oh, it did. it does to this day. well, now it's over. what are you going to do? i don't know. a new life is opening up to you, and i don't-- i don't know. i don't have any answers. i just have to get over this. and that's all for this edition of "dateline." i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching. [theme music] good morning, and welcome to this saturday edition of morning joe weekend.

it has been a busy week. let's get right to the conversations you might have missed. we are not even in the new administration and haven't even seen the background checks which the administration is sending our way. there is a lot of information that needs to be gathered and these folks that are making primary challenges, they don't seem like thoughtful members of the republican party. a lot of this are third parties making money from the fundraising campaigns to put ads in there but doubled digit percentages are going into their pockets. if they really support president trump's nominees, they should stand down and let the nominees win on their own merit. members are not really swayed by these. if anything, they can create a structural problem for future nominees if they overreach.

kash patel, who i am working with will enjoy a solid republican support coming out of the committee. i think pete hegseth will have to go to the committee and answer some questions about organizational experience. some of his past marriages, those sorts of things. all of that is fair game when you're running for a cabinet session. >> there is a lot to talk about. we are going to put to the side for one minute that kash patel will get "solid republican support. close support with an enemies list of over 60 people and the promise of throwing members of the media into jail. but these days we leave that here for a minute. we will come back to it. political report, i read yesterday about how some republican senators are not really pleased with this

pressure campaign. when you start looking at the math and see that lisa murkowski cannot be threatened, she already lost one and she said, screw you guys, i'm going home. then you have mitch mcconnell who again, is lame duck. which brings up the most important point here. donald trump is in the second and last term, what do they always say about a united states senator when he or she looks in the mirror? >> the next president. i am not being glib e, someone is thinking, am i going to be strapped with pete hegseth, who is really bad with our military. will i be strapped with kash patel when he arrests liz cheney and it blows up in

everybody's face and it ends up making liz cheney the next president of the united states? am i going to be strapped with rfk and having to run around explaining why i supported a guy who is against the polio vaccine. there are so many things, when you think that there is some stupid outside group where you can run over senators that have served six year terms. if you are dave mccormick in pennsylvania and you won this year, you are to run for pennsylvania -- president in 40 years. are you going to surround yourself by a bunch of looney tunes. things like this, we all know, talk about what you've heard and talk about what thom tillis

is saying, that these pressure campaigns will end up actually blowing up in their own faces. >> he is returning one brush back with another. in baseball terms. he is sending a message to the group that this is not effective. that actually you could anger folks who otherwise would be winnable votes and is trying to make the case that he, who, by the way is up in 2026, will not respond to this kind of pressure campaigns. i put he and bill cassidy in the same bucket. those who have been trumpet skeptical or more in the past, they will probably face a primary on their right. but you make an important point, there is a whole other crew of senators, who are not up or like mitch mcconnell, will never base of voters again. >> what is your read as to

whether a pressure campaign like this would work or backfire? simply your sense of the state of play with some of trump's more controversial selections. >> it takes four. remember that. if lisa murkowski, i think joe's analysis is spot on. they tried before to take her out. susan collins can't win in may, even if she were to run again. mitch mcconnell is not running again. so for the controversial nominees, you just need one more. they can spread it around. it could be thom tillis on tulsi gabbard. these hearings will be important. it will set a more strong

narrative for the american people about the shortcomings of these nominees. and by the way, i would be curious about what jay thinks, but i don't think it is curious that tulsi gabbard is running again. you know, you've got players, and then there are others. joni ernst may have unfolded on hegseth, but there are other people that may not. we don't know. >> she backed off and said, i'm going to let this go through the process, but as you and i both know, you can say stuff like that to buy some political space and hope that gravity stops you from having to take the vote that you will end up taking at the end. >> correct. and by the way, furiously behind the scenes, republican

senators are working to try to convince trump that some of these people, but they are hitting a brick wall. trump does not ever believe in saying that he ever made a mistake. >> two other names i would give you. one, john cornyn, who ran against john thune last month. facing a tough primary against ken paxton. there was an effort to give him the gavel as a consolation prize for losing the leader race. so, he was denied the consolation prize. after losing for leader of the party. i raisel that because he may not run again in 2026. he would be a free agent. lastly, todd, from indiana,

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welcome back. let's pick up with the conversation we were having before the break. >> the thing that we've learned about donald trump is that he floods the zone. now what we've tried to do is take it one at a time, right? we talked about matt gaetz, we are talking about pete hegseth, robert kennedy jr. is next. you go one at a time instead of going all over the place.

we also talked about kash patel. but there is so much out there. you just her john cornyn say and the new york times wrote an article saying, republicans are really concerned about where the fbi has been going so they are good with kash patel. just as a matter of course, a guy who said, here is my enemies list. a guy who has said, to the camera, let's run it if you've got it, we are going to arrest journalists. we don't know if we can get them civilly or criminally, but however we can get journalists, we are going to get journalists. that, we talked about donald trump and markets. things like that, like a lot of london firms go, i think we are not leaving london after all. i'm sorry, there is just no

other word for it. there is some bad trainee going down. i want to repeat it over and over again. i was in london this weekend. i heard it in multiple reports on thursday from some top business leaders of the world. they are really worried. the stock market is inflated. it is at record highs. the u.s. economy, the numbers are going great regardless of what republican said on the campaign trail. everybody understands, this could change overnight. interest rates, last night, they are going to slow down on interest rates because they believe donald trump's policies are to inflationary. we could be looking back a year from now and people may be going, oh, wow, the biden economy looked pretty good.

if you don't keep your head down and you make one reckless choice after another. let's start with a guy who is responsible for what allows investment to come here. the rule of law. and a guy who has already promised that he is going to start jailing people. >> that's absolutely right. this is the thing, something that probably should have been emphasized more over the past year. the immigration "problem" that we have is because people want to come here. people want to come here because it is safe and secure and because the economy is healthy because of the rule of law. if you start threatening that you are running the risk of human and financial capital flight. that is a huge danger. we talk about flying the zone. none of these picks we've been talking about , they should have all been nonstarters.

instead we are talking about, can they pick off one senator to add three and rotate and take turns to shoot one or more of them down. it is dicey. >> let's be straight for republicans saying that they are against it but that is not the case. we have people that say the treasury pick, really good, i have been very critical of marco rubio in the past but when he was picked for secretary of state, i said, cool, i am good with that. there are a lot of people donald trump has selected that democrats and members of the media go, okay, that is within the guardrails. but their are four or five that are absolute disasters for america and the incoming administration. >> these are the kinds of

people that there will be consequences. rfk jr., for president trump and kash patel, is it really going to look good when they start trying to actually persecute people? are they really going to be able to do some of these things in a manner that is not going to drag the administration and economy down? >> one thing that i'm wondering, trump will be so aggressive with executive orders immediately. how much will he be able to do, you are a constitutional lawyer, of the get go? >> he is already talking about doing things he doesn't have the power to do. the voa director, i did not know that was a direct presidential appointment. it takes 10 seconds in the stature to see that he does not have direct control over it. he may get what he wants

anyway. it does not exist. and to the extent it is ever made to exist, it has to comply with various statutory provisions. maybe they have a plan for doing that. and the thing is, one of the things that we know about donald trump is that he shops around for advice. he goes from lawyer to lawyer to say, can i do this, i want to do this? one lawyer will say no, those people are gone. so he is going to be trying to do things that he may end up losing. house minority leader hakeem jeffries will join the conversation to discuss how house democrats plan to move forward with the republican congress and gop president.

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let's bring in democratic congressman hakeem jeffries of new york. great to have you on. >> thank you for being with us. i will say, this sounds all too familiar from when i was there. republicans will get angry when their speaker has to deal with democrats. but effectively, despite all of the sound and fury there will be a one-vote margin next year. democrats and republicans will have to work together or nothing will get done. >> that is the reality of the situation, that's what the republicans will confront. notwithstanding all of the height about some massive mandate. the house of representatives is

effectively tied. it is an evenly divided house of representatives that will get even narrower in the next congress. what the american people want us to do is work together to solve problems for hard-working tax payers and make their life better. also be there for them when the federal government has to step in in the context of disaster assistance, as an example. and be there for the people of florida, georgia or north carolina, who as a result of stream whether events have had their lives upended. >> what are some issues that you see that are possible for democrats and republicans to work together on? do you think you can get a deal, for instance, on immigration? >> i think we have a broken immigration system and we have to try to fix it in a bipartisan and comprehensive

manner. there was a bipartisan agreement on the table that was a strongly conservative leaning border security bill as it relates to making sure we address the situation, particularly on the southern border. the republicans rejected that at the direction of donald trump . because, at least while joe biden has been president, many republicans don't want to solve the border security challenge, they want to weaponized it. hopefully we can come together and deal with that issue in the next congress. >> what would a deal like that look like? you had donald trump talking about possibly a fix for dreamers when he was interviewed on meet the press. is there a possibility of a really tough border bill that may be limits the deportations to hardened criminals but also has a part inside of the bill that helps dreamers get a

pathway to citizenship? >> i certainly think we have to make sure that there is a robust pathway towards citizenship for dreamers. people who have been in the country throughout their entire lives with the exception of perhaps the first few years after birth. they have contributed to communities in so many different ways. and there is bipartisan support for dealing with the dreamers in a compassionate and common sense session. we also have to make sure we modernize the immigration system as it relates to farmworkers who are a critical part of the ecosystem in our country. we need to make sure we meet the food and nutritional needs of the people. and we certainly have to fix the asylum system, which is broken. and make sure, to the extent that there are going to be deportations, we prioritize

violent felons, not breaking up families that include american citizens or legal permanent residents. >> as i know, you are probably hearing from people in your district, democrats me be concerned about what is coming under the new trump administration because donald trump has the white house and we try to remind people that in the house it is a one-vote majority right now. it does not mean that trump will not have a lot of power to do things that are offensive to people. but what you say to voters who are in some ways panicked about what the next two years are like if you are able to take back the house? >> as democrats we will work hard to make sure to find bipartisan common ground to get things done for the american people. do that with the incoming administration as best we can

while at the same time we ensure that we protect the things that matter. social security, medicare, medicaid, the affordable care act, protecting the progress we made in terms of climate crisis and protecting a woman's freedom to make her own reproductive decisions. when donald trump became president the last time around and took office in january of 2017, his margin in the house of representatives was 241 republicans and only 194 democrats. it will be an evenly divided house of representatives and it will be in strong position to stop those things from happening. with those margins he still could not repeal the affordable care act and we now find ourselves in a strengthened position ahead of the 2026 midterms. >> a lot of women are in a difficult position in terms of

lifesaving abortion healthcare now. and i'm curious if there is any room that you believe there is to work with on this issue? i am hearing that there might be. it might not be what we want but what in the next congress right be done to at least lift some of these bands and have a more palatable situation for women who need life-saving abortion healthcare. >> we were very clear as house democrats that there should be no partisan right wing changes undermining the ability of military families to secure reproductive healthcare. in the continuing resolution before the congress this week we also have insured that there were no efforts to further erode a woman's freedom to make her own reproductive healthcare decision.

so we will hold the line at the federal level and hold the incoming president to his promise that there will be no international abortion ban. >> let me ask you a question, you and i have known each other for a long time. you have had the ability to try to represent in a passionate way but also reach out and try to work towards solutions. is it the challenge that you have an speaker johnson had, to be able to deliver for, with your constituents nationally but at the same time not let extremists on either side of the aisle sort of dictate the conversation and dictate what is going on in terms of the public debate, with a president who prays to the cameras. how do you and johnson balance out what you may be able to get

through legislatively when you have donald trump who might be up at 3:00 in the morning torpedoing all that you are trying to achieve? >> it is great to be with you. i think the american people want congress to exercise common sense, to find common ground and deliver for the common good. and just make lives better for hard-working american taxpayers. if we center our activity with that focus in mind then we should be able to get things done. we are prepared to work with the incoming administration whenever possible in order to deliver real results. >> i want to ask you about doge, the effort to cut significantly government spending. they have identified trillions of dollars. what can you, the democrats in them very small minority try to

do to stop them? >> under the leadership of former speaker nancy pelosi, when she was leader, in the aftermath of the re-election of george w. bush, republicans try to privatize social security and it sparked an uproar all across the country. they were in the minority at the time. public sentiment is on the side of making sure that the earned benefit program of social security and medicare, which are not entitlements, they are earned benefits, remain intact so everyday americans can retire with the grace and dignity that they deserve. that is a fight we will embrace. they should not be focused on massive tax cuts for the wealthy, well-off and well- connected. we should all be focused on making life better for working- class americans. that includes protecting and

strengthening social security. under john larson i am confident that is something we can do. partnering with richard neal as part of the committee. how the richest person on the planet is pushing to cut programs for some of the poorest people of america. we will unpack elon musk's pan -- plan for slashing spending. or stroke , in adults with known heart disease and obesity. don't use wegovy® with semaglutide or glp-1 medicines, or in children under 12. don't take if you or your family had mtc, men 2, or if allergic to it. tell your provider if you plan to have surgery or a procedure, are breastfeeding, pregnant, or plan to be. stop taking and get medical help right away if you get a lump or swelling in your neck, severe stomach pain, or any of these allergic reactions.

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the incoming trump administration is said to include the wealthiest roster of appointees in the country's history. according to axios, trump has named 13 individuals who are each reported to have networks of more than $1 billion. that list led by tesla and spacex ceo elon musk. the richest man in the world is heading up the department of government efficiency commission alongside fellow billionaire vivek ramaswamy. joining us now, robert price, he has written extensively on his sub stack about a potential consequences of trumps wealthy selections. also, the co-anchor of squad box, good to have you all. >> thank you for being with us. mr. secretary, greatly appreciate you being on the

show. we have wanted to talk to you about this for some time. the further we get into the nominations, the more we see that this is looking more and more like an administration government for the billionaires and by the billionaires. what do you find to be the gravest threat of such an accumulation of wealth at the top of the united states government. >> i think the biggest problem with having so many millionaires at the top is that billionaires don't exactly know how normal people live. secondly, and perhaps more importantly, the way people get to the top of the trump administration is by providing a lot of money. elon musk the latest data that i've seen says he contributed something in the order of $277

million to getting trump elected. and he has made, since the trump election, in terms of his actual net worth, he has increased his net worth by $170 billion since the trump election. that is a pretty good return on investment. the reason that is such a high return on investment and a high return for many of the other billionaires in the trump administration is that they are no longer, and the markets assume that they are no longer going to have to be worried about as many regulations and lawsuits. they will have a tax cut, an extension of the trump tax cut. in other words they will have all the things they've wanted and bargained for when they put money into the trump campaign. that is the problem.

and as louis brandeis, the great jurist in america said, years ago, at the end of the last gilded age, he said, look, america has a choice, we can have great wealth in a few people or we can have a democracy but we can't have both. >> good to have you on. the report is that donald trump has won over working-class folks and is viewed as a working class hero to the extent that you can't be living in a castle on the beach. what is the implication of this for regular people, to have billionaires in power, calling the shots. we talked about the extension of that tax cut that expires about a year from now. what does it mean to regular working people to have billionaires running the government?

>> if the doge as it is called, the department of government efficiency, and it is not really a department, if it does as elon musk says it will, try to get $2 trillion cut from the federal budget. your definition of waste and efficiency in my definition of waste and efficiency may be different from somebody else's definition. the only way you can cut $2 trillion out of the federal budget is you cut where, you cut social security, medicare, medicaid. those are the big places where you go. there is no other place. or if you want to get rick -- rid of regulations. you try to get rid of health, safety and environmental regulations. those are the things that you as a billionaire are up against

in terms of business. but they may be extraordinarily important to the average working person in america because they protect that average working person. the same thing with labor law and monopolization. what you will do as a very influential legionnaire who is at the top of the trump administration, you will get rid of the antitrust laws, which means big monopolies will get bigger and bigger, prices will get higher and higher because of the market power of these big monopolies. and you, as somebody who might want to join a labor union will have less and less opportunity to join the labor union because regulations will be tight end and it will be harder because billionaires don't want labor unions. >> if you want to cut $2 trillion, you know the old saying, ask the banks, that is where the money is.

80% of the money here is social security, medicare, medicaid, defense spending and interest on the debt. you look at $2 trillion, they will not get there, first of all. but with what is remaining they will be slashing va benefits, slashing transportation, education, health, they will be slashing the very things americans look at as what the federal government does for them. you can't get there from here, it is just a reality. >> and that includes trumps orders, of course. this will be a very good way to do it. trump famously, himself in the first term after passing a tax cut and told his wealthy friends, i just made you all richer, it seems like those billionaires who supported him are getting richer, too. what is the reaction for the rest of this community?

>> i think the rest of this community is both excited in one way and scared in another. they are excited by some of the deregulatory policy. and they are praying and hoping that the tax policy is lowered, because what they are hoping to do is, they want to grow their own businesses, the question is, of course, will they have enough revenue to pay for all of this. up next, we will speak with the men who plays louis armstrong in a new musical. we will speak with him about portraying a musical icon. som, but what about the inherited ones? celebrate them with ancestrydna, the simple test that shows your deep family roots, from your mom's side

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♪♪ and i think to myself, what a wonderful world ♪ ♪ yes, i think to myself, what a wonderful world ♪ ♪ what a

wonderful world. oh yeah. >> wow. our next guest, channeling one of the icons of jazz music. in the louis armstrong musical. it combines some of the greatest hits with dazzling dance numbers and recounts armstrong's rise to become one of the most prolific musicians. joining us now, james monroe iglehart, who plays louis armstrong. he is also codirector of the show. james, good morning. that is the sound of louis armstrong. it is incredible. it is such a distinctive voice. what did you do to get that? >> i've never studied for anything more than i have for this part right here. i watched every clip and listened to every interview that i possibly could.

i listened to every piece of music i possibly could. he is so distinctive because he is a new orleans boy. so i had to get some things he said the way it was. >> such a specific voice, but also a difficult voice i would think as an actor. does it take a toll on you? >> it does. but i was very smart about it. broadway usually does each shows. but i do six shows and i have a standing, his name is james t. lane. i am a hermit when i am not doing the show. for this period of time i am just chilling. but when the cast goes out to have fun together, i love you, guys, i will see you tomorrow. >> you have cut down the number of shows and also had to do specific training to figure out

-- >> how to get there. >> so how did you get there? >> i was trying to find a place where i can sit, you know like when your voice is hoarse. and then you realize that the brother said things like first and hurt, and you vibe that moment and once you do that, i called a friend of mine who played beetlejuice on broadway for years and i said, how do you sustain that age-old weakness. and we got together so i could find a regimen and work on things so i can do it. >> here is james singing another louis armstrong classic.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ keep on smiling, the whole world smiles, the whole world smiles with you. ♪ ♪ >> so good. >> james, explain in this stark context of where louis armstrong fit, he was probably one of the first what we call crossover artists. why was he able to break even the color line because we are talking about pre-civil rights days when he became an authentic hero legend, why? >> he was the first popstar because he said things like,

music is music is music, a note is a note in any language and he let the music speak for him. people really enjoyed the music very today when we think of jazz we think of this cool, please for certain people. but jazz was dance music and everybody wanted to dance and he could play it, better than anyone else. he would say, a brother would pull up in his truck and he would have his horn and they would battle. so he brought this new style of music that grabbed the country and he had this personality to him and his energy and the way he played made people want to jump on the bandwagon. he was the first american popstar and nobody was expecting this dark-skinned brother with this big smile to be music's hero for america. >> people who know him casually

know what a wonderful world, they see his cheeks, but they don't really know his back story. what did you learn about him as you studied? >> one of the things i learned about louis armstrong is that he was one of the most realist brothers in the world. there is a certain style and persona that hollywood gave him and that is not who he is. that smiling guy is only a part. when you are an african- american artist, that is something you really understand. what the country wants you to be and who you truly are. people would say, if he was alive today, who would he be hanging with? i said, snoop dogg, for obvious reasons. there were certain things that he did in his life and he let people know. there were certain things he liked to partake in. he was a real brother and really cared about black

things. and i think holly would try to sugarcoat that and make him a certain way. but what you saw on screen, he never try to be anything other than he was. >> don't go anywhere. we have a second hour of morning joe weekend for you right after this break. known for pursuing your passions. no one wants to be known for cancer but a treatment can be. keytruda is known to treat cancer. fda-approved for 17 types of cancer, including certain early-stage and advanced cancers. one of those cancers is early-stage non—small cell lung cancer. keytruda may be used with certain chemotherapies before surgery when you have early-stage

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we are back with the second hour of morning joe weekend. we have more conversations we'd like to highlight for the past

week. >> we begin with president elect trumps warning to senate republicans opposed to some of his cabinet nominations. in a wide-ranging news conference, the president-elect was asked about lawmakers who don't support his picks. here is what he said. >> senators who oppose your nominees -- >> i will give you an answer you will be shocked to hear. if they are unreasonable, if they are opposing somebody for political reasons or stupid reasons, i would say it has nothing to do with me and they would probably be primary. if they are reasonable, fair and really disagree with somebody or something, i can see that happen. i think we have great people. i think we have a great group of people.

>> boy. we were talking about the back- and-forth. a lot of the republican senators saying, the pressure campaign, not really going to work and it may be backfiring. press conference, very interesting. if they are unreasonable and personal i can see them being primary. but if they are reasonable, i can see that. that comes, again, just for background, we remember seeing gaetz going down. and just the facts that pete hegseth, there is still the feeling that he will not make it through. it was suggested even yesterday that he is showing horrific judgment on the hill with the person taking him around the hill. just, again, the word is that

tulsi gabbard did terribly last week. not up to it or doing the interviews that gave confidence to republican senators that wanted to support her. there are at least two picks right there. i have a feeling if they go by the wayside he will not be too upset. he does want rfk jr. from all we hear, but these two, i'm not sure if that was just a tip from the senate going, if you have reasons not to take those two, we understand. >> but yet it took great pains to see that publicly. what i'm hearing, and i think you're probably hearing, too, to donald trump and his team, there are conservatives, there are republicans and people who will be loyal to you or not pete hegseth, tulsi gabbard and

matt gaetz. that's what they made very clear to him. they are trying to finesse this and say, we will give these guys a fair hearing and interviews but we have some other ideas of people who can be in those jobs. i'm curious, you served with a lot of these people, the big question that hangs over these choices in the next four years, is how far can donald trump push these members? how far can he push them to say, you are going to do what i say or else. do you think they will cross him one pete hegseth or tulsi gabbard or maybe even rfk jr.? >> they said there will be no guardrails but they're kind of still is. these guys aren't up for the job, you can get somebody else and we will do it nicely and politely. i think that is how it will play out. think about pete, the pentagon

would swallow him up in one week. >> push aside all the other judgment. look at his lack of inexperience time and time again. that is a job, i'm sure you and i think we can do most jobs, i don't want that job. i remember, chris lake called me up and said, i may be able to take this cnn job. i said there are two jobs you don't want, the cnn job and the pentagon. but the pentagon is even harder, the bureaucracy will swallow you up whole unless you really have been walking those corridors for years. and even after four terms, even

then. >> the training, the tanks, guns, bullets, bureaucrats, cybersecurity. >> it would swallow anybody. he is not up to the task. >> the new york times has new reporting on the man who has been escorting pete hegseth around capitol hill. according to the paper, he is a former army forces special sergeant who left after attacking a civilian during a training exercise back in 2019. this is the guy who is escorting pete hegseth now. witnesses said he beat the civilian role player who is a former member of iraq's counter

elite. kicking him, punching him and leaving him hogtied in a pool of his own blood. the civilian was left with a broken nose, tooth, a scalp hematoma and blunt facial trauma according to statements by company employees about the episode. the army charged him with reckless endangerment and aim military jury found him guilty in 2020. but the judge overseeing the case declared a mistrial after learning that a friend of his had been talking to a juror throughout the trial. the army did not retry the case. in a statement to the times he said, i have no conviction and was honorably retired after 22 years of service. >> if i'm not mistaken he was

given the choice of being retried or leaving. and that is how it happened. but you know, it is beyond telling when his nomination is already on life support, that a brings a guy like this, that has been charged by the united states military. right, that's the thing. the united states military, of beating the hell out of someone during a military exercise. being charged for it and he has no better judgment than that. this is who he is, this is who has been. he went to trump time and time again to try to get people who were charged in the military and he became champion of abusers.

>> that is how he got on donald trump oh radar to begin with. and that he was even successful against some of them with clemency from the president of the united states. pete hegseth is saying that this is a sign of loyalty and this is what he will bring to the pentagon, defend those who serve the country. >> there are a lot of people who serve the country in military exercises. and i get to see a lot of the military exercises. they don't kick the hell out of somebody, they don't hogtie them or chipped their tooth or leave them in a pool of blood. there are a lot of honorable men and women that serve in the military that could have been escorting him around, but he has constantly got to prove a

point. >> right. he had other options but this was a deliberate choice, a signal he was ascending, because, i am told, he thinks donald trump respects that. we will see if that plays out in this confirmation choice. there are a number of senators who are not confident with his judgment. and reporting shows, folks i talked to yesterday feel trump is still supporting this pick and has not gone fully too bad for him yet. he has not personally said, pete hegseth is my guy. >> they think more things are coming out. >> morning joe weekend will be right back. . standing the test of ti... he's melting! oh jeez... nooo... oh gaa...

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welcome back. let's pick up with the conversation we were having before the break. >> all these senators are

saying, why do i have to say anything when gravity will do all the work for me. hey, let's let the process play out and see what happens. yet, we will just sit there and watch him and watch gravity pull him through with more things coming out. >> you obviously cover these members every single day. what is the sense of how this has or has not evolved. there was great skepticism if you weeks ago around you to accept. it seems like he was doomed, but a little bit of a tone shift but not a full endorsement. what is your sense of where he is now with the potential nomination? >> i think this wait and see posture, wait until we have more background checks and get

closer to the process and keep quiet until then is the strategy most senators are currently employing. after seeing joni ernst take a radically different approach that staffers that we spoke to were really critical of. getting ahead of herself, saying she was not ready to support hegseth in a pretty public way. sort of triggering this public criticism and full-court press on her. then four days later backtracking on it in a way that sort of damages her credibility and also her standing in trump world. you see the rest of the senators learning a very different lesson from her actions. but we have seen a slight win for some republican senators. amaryllis fox kennedy was being

proposed to be the cia number two. after some private conversations and concerns raised with trump directly about kennedy's past statements, he ultimately decided not to consider her anymore. and this was done in a very stealth way behind closed doors. they have a very conservative approach to some of these espionage tactics that the cia does and that was viewed as very valuable to u.s. intelligence. and communicated those concerns and was successful in his lobbying. this is sort of what we will see going forward. so far you haven't really seen many other public criticisms of people who have had similar

problems to amaryllis fox. >> it seems that everybody has taken the, let's wait and see. and our staff members over christmas holiday say we will not support a trump pick. it is, let's let the fbi investigation and further newspaper investigations take its course. then you will see people like murkowski, collins, who is going to win in a very blue state two years from now. mitch mcconnell, doing what they likely will do, especially on pete hegseth and tulsi gabbard. but that is what was so interesting yesterday in what donald trump said at the end of

that statement that we played. which is, if you disagree with them or their policies, if you disagree with them personally for those positions, i get it. which is sort of, i think, it is extraordinarily telling and a lot of space and a lot different than what these outside groups are doing to try to make money on this. >> donald trump is not going to the mat for pete hegseth or gabbard. maybe for rfk jr. and will likely get him through. i come back to what you were saying at the beginning of the segment. which is, pete hegseth is in no way qualified to be secretary of defense. that is just, i think those senators that you mentioned and probably others really can't get past that.

i'm not sure they can get past the fact that this guy walking around with him was court- martialed for that horrific incident. look, the world is on fire. the u.s. has forces around the globe and is constantly moving resources and people here in their. -- here and there. trying to put out some of the fires as best it can to keep our people as best we can out of harms way. while fulfilling missions. that is enormously complicated and it takes somebody who really knows the military inside and out, knows the pentagon inside and out, knows what levers to push and pull and hegseth has none of that. it would just be madness to have somebody like that running

the defense department. it is just not acceptable. and then of course tulsi gabbard presents a different set of issues around the question of loyalty. >> donald trump was up this week at 3:00 a.m. posting about liz cheney as house republicans float the idea of an investigation into her work on the january 6th committee. we will tell you about it right after this. [coughing] hi susan, honey? yea. i respect that, but that cough looks pretty bad. try this robitussin honey. the real honey you love, plus the powerful cough relief you need. mind if i root through your trash?

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donald trump hosting about one of his perceived political enemies, is cheney. it comes as house republicans are calling for the former congresswoman to be investigated for her work of the january 6th committee. >> republicans in the house are going to have a one-vote majority. they are living in a bubble.

they are going to have to work with democrats. we are seeing that. we were talking to hakeem jeffries today. they will be able to pass mike johnson's bill, only if democrats allow that to happen. and you have these subcommittees coming out talking about arresting political opponents and recommending investigations into that? the margins are so bare in the house. and in the senate, these people are acting like they won by 20- 25 percentage points. even on the inside, people close to donald trump, they've been saying for weeks, no retribution, he's not going to do retribution, we don't have time for retribution. this sort of talk early on is bad for everybody. it is bad for house republicans, it is bad for

donald trump. it is bad for the markets. this is what we've been talking about. retribution, it blew back on democrats through the years. donald trump will probably be the first to say that he got elected in part because he was sitting at a criminal defendant's table this summer and it made him a martyr. you put liz cheney there or even talk about it, and you put out these stupid reports that the house subcommittees put out, you are making her a martyr. you are making her bigger. you are making her more powerful. you are making her everything. that these people would not want to make her. but they are doing it and playing right into her hands. >> claiming the largest mandate

in 129 years. that is not true. but as you say, the house is out one-vote. they will need the help of the democrats and this is not the way to get it. we saw where his team put together a plan, try to work on immigration and trump himself gives in to his worst impulses of division or whatever it might be and close it up himself in some tweet or truth social post. and we are seeing that already now, he's got to unify washington and he has the ability to get things done but it will not happen if the focus is retribution and revenge on political enemies. it will certainly make democrats not be incentivized to help him at all. >> you've got a one-vote majority in the house.

you see how close things hang in the senate. i do think things will be much different on january 20th when we move out of a bubble where everybody is looking at trump world and they are thinking that is the reality. you look at the poll that recently came out, even tariffs against canada, wildly unpopular. >> the state of canada. >> wildly unpopular. that is a great way to get canadians united together. you look at pardons for january 6th convex, wildly unpopular. right now they are in this bubble. and so all these republicans are running around acting like they have a mandate. they won by one percentage

point. they won wisconsin by less than one percentage point. everybody needs to take a deep breath. people are going, oh, this is the age of elon musk, this is the age of pro-culture. let's take wisconsin, the bellwether state of bellwether states. kamala harris lost by less than one percentage point. because of the bro-culture, ray. wrong, they elected a lesbian woman senator on the same day. no, they elected a woman senator the same day. kamala harris lost by 1.5

points. who was funding the shortest presidential campaign in american history, right? all i'm saying is, here we are. everybody is saying, you know, it is like a sack cloth and ashes for democrats. we've got to change everything, this was the greatest defeat, no, there is no sweeping change here. >> still ahead, elon musk appears to have more power and more money than ever. we have the charts on elon musk skyrocketing net worth since donald trump oh campaign. .

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donald trump pole election win has been extremely profitable for elon musk. his network has grown by $276 billion since november 5th. his net worth is now inching closer to nearly half $1 trillion. steve rattner has some charts on this. >> not only is elon musk maybe the second or most -- first most powerful man in washington, he is also the richest man in the world. principally because of two companies, tesla, his electric vehicle company has more than

doubled its market value since the election. you can see down here that the stock price was pedaling along and it shot up after the election. it is now worth 25 times what general motors is worth. why did it shoot up like that? musk is obviously counting on government policy to help keep out china imports and put in other regulations that will favor tesla. his other company that may not be as familiar is spacex. it is the most valuable private company in the world. it only does its valuation twice a year because it is not publicly traded. but what has happened since the election is that it has raised more money, a value that is 67% higher than what it was that six months ago. so 67% up in one six-month period. because spacex is heavily

dependent on government contracts and support for its lunches. the new proposed head of nasa as been on a spacex rocket twice and has invested in spacex. so we could imagine that they will get more or less what they want. that is now a $350 billion company. when you put it together, what do you have? musk has tesla shares, spacex, tesla options that are another piece of this puzzle and a bunch of stuff that is looking pretty small here, but 25 billion in openai, in futuristic things and all of which have gone up enormously in value. as you said, what has happened, his net worth has gone up 135% since the election. $276 billion and is now worth $480 billion, the wealthiest man in the world. half of that roughly since the

election. >> and you mention this with spacex and nasa, will conflict of interest concern people if he is running this so-called doge agency. he could have the power to pull federal funding from a competing ev company, for example. this is so far off the fairway that you will never find this ball. when you work in the government you are subject to rigid contracts. obviously he will not divest all of this stuff. he is not even a government employee. which is a whole other legal question about what he can or should be doing. it is an 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, perhaps. >> let's get to some more of

your charge on the federal reserve. they announced that they have cut interest rates by an additional quarters percentage point. jerome powell telling reporters that the latest cut was not an easy decision. >> i would say today was a closer call. 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 either undermine the labor market or needlessly undermine our progress and inflation. >> the stock market plunged after yesterday's announcement with all three major indexes having their worst day in months. chairman powell also indicated that rate cuts are likely to slow down in the new year. steve novak at the table with more charts to help break this

down. so i guess the reason the markets went down was because of the idea that they have been at the end of these cuts for a while. >> the market was expecting that the new senate projections would provide for cuts next year but now it is for only two cuts next year. so what this chart shows you is the path of interest rates and the peaked at about 5.5% 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 haven't mortgages come down? they are actually tied more to the 30 year treasury which has in fact been going up somewhat in yield rather than going down. if you take a look at this next chart you will see that what the market had been expecting were much lower interest rates sooner. all the way at the bottom is

september and what people thought in september what would happen to interest rates. you can see the succeeding quarter, three month period passing interest rates are staying higher and higher. why does the fed in particular think rates may not go down as fast as we thought? it is kind of good news anyway. it's because the economy has been stronger than people expected and the fed expected which you can see on the next chart where they change their projections. they are now expecting the economy to grow by 2.5% next year rather than 2% they projected previously. the market and the fed for that matter think the economy is a bit stronger. on the negative side, on the next chart you can see what they are thinking about inflation. the fed thought inflation would come down to 2%. that is the target for next year. and now they think inflation

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 stock market go down so much? higher interest rates are the enemy of stuff races. when interest rates go up or don't come down as fast as you expect, people don't move their money into bonds and stock market funds. they viewed as more attractive than stocks. the stock market was shocked by the news yesterday that rates will not come down as fast as they thought and that is why the market rolled over. >> after the break, the economist is out with its annual predictive guide to the coming year. we will break down its 10 themes for 2025 next on morning joe weekend. joe weekend. get your welcome offer. and play with the sportsbook born in vegas.

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the farmer's dog makes weight management easy with fresh food pre-portioned for your dog's needs. it's an idea whose time has come. the economist has released its annual year-end issue predicting the geopolitical

trends and events of the upcoming year. the world ahead, 2025 issue is out now. assessing what the global impact will be from donald trump's win and how democracies around the world will respond to the widespread losses of incumbent parties and what surprises may be in store. joining us now, deputy editor at the economist, editor of the world ahead 2025 issue. >> tom, thank you for being with us. >> great to be here. >> i'm going to ask a general question about britain right now. we are going to get to what's ahead. we were talking this morning about the german government, the french government following last week and it looks like canada's government may fall. obviously the biden harris team lost, but in britain you have a

new labor reporting and it has gotten off to such a miserable start based on conversations i've had with dozens of people in britain. what is the political climate right now in britain and economic climate as well? >> the economic climate is quite gloomy. the government has promised growth and so far growth has proved to be weaker than expected. i do think that there are other countries where the government is collapsing. this government has got four years before another election so they've got time to make some pretty unpopular changes. if you look across the world we've seen this unprecedented year of elections where it has gone badly everywhere and we've seen common parties chopped down. people have a lot of expectations going into 2025

about whether these new leaders can deliver what they promise. so far they are not doing a great job at that and seems to be terribly good at doing politics. of course the person who has made the most promises about big and sweeping changes is donald trump. there is this sort of commonality around the world that people have voted for change. now they are expecting it to happen. so far we have been disappointed. >> let's get to the top 10 trends to watch in 2025. number one, america's choice. which of course is donald trump returning to the white house. you said it could lead to geopolitical realignments. what does a second term for donald trump mean for the world? >> that is the problem. we don't exactly know. we don't know what it means for geopolitics or economics, because he has promised all sorts of things. he will end the war in ukraine

in a day and what does that mean for america's allies, we don't know yet. and in the economy, is he serious about these tariffs, we we have a trade war that will be bad for america and everyone else. these tariffs are a sales tax, they are not a way of helping ourselves from china. so that risks reigniting inflation and that is what has been complained about in 2024 and that is one of the reasons why donald trump said, i will fix all of that. he is backpedaling a bit on that in the last few days but his policies are pointing in the opposite direction. >> it is hard to have a conversation about the future of

the future of a.i. how do you see tech leaders and world leaders grappling with it? >> there is an interesting thing going on with a.i. right now. there is an enormous investment, something like $1.5 trillion. we are not really seeing the demand there for companies. 35% of companies who you would expect to be leading the charge, may go to around 7% next year. there is a weird disparity between enthusiasm and the actual adoption by companies. maybe we need to wait for this new agent based system. this new genentech, you will not get away from people saying that word. and the other thing is, if you look at certain employees rather than employees you get

much higher numbers. about 80% of programmers, 75% of hr and 70% of employees say they are using a.i. at least once a week. it is a lot of secret because they don't think it is proof of what they are doing. there is a big cultural and management challenge for a.i. to overcome to justify all that massive investments. so it is a bit of a crunch year for 2025 with a.i. if we don't see the adoption by companies in a more formal way than it may be a bit devalued. >> our conversation with the legendary tyler perry about his new film the 6888. morning joe weekend will be right back. right back.

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soldiers, i am captain charity adams, welcome to the women's army corps. >> my wife and i have been talking about the problems we've been having with the mail and our soldiers morale. >> mr. president, this assignment has proven to be a logistical nightmare. >> you mean the white women's army corps. >> is there another? >> that is a look at the new netflix movie, the six triple

eight, written, produced and directed by tyler perry and starring kerry washington. it tells the true story of the u.s. army postal direct battalion, the only women's army corps unit of color to serve overseas during world war ii. the battalion was given the near impossible task of sending out millions of undelivered pieces of mail to servicemembers and their families. around the world in less than six months. in the director, tyler perry joins us now, he serves as a producer on the film of course, as well. you do it all. welcome back to morning joe. >> first time in studio. >> the thing is, this is an incredible story. you talk about delivering mail, there may be a lot of young

people watching this that don't understand. especially when you are on the front lines, to get that piece of mail, that is all that you've got. talk about that and talk about how these incredible women actually did so much to help the morale of soldiers during world war ii. >> that was part of the challenge when i first called kerry washington and she goes, how do you do a movie about the mail. but immediately you think, mail was the only way. and there was no way for families to find out if their loved ones were safe on the battlefield for months because after the battle of the bulge all the mail stopped because they needed vehicles to bring supplies to the front line. this backlog of mail was sitting in these hangers. they had care packages come over from the holiday so rats and rodents reading through it. 17 million pieces of mail had backed up and the soldiers morale was at an all-time low.

so they decided, let's send these black women over, we will give them six months. they went over and did it and found all these incredible ways to do it and did it in 90 days and blew everybody away. >> black women joined the women's army corps and they were treated terribly, frankly. they were segregated and given horrible jobs and they were not allowed to go overseas. but these women were the trail blazers and the stars and they went over and basically showed that black women can be equal to any man in the entire u.s. military. what attracted you at first to telling the story. >> i was sent a piece that peter cooper had done and i was inking, this can't be true. black women in world war ii in europe and nobody knew it. i later found out why they were so secretive about it.

there were a couple of living members and i met with two of them. one is in las vegas at 99 years old. i was sitting waiting for this 99-year-old woman to come and she walks down the stairs, she says, hello, mr. perry, i am lena. i was blown away. she told me all these incredible stories. she started talking about a young jewish boy she liked named abram and he was killed. after 80 years she still had emotion from that moment. >> that is it for us, thank you as always, we are back tomorrow for more morning joe weekend, until then, enjoy your day. ur good morning. it is saturday, december 21st. i am alicia meneez