more pressure on the company to go to the bargaining table and get results. >> reporter: the strike leaving shoppers wondering about their deliveries during the peak of the holiday crush. >> okay. christine, the timing. >> yep. >> timing is everything.

it's so predictable. >> it is. >> my question to you in addition to the predictability of this is, wall street either reacts of overreacts depending on your view to everything. every little wrinkle in the economy. this is the potential to have a wrinkle in the economy. what do the scaredy-cats on wall street, how would they look at this? >> they look at these few locations at a very small part of a very, very big amazon distribution network, and amazon itself has been downplaying whether anything will really even be delayed because they build their centers close to where people are buying stuff, so they're really kind of downplaying it, but it's an eye toward the recent successes that unions have had in this country. >> yeah. >> and i think it's why the timing is now when you've got people who are really focused on shopping and shipping and you see these on tv, of now more than one or two, and several locations where contractors who are contracted to these amazon facilities are on strike. >> and dom, certainly timing is everything. final word on the strike to you?

>> sure. the strike is an interesting salvo right now, right? because what you have is to christine's point, unions have over the course of the last 12 to 24 months, secured many market pay increases and the teamsters in particular with regard to their efforts at ups and elsewhere. so yes, the timing is going to be key, but also whether or not this is going to have a market effect on the economy, that remains to be seen. the question becomes how long the strike actually really lasts and then by the way, the way that consumers have set up going into this particular holiday season, consumers still continue to spend, but many of them have spent well in advance of this kind of holiday rush. so yes, there will be a last-minute push to try to get gifts there, and they may run into wrinkles with regard to shipping delays and delivery delays, but for many consumers, much of that spend has been done heading into this, because we've earlied up the sales for this season. not just by amazon, but their competitors as well. so when it comes to whether or not this is going to have a market effect on amazon in its

operations and the christmas shopping season, i mean, the stock of amazon right now still hovering near record highs probably begs to differ just a bit, guys. >> cnbc's dom chu, and nbc's christine romans. our thanks to you both. >> coming up here, the great tyler perry joins the table with a look at his new film about the only women's army corps unit of color to serve in world war ii. that conversation next on "morning joe." ion next on "morning joe." on medicare? living with diabetes? progress is having your coffee like you like it without an audience. ♪♪ [silence] the freestyle libre 3 plus sensor can help lower your a1c over time. covered by medicare for more people managing diabetes with insulin. ♪♪ this is progress. ask your doctor about the freestyle libre 3 plus sensor.

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soldiers, i am captain charity adams. welcome to the women's army corps. >> don't move. my wife and i have been talking about the problems we are having

with the male and our soldiers' morale. >> mr. president, this assignment has proven to be a logistical nightmare. even the women's army corps. >> you mean, the white women's army corps. >> well, is there another? >> that's a look at the new netflix movie "the six triple eight" written and directed by tyler perry and starring kerry washington. the film tells the true story of the u.s. army's central postal directory battalion of the same name which was the only army unit corps for women of color to serve overseas during world war ii. it was given the nearly impossible task of sending out millions of undelivered pieces of mail to service members and their families around the world in less than six months, and the movie's writer, director, tyler perry joins us now. he serves as a producer on the film of course, as well.

you do it all. welcome to "morning joe." welcome back to "morning joe." >> welcome back. my first time in studio. >> it's first time in studio? >> yeah. >> elise has been talking about it all morning, and you talk about delivering mail. there might be a lot of young people watching this that don't understand, especially when you're on the front lines, to get that piece of mail. that's all that you've got. >> yeah. >> to get through the next battle. that connection with home. talk about that, and talk about how these incredible women actually did so much to help the morale of soldiers during world war ii. >> i think that was part of the challenge when i first called kerry washington and i said, i want you to consider this role. she said, how do you do a movie about the mail? for my modern times, what we think about, is we got email and text. the mail was the only way and there was no way for families to find out if their loved ones were safe on the battlefield or what was going on at home for months because after the battle

of the bulge, all of the mail stopped because they needed all the vehicles to bring supplies to the front line. this bag lock of mail was sitting in these hangars, molded, milmildewed. couldn't understand the names on them, and rats and row dents were eating through it. 17 million pieces of mail had backed up. the soldiers' morale was at an all-time low and they tried other battalions to put it on it and they decided, send these black women over it. we'll give them six months and they did it, and they found all this ingenuity, these incredible ways to do it, and they did it in 90 days and blew everybody away. >> wow. so black women who joined the women's army corps were treated terribly, frankly. >> yeah. >> and they were segregated and they were given horrible jobs, and they weren't allowed to go overseas, but these women were the trail blazers and the stars, and they went over and they basically showed that women -- that black women could be equal

to any man in the entire u.s. military. what attracted you at first to telling the story? >> nicole sent me this reel that peter gruber had done, and i thought, this can't be true. there could not have been 855 black women in world war ii in europe and nobody knew it. i found out why they were so secretive about it. there were a couple of living members and i met with two of them. one was in las vegas, and she was 99 years old and i'm thinking, what is this going to be like? what's her memory going to be like? i'm waiting for this 99-year-old woman to bring her in. she walks down the stairs and says, hello, mr. perry. i'm lena. i was blown away. 99, her recall was so sharp. she told me all these incredible stories bucks the stories, but she told me about a young jewish boy she liked named abram, and he was killed, and after 80 years she had emotion from that moment. that was the person i followed throughout the film.

>> tyler, talk about how important it is for people to understand a lot of this history, and that you, your whole career -- i've known you since you were doing plays at the beacon theater here in new york, and you've always been part of trying to tell the story and support things if they're right. >> yeah. >> joe talks like he's in another world about visiting and seeing what you've done in terms of billing your studios down in georgia. >> it's incredible. >> it used to be a confederate army base and you tell -- you supported us in national action network and you support a lot of civil rights groups up. say get me in things that tell the story. why was this so important to you personally? >> of a meeting with lena and meeting with a couple of of the -- one other one, a woman who was a survivor, i was blown away. why didn't anybody know? what happened was they had done such a great job that they were ashamed of it because when they came home, there was such a stigma for black women being in the military because they were told by even black press was

printing they were only there to be concubines for black soldiers. they did not want them dating white men. their children didn't know they served and a lot of them held these stories quietly and privately. so there was this shame about it. here is a chance to set the record straight, and show what they did and how incredible it was so it can bring honor to them and what they had done. >> what they went through. >> let's take a look at a clip where major charity adams played by kerry washington and members of her battalion make a breakthrough. >> i know where the soldiers are. >> yes, but understand you're not supposed to be looking this close. that's why captain came here and the officers are redacting them. we can't have this get into enemy hands. >> the symbol is drawn on it.

the letter is from a few weeks ago, and in this letter, it mentions the indian. >> these hand drawn clues are how the soldiers are secretly letting their families know what part of the world they're in. >> each one of the divisions of our soldiers has 16,000 men in it. you just located 48,000 of them. >> bumps. that's great stuff. kerry washington, and also an up and comer named oprah. >> she's pretty good. >> she's got a future if she sticks with it. >> she needed help. i said, yeah. i'll put you in the movie. >> and kerry too. >> she's phenomenal. you see nothing of olivia pope, the iconic person she's playing. she was 26 years old at the

time, commanding all 855 women and she does a fantastic job with it. >> this is fantastic. the new movie "the six triple eight" is in select theaters now and will be available to stream on netnetflix. tyler perry, thank you so much. it's great to have you in studio. >> thank you. we'll be right back with much more "morning joe." > we'llh much more "morning joe." do your dry eyes still feel gritty, rough, or tired? with miebo, eyes can feel ♪ miebo ohh yeah ♪ miebo is the only prescription dry eye drop that forms a protective layer for the number one cause of dry eye: too much tear evaporation. for relief that's ♪ miebo ohh yeah ♪ remove contact lenses before using miebo. wait at least 30 minutes before putting them back in. eye redness and blurred vision may occur. what does treating dry eye differently feel like? ♪ miebo ohh yeah ♪ for relief that feels ♪ miebo ohh yeah ♪

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welcome back. we've got a couple of developing stories to close out our show this morning. luigi mangione, the suspect in the murder of insurance ceo brian thompson, is in a pennsylvania courtroom this very morning. new york city law enforcement is looking to potentially extradite the 26-year-old to manhattan in order to stand trial. joining us now, state attorney for palm beach county, florida, dave aaronberg. we always appreciate your legal analysis here. there have been some suggestions

earlier, soon after his arrest, that mangione would fight extradition to new york city. that may be not the case any longer. how do you see this playing out? >> jonathan, he got a new lawyer, and the new lawyer, karen friedman said that he's going to go back to new york and he'll fight it there. the extradition fighting was always a losing battle. that was stalling the inevitable. there's no grounds to contest extradition. he'll go to rykers, and they'll push for more serious charges. the most serious being murder. first degree murder and second-degree murder, and expect the u.s. attorney's office to file some charges against him. so you're going to have two separate sovereigns, the federal and the state, in courthouses across the street from each other. it will be an interesting spectacle to watch especially as this guy gets support from young people in this country which is very disappoint. . this guy is no hero.

he hid, used a mask, wore a mask. he shot the guy from behind and then he fled. not a courageous act at all. >> mangione may be back in new york as early as later today. david, we want to get your take here on some breaking news. atlanta journal constitution reporter, our friend, posted just moments ago, this. the georgia court of appeals has just ruled that fulton county district attorney fani willis is disqualified from the election interference case against trump and his codefendants. the court says though, it will not take the extreme sanction of tossing out the entire indictment. so it looks like the case, messy sprawling, but it has the potential to proceed, but the d.a., dave, won't be involved. give us your thoughts. >> this is pretty shocking news because i thought the appellate court was defer to the trial court judge. they said either fani willis goes or nathan wade, the special prosecutor goes. fani willis threw nathan wade

overboard, and the case went on. they're saying, no, no, no. this is tainted by the conflict of interest here. you should never have hired a person you're romantically involved with and there's the perspective of perhaps lying under oath. they said you're both going to be disqualified and now it goes to a new prosecutor. there's a process where a new prosecutor will be appointed, but that has perils in it as well because that new prosecutor may not have the zeal on this case as fani willis. this is a fani willis case. i could that this case could be dropped by the new prosecutor once they get their eyes on. >> it if the case is not dropped and does proceed, it is a state case. trump couldn't make it go away. we shall be watching for that. dave aronberg, thank you as always. and that does it for us this morning. thank you for watching. we'll see you here tomorrow morning. ana cabrera picks up the coverage live in two minutes. ana cabrera picks up the coverage live in two minutes look at this craftmanship. i mean they even got my nostrils right.

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