candidates for senate. they don't always win. quite often, they lose. his track record for a while there wasn't that good. i think he got better later in the game. the other problem, too, is that you need unanimous -- like, it's such a narrow margin in the house, that trump could win over 99% of house members. he could intimidate them, cajole them. if you have one or two people, one or two om masseys who are stubborn, not intimidated, it's game over. >> you have definitely one thomas massie. >> you do. >> thank you for joining us. f thank you for getting up "way too early" on this friday morning. "morning joe" histarts right no. w ♪♪ bomb making materials found in houston. explosives packed inside a cooler found in the french

quarter. these are just some of the new details officials uncovered in their investigation into the new orleans terror suspect. we'll go live on the ground with the very latest. plus, we now know the identity of the cyber truck driver whose car exploded outside the trump international hotel in las vegas. we'll dig into what was found at the scene as authorities race to find a tive there. also ahead, hours from now, mike johnson will face a tough fight to remain speaker of the house. we'll break down how this could all play out, and the republicans to watch ahead of today's critical vote. also, president joe biden honors liz cheney and benny thompson, the leaders of the january 6th select committee, with one of the nation's top civilian awards. but not everybody was happy about it. that's an understatement. good morning. welcome to "morning joe." it is friday, january 3rd. thank you for being with us.

i'm jonathan lemire. we have a great group to get us started and a lot of news to cover. with us, we have pulitzer prize winning columnist and associate editorrobinson. nbc news capitol hill correspondent ali vitali, who i'm happy to say officially takes over hosting duties of "way too early" on monday. we'll be watching. and american emeritus of the council on foreign relations, richard haass. he is the author of the weekly newsletter, "home and away," available on substack. joe and mika also will return on monday. we'll begin this morning with the latest developments in the investigation of the deadly new year's day terrorist attack in the great city of new orleans. authorities say the attacker most likely acted alone when he drove a pickup truck through a crowd on bourbon street early wednesday morning. at least 14 people died in the attack and dozens of others were injured. the attacker was then killed in a shootout with police.

he's identified as a 42-year-old army veteran from texas. according to the fbi, he was inspired by isis and claimed to have joined the terrorist group before the summer. investigators say that before the attack, the man posted a series of five videos on facebook. according to the officials, in the first video, the attacker explains he originally planned to harm his family and friends but was concerned that news headlines would not focus on what he called the war between the believers and the disbelievers. the fbi also released these images from surveillance footage that appears to show the man walking down the street about an hour before the attack. another image shows a blue cooler that authorities say contained an explosive device. president biden address td discovery of those devices after meeting with members of his

homeland security team in the situation room yesterday. >> the fbi briefed me that as of now, no information, we have no information that anyone else is involved in the attack. they've established that the attacker was the same person who planted the explosion is in those ice coolers in two nearby locations in the french quarter, just a few hours before he rammed into the crowd with his vehicle. they assess he had a remote detonator in his vehicle to set off those two ice chests. >> joining us now from new orleans, outside the university medical center hospital, is nbc news correspondent jesse kirsch. jesse, good to see you. what's the latest here about the investigation, and what are officials learning about the suspect? >> reporter: jonathan, let's go back to what the president just said there, that the suspect allegedly planted these ieds in the french quarter multiple

hours before the ramming attack. so what that means is that there were explosive devices that had gone undetected around bourbon street on new year's eve into new year's day for quite some time. i asked officials yesterday if there had been bomb-sniffing dogs that would have been sweeping this area on new year's eve. the governor's response was effectively suggesting that dogs couldn't sniff something like that out on a street that would have so much going on there. so we're not getting full explanation from officials at this point still as to what kind of sweeps would have been done for something potentially like that on bourbon street, on new year's eve. so from an investigative standpoint, that is something that i think still leaves us wanting for answers at this point. we're also learning more about the victims, jonathan. i can tell you, we're talking about multiple young people whose lives have been cut

horribly short. we're talking about two 18-year-olds, multiple parents, people who were early in their careers, someone who was about to start nursing school. one account is hearing of a 25-year-old young man who went out on bourbon street for new year's eve and had dinner with his parents beforehand. imagine you have dinner with your child, and then this happens to them. these are the kinds of accounts we're hearing about, the lives that were lost. again, all of this is happening as bourbon street has been reopened, but there's still a lot of outstanding questions. i've got to tell you, jonathan, i went last night and walked around bourbon street in the late evening hours to get a sense of what it was like on the first night reopened. there were hundreds of people out there. there were certainly plenty of visible law enforcement personnel, including police in camouflage. jonathan, it appears the street

is still vulnerable. as i was walking down bourbon street last night and looked through the intersections, i saw at multiple points side streets that did not appear to be heavily fortified. here's what i mean by that. i was able to walk from bourbon street down one of the intersecting side streets, and i noticed a police car parallel parked along the curb, so not blocking the middle of the street, and there was metal barricading, the kind of thing you'd see at a parade. nothing that appeared to be heavy or refortified. that was all i saw between traffic moving down a side street and access to bourbon street. to be clear, after bourbon street has been reopened, after officials have made a show, showing us heavy vehicles, i have still been able to see what appears to be traffic driving right by a side street that is not fortified by much beyond a metal gate. of course, authorities may have deployed something that we cannot see. we have asked police about this. we have asked them about this

overnight. they have not gotten back to us with any kind of explanation. i can tell you, jonathan, having been out there again, i saw multiple vehicles, including a taxi. certainly not law enforcement vehicles in all instances, driving right by what ppeared to be an easy access point on bourbon street, and leaves open the possibility that a vehicle could potentially do this again. that is the scenario after they have reopened the street, and we continue to ask for a lot of different answers from authorities on how this could have happened and what is being done to prevent something like this again. of course, they had the football game overnight here. thankfully, that appears to have gone off smoothly by all accounts. i haven't heard anything, and i was there for some of the game. didn't see anything. definitely saw a heavily law enforcement presence. the bigger picture around all of this, top of mind, the victims, the families grieving right now. top of mind from a security standpoint moving forward, the super bowl is here in about a month, and there are a lot of questions about the city's ability to handle that, jonathan.

>> you're right to highlight the possible vulnerabilities with a major event on the horizon. one of the biggest our nation holds every year. nbc news correspondent jesse kirsch live from new orleans, thank you. president-elect trump and his allies continue to falsely imply that that attack in new orleans was the result of insufficient border security, even though we have learned the attacker was a u.s. citizen born and raised in texas. trump has not directly acknowledged the attack since wednesday, in the hours after it happened, but in several social media posts yesterday, he criticized the biden administration and democrats for open border policies that he claims have led to radical islamic terrorism. and going further, during an interview on fox news yesterday, house speaker mike johnson also falsely suggested that the new orleans attack had something to do with the border. >> the biden administration has been completely derelict in its duty. the congressional republicans,

we here in the house and the senate, have repeatedly asked the dhs under the biden administration about the correlation, the obvious concern about terrorism and the wide open border. the idea that dangerous people were coming here in droves and setting up potentially terrorist cells around the country, we have been ringing the alarms. >> eugene robinson, let's be clear yet again. this terrorist suspect was born in texas, u.s. citizen, served in the army. seems to have nothing to do with the border, but yet the fear mongering here from trump and his fellow republicans, including the man who in a few hours wants to retain his post as house speaker, goes on unabated and, frankly, strikes me as dangerous. >> well, it's extremely dangerous, jonathan. look, this is so transparent. i mean, he's a u.s. citizen. he was born here. he was raised in texas. he's a texan. he's not some sort of foreign radical terrorist.

he appears to have been a homegrown radical terrorist who happened to serve in the u.s. military. this is -- its innuendo and implication that is completely off base and completely wrong. it is a way of attacking democrats and the biden administration yet again. for, you know, speaker johnson, i suppose it's a way to try to get people to focus on that and not on his own difficulties and his own questions about his speakership, which i guess we'll see decided later today. again, it's just a lie. i mean, that would kind of be the simplest and most direct way of saying it. it is a lie that republicans are telling about this tragic incident. >> richard haass, i mean, it is a lie, and it's also the latest in a pattern of donald trump being unable to make a mistake.

you know, in the hours after the attack, there was erroneous reporting elsewhere that suggested that this attack may have had something to do with the border. he seized on that, made that the narrative. that reporting had to be retracted. officials have cleaned it up. we know it's nothing to do with it, but he can't let it go. he is trying to use it for his political purposes, no matter -- even though it could hinder the investigation and certainly could leave other people vulnerable because of his dangerous rhetoric. >> there's also a time lag here. for several years, it was fair to criticize the biden administration for their border policy, but over the last year or so, it has gotten tightened up. actually, donald trump inherits a border situation that's not the crisis that it had been. that's point one. second of all, jonathan, there are real issues here. there is the question of, you know, the local defense preparations or the lack of them. we heard even maybe it wasn't fixed yet. also, the idea that someone could post videos. why isn't there an ability to

react in real time to this kind of menacing video thing. let me put on my foreign policy hat, what he was talking about with believers versus non-believers, i would have thought something like gaza, something much more specific and political might have been the motive, but no. this is truly fundamentalist. he was dividing the world between believers and non-believers. the question is, you know, we've been lucky as a society. we haven't had a lot of this kind of religious or politically inspired terrorism over the last years. the concern is obviously, as new orleans shows, a tiny, small number of people can wreak havoc in a modern, open society. i take this as actually a really serious development, particularly when it is juxtaposed about what will happen. >> officials yesterday, there was some suggestion that this suspect, you know, a lot of his own demons, shall we say, his life ing, maybe he was

looking for a way to lash out in violence. he found the rhetoric from this terror group and acted. this man is about to be president again, dealing with outright lies on national security issues. it is deeply, deeply dangerous. meanwhile, while new orleans happened, we also know there was the same day the incident in las vegas vegas. authorities have identified the man who died in the tesla cyber truck explosion outside of the trump international hotel there in vegas just off the strip. officials said the identification belonged to a decorated u.s. army soldier that was found at the scene. the 37-year-old was an active duty master sergeant in the u.s. army special fours rces and a resident of colorado springs, colorado. he was believed to have died in the explosion, but investigators believe he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound prior to the blast. officials say military id, passport, and credit cards were found at the scene, as well as two handguns.

as of now, it's unclear how the ve device in the vehicle was detonated. authorities have stated that they had not found any association between the las vegas event and the attack that took place in new orleans. investigators, though, are still working to determine a motive. we, of course, will keep you posted. we turn to politics now. as we alluded to at the beginning of the show, the 119th congress is set to convene today. the first item on the house's to-do list, choose a speaker. democrats are expected to universally oppose the current speaker, mike johnson, meaning johnson can only afford to lose one vote among his caucus. while johnson is expected to win most of the gop conference, he is having trouble with a handful of far-right members. the issue at hand for these rebel members appears to be government spending and the way that johnson handled last month's government funding fight. take a listen to what they're

saying followed by johnson's response. >> he would have a hard time to become speaker as of this point, so i'm not sure what other conversations are. i think, hopefully, he will become more, you know, determined to have some kind of changes. >> you can pull all my fingernails out. you can shove bamboo up in them. you can start cutting off my fingers. i am not voting for mike johnson tomorrow. you can take that to the bank. >> one day before the election, why are there still undecideds? >> people are talking through process changes they want and those kinds of things, and i'm open to that. i think tomorrow is going to go well. >> that was speaker johnson there, ali. you're there on capitol hill. you'll be there later, maybe for a very long time, as we figure out what happens today. give us the latest, though, as to where things stand. what is johnson doing to win over these holdouts? do you think he'll be successful? >> look, they're making demands, and past as prologue shows they're right to do that,

especially in a world of these razor thin margins. they should ask because they know the speaker is hemmed in anyway. 99% of the members that i've been speaking to and who will go to the capitol today to vote for the speaker believe that johnson should be fine, but they also know that there's a permission structure for chaos, as predicated by, two year ago, the last time we did this, only with kevin mccarthy at the helm and not mike johnson. there is an incentive structure for being a holdout, but i think -- and congressman gabe amo and i were talking about this on "way too early," we'll see how the progress goes because they vote alphabetically. they are going to lose one at "m," and that's the only one johnson can lose. if any previously vote presence, the number is no longer 218 for johnson. it lowers the threshold. if they vote no, then you know the entire round is moot. johnson is not going to get it on that balloting round.

hakeem jeffries, of course, will stay at the 215 hard votes he has in his corner because democrats have shown consistency and their willingness to go along with leadership as a united front. but republicans, the alphabet is actually going to be instructive here. we'll see, do they let him twist in the wind for a round or two? do they instead get this whole thing over with? the prevailing view at the end of the day is that no one else can get to 218, but that's the conventional wisdom until it's not. >> yeah, good point. the alphabet will be instructive. wise words here this morning. the editors of the "national review" argue republicans should stick with mike johnson as speaker. they write this, "emerging from nowhere to the speakership, johnson has filled the role ably. he is a reliable and thoughtful conservative who has proved a shrewd tactician. likable and non-threatening, he'll never become a hate figure like some of his predecessors. he has managed, for anyone in his role, the all-important

relationship with trump well, given the circumstances. in the real world, given that there is currently no other candidate who can garner 218 votes and that the house cannot conduct business without a speaker in place, the only alternative to johnson is chaos. if trying the same thing while hoping for a different result is the definition of insanity, it is time for the insanity to end. especially given that republicans already have a worthy speaker in place." gene robinson, i think it is debatable whether johnson has been a shrewd tactician. he's had a lot of trouble get things done with next to no success without the help of democrats. he's also saddled with this very slim margin. but that was -- that's the compelling case that johnson is trying to make here. if not me, who? if it's not me, you'll sideline and potentially sabotage the trump agenda coming in the door. what's your read on this situation? is that going to be pervasive? >> i think probably, in the end, it'll be persuasive, because,

again, there is no viable alternative that any of us can think of right now, anybody else who can get to 218 votes. that said, there is no 218 vote majority in the house for an effective speaker, for a speaker who gets anything done, because that requires working with the democrats. so let's assume that either, on a first ballot or a subsequent ballot, mike johnson gets re-elected as speaker. great. okay, is that really first prize, or is that somewhere down the list? because at some point, relatively soon, he's going to be trying to pass some piece of legislation, like keeping the government open, like raising the debt ceiling, whatever. he's going to need democratic votes, and so he is going to get them. again, there will be this thread. one question is, are some of the

naysayers, are they demanding a rule change that would once again make it easier for them to get rid of the speaker? if one member comes up and says, you know, let's vote him -- johnson managed to raise the number to, i believe, nine, so that gives him a little cushion, but are some member demanding they go back to this sort of very precarious, one-vote, teetering situation for the speaker, which will make him even less effective. >> interesting. with these two stories this morning, new orleans and this have this common, it shows the republicans, trump and those around him, haven't yet made the transition from being outsiders to the party of government. they own the white house in less than three weeks, the senate, the house. you have a supreme court, shall we say, that's tilting in their direction. their reaction to new orleans, getting the facts wrong, claiming this was about the border when it wasn't, shows, you know, where is the seriousness about homeland

security? how are they going to deal with that? then this story with johnson. they're going to be responsible for getting a budget passed, for getting legislation passed. there is a major move that has to happen to become the party of government. what this shows me is donald trump and the house republicans, certainly a number of them, are not yet ready, if you will. they haven't made the transition through the transition, to become the party of government. they're going to own this in about three weeks, and what that shows me, jonathan, they're not ready. >> trump privately said all along he much prefers campaigning than governing. i think we're seeing that from his party, as well, particularly those on the extreme maga right. they refer to the outsiders throwing darts rather than getting things done. >> much more fun, liberating. ultimately, you're not accountable, not responsible. 90% of governing is not throwing darts but getting things done. it's the messy stuff of legislation, implementation. people haven't yet dealt with the 90%. that's coming january 20th. >> no doubt. we'll revisit all these stories

throughout the morning here on "morning joe." coming up next, ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy believes the war in ukraine could end once donald trump takes power. we'll take you into his optimistic outlook for 2025, and why he is now saying that trump's unpredictability could work in his favor. also ahead, a man broke into the home of new york city mayor eric adams over the holidays. we'll tell you what he stole, and what happened next. we're back in just 90 seconds. if you take or have taken humira for moderate to severe crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis and still have symptoms...

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welcome back. time now for some of the other stories making headlines this morning. the small kan country of montenegro is considering a complete ban on gun ownership. it comes after a shooter opened fire on new year's day and killed 12 people. the suspect died of self-inflicted injuries. in the aftermath of this tragedy, the country's president said weapons must not be on the streets and in the hands of those who can harm others. back at home, a federal court has ended the government's long-running effort to gain stronger oversight over the internet. the six circuit court of appeals said the federal communications commission lacked the authority to oversee wireless and broadband services. the issue stems from concerns that companies could play favorites in picking which web websites they carry. and a new york city man is accused of breaking into the mayor's official residence.

authorities say the suspect scaled a fence, entered gracie mansion, and stole a christmas ornament. mayor eric adams was not home at the time. not only was the man recorded by surveillance video there in the upper east side mansion, he also filmed himself committing the crime using a cell phone. that's according to investigators. i suspect that's their first clue. we turn now back overseas, where authorities in south korea are locked in a standoff with the impeached president's security team for hours yesterday as they tried to carry out an arrest warrant. for weeks now, officials have been trying to bring the president in for questioning after he declared martial law last month. authorities spent roughly five hours trying to serve the arrest warrant, but according to reuters, some 200 presidential guards and military troops blocked those efforts. lawyers for south korea's

impeached president argue that the arrest warrant is illegal. significant story there. we will keep you posted. to europe now, where ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy is now expressing some optimism that president-elect trump could help end russia's invasion. in an interview that aired on ukrainian television yesterday, zelenskyy called trump, quote, strong and unpredictable. adding, "i would really like to see president trump's unpredictability apply to russia." those comments come as trump has claimed he will end the nearly three-year conflict in just 24 hours once in office, though he's backed off that pledge a little bit. richard, over the last year, anytime zelenskyy talks about trump, you have to read it as, he is trying to butter trump up. he doesn't necessarily believe these things. there's a lot of spin here from kyiv. but maybe he has a point. let me ask you, do you think trump's unpredictability and,

shall we say, his bizarre relationship with vladimir putin may actually lead to a quicker end to this conflict? >> i actually think zelenskyy does have a point. you know, you're right, i think he is trying to get on trump's good side. i think what you're seeing is the beginning of a deal between zelenskyy and trump. the united states will continue to support ukraine militarily, in exchange for ukraine totally embracing a cease-fire. that then allows trump to pivot, to go to his good friend putin and say, "hey, ukrainians are willing to have a cease-fire. what about you?" trump is clearly on record wanting to bring a halt to this war. i think there is a decent chance. russia's economy is really faltering. they're running short of manpower. they're going to enormous lengths to get enough people out there on the battlefield. i actually think, jonathan, it is not wildly optimistic to say that 2025 is going to be the year of, not peace, but a year of a cease-fire. i think the odds are at least even. >> russia's efforts to inforce

their troops with north korean troops has not worked. >> sign of desperation that that's worked. >> we'll be watching that. back at home, president biden yesterday awarded the two leaders of the january 6th select committee with the presidential citizens medal at a white house ceremony. the medal is the second highest award that a civilian can earn here in the united states. >> the higher standard set by men and women we celebrate here today. you know, for the final time as president, i have the privilege to be bestowing the presidential civilians medal, one of our nation's highest honors, on an extraordinary, and i mean extraordinary group of americans. you are elected officials who served in difficult times with honor, decency, and ensure our democracy delivers. i think it is pretty damn simple. our democracy begins and ends with the duties of citizenship. that's our work for the ages.

it's what all of you, and i mean this, all of you embody. >> committee chairman congressman bennie thompson of mississippi, a democrat, and vice chair, former congresswoman of wyoming, liz cheney, were awarded for their work leading the investigation into the january 6th insurrection. both received standing ovations when their names were called. some of the other americans awarded included former senators, multiple veterans, and civil rights activists. ali vitali, you know, we saw there an emotional response from the room, and then an emotional outburst from donald trump and his allies, really criticizing this idea that liz cheney could be honored for her work to investigate what happened on january 6th. >> yeah, fellow wyoming elected, who is in republican leadership, saying she doesn't deserve this. in his words, she represents partisanship and divisiveness,

not wyoming. of course, she doesn't represent wyoming anymore because of that trump-backed primary challenger to push her out for investigating an attack on the capitol. this is going to continue to be such a stark divide in american politics, the reaction to january 6th and those members who, in bipartisan fashion, rushed to figure out what happened, who was involved, how high this went, and who knew about what was going to happen at the capitol on january 6th. the fact that you've got biden forced to contemplate, do i pardon the people who were involved in this ahead of trump coming to office, while trump himself asks whether or not he should pardon the january 6th rioters themselves? i mean, eugene robinson, it's a striking moment in american politics. >> it really is. >> you can look at a standing ovation at the white house for bennie thompson and liz cheney, who investigated in colorful detail what happened on january 6th, then you'll see an administration that comes in mere weeks later saying, that was not a big deal at all.

>> right. let's not memorable hole what happened on january 6th. >> yeah. >> it was unprecedented in american history. it was shocking. it was violent. 140 police officers were injured. several later died. the circumstances connected with this. a woman was shot to death in the middle of the riot, an invasion that threatened the lives of the members of the u.s. congress. in a way that's just happened before in our history. that's what took place, and i don't understand how republicans believe they can pretend that just didn't happen, that it was some other, you know -- a bunch of tourists going through the capitol or peaceful protest or whatever. it's also fascinating that they're not angry at bennie thompson, right? they're angry at liz cheney. >> yeah. >> because she's a republican. she called them out.

>> validated the investigation. >> she cal validated the investigation and called them out and said, come on, seriously. so this divide, you're right, this is going to continue. we're not coming together on the narrative of january 6th at all. >> of course, monday will be the four-year anniversary of the insurrection. we expect this time around, the certification of the capitol to go on without a hitch. of course, donald trump has pledged to pardon most of these january 6th rioters soon after taking office in just a couple of weeks. coming up, we'll turn to sports and what the college football playoff semifinals set, pablo torre joins us with a look at the surprising teams that advanced to the final four. a go irish. "morning joe" will be right back. ♪ not too sure not too proud ♪ ♪

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the run, continue to get takeaways. he stressed their edge rushers, playing relentless and wants them to continue their intensities. >> harrison bringing back the kick-off. he brought two back for touchdowns last year. when he played this is right thundering herd of marshall, and he has one for notre dame. >> the fighting irish taking the second half kick-off of the sugar bowl to the end. they combined for 17 points in

just 54 seconds of game time. georgia answered the kick-off return with a td just a few minutes later, scoring on this 32 yard pass by quarterback gunner stockton to cash jones. it wasn't enough. notre dame stopped georgia from scoring again in the second half. picked up the upset win there in new orleans. the game, of course, was originally set to be played on wednesday but was delayed one day due to the bourbon street terror attack. with notre dame winning and advancing to the next round, that means the college football playoff semifinals are now set. penn state will face off against the irish in the capital one orange bowl on january 9th. texas will play ohio state in the goodyear cotton bowl classic a day later. the winners will then go on to play in the national championship game on january 20th. let's bring in the host of "pablo torre finds out" on meadowlark media, pablo torre.

let's start with the surprising result yesterday. first and foremost, glad the game went off safety. there was a moment of silence to honor what happened the day before. we, of course, are thinking about that. >> yes, yes, yes. >> in recent years, notre dame has been that team that puts together impressive regular season record, and if they go to a competitive bowl game, they get smoked. yesterday, i know georgia is down a quarterback, but yesterday, georgia was the pick of many to win this whole thing. notre dame just beat them and beat them solidly. >> they were my pick. i should confess this. >> there we go. >> in the catholic mode of seeking penance for our sins. georgia was my pick. i've been brainwashed into s.e.c. exceptionally by hanging out around this table, talking to finebaum and joe this often. notre dame, for the record, had not won a major bowl game, to your point, since 1994. georgia had not lost a bowl game in six years. when stuff like this happens, the 17 points in 54 seconds, on

top of just a dominating run game, on top of a dominating defense, there is a wake up the echoes kind of dynamic here. notre dame is this -- my friends who go to notre dame hate when i say this, but there's been a dallas cowboys dynamic here. the brand has always drawn. it's always been so strong. it's always been one of the great television draws. they have their own non-conference, independent sort of station, above and beyond college football, notre dame does. here, finally, they make good on the premise of the promise that, actually, you might have one of the biggest brands in college football playing up to their reputation, for the first time in almost 40 years. >> let's take the next -- the semifinal games one at a time. start here. notre dame gets penn state. >> yup. >> you know, that seems to me a pretty even matchup. both teams pulled off solid wins this time around. do you think notre dame can keep this going? >> i do. i do. i think penn state, as much as

they have had a remarkable run in their own right here, against really good teams, look at james franklin's record, the head coach of penn state against top ten teams. it hasn't been great. penn state's road to this, beating boise state, yeah, impressive win, but i don't think they have been tested to the level of notre dame just quite yet. to me, look at this bracket. it's the other side, john. it's the other side of the bracket that i am most intrigued by. >> that's the heavyweight side. >> yes. >> ohio state/texas. for many, ohio state, what was just a pure dismantling of number one oregon, they're the favorites, probably not just in that game but to win the whole thing. >> startling to see ohio state, which had, again -- we, the royal we, the national media, we had fired their coach, ryan day, because he could not beat michigan. 1-4 against michigan, i believe, the last five years. that guy was basically a dead man walking, except for what he's done since then.

beating, blowing out oregon has been the most impressive win of the college football playoff so far. so that team cruising against a texas team which just narrowly survived double overtime against arizona state. ohio state is definitely the favorite in the betting markets in the field right now. >> richard, you know, this is the first time of the expanded 12-team playoff. this whole -- the results this year are going to be viewed as a referendum as to whether the system works. what do you think so far? is this the way to do it? >> i like the home games rather than playing some of the games on neutral field. if it is ohio state, it's kind of interesting to give a team almost a second chance. you know, you don't have to go through the season with no losses or at most one loss. that said, some of the teams didn't quite belong in this. i think that'll be the question of the eligibility. all things equal, not bad for the first time around. if it is not notre dame against ohio state, as it looks, hard to complain. >> hard to complain. >> eugene robinson, it seems

pretty clear, no matter what we get as a championship game matchup, these are four glamour programs. >> yeah. >> you know, three of the four haven't really won anything in recent years. i think there's going to be a lot of compelling story lines up ahead. >> yeah. i think you've got to say that this playoff has really worked. i mean, i'll flat out just say that i think it has worked. despite the fact that it looks like ohio state could win it all. >> there it is. >> the fact they cannot beat michigan, i still have that to hold on to. but wow, they looked so, so tough. you know, again, i would not have thought that notre dame, which has been such a disappointment in recent decades, would look as great as they did yesterday. i think this whole thing is open. i'm not -- you know, let's not give it all to those buckeyes

yet. you can see everybody has a shot at this. >> gene, take comfort, michigan did beat alabama in a bowl game. granted, a bowl that didn't -- >> the relia quest bowl. >> tip on my tongue. >> not the rose bowl, you know? >> no. >> poptart bowl. >> or the cheese-itz bowl. >> jury is out on that one. so georgia's loss. >> you could hear the wailing of joe scarborough. >> next, baker mayfield snub. >> there is no greater political surrogate that baker mayfield has than the man who sits in that chair. >> he loves himself some baker mayfield. switch to the nfl. quickly on pro bowl, there were notable snubs. baker mayfield, yes. patrick mahomes. >> that's a big one. it's just a testament.

look, on paper, it's shocking that the greatest player of his generation, defending multiple time super bowl champion is not making the pro bowl. but this is a testament, really, to the question that attends every one of these debates. okay, you want him. who you knocking out? in the afc, john, it is lamar jackson, josh allen, joe burrow. every mvp hierarchy, big oard, has those guys ahead of mahomes. yes, only one loss this season. has had as many comebacks and dramatic one-score victories as we've seen in nfl history consecutively, but hasn't had the season of those three guys. even though they're all on mt. rushmore of modern day together. >> the best quarterbacks in the league. mahomes' stats aren't there. doesn't mean he can't win another super bowl. >> he'll probably win the super bowl and make us look stupid for attending this conversation. >> he has a great defense, which helps. let's turn to maybe the

greatest game of the year. regular season wraps up this weekend. most things have been settled in terms of playoff teams and seedings. a couple ies still to be filled. but we've got sunday night game, maybe the two best teams in the league. lions and vikings playing with real stakes. the winner not only wins the division, but gets the number one seed. therefore, a bye. the loser suddenly falls all the way to number five and has to go on the road in the first round of the playoffs. >> massive in every level. in the presence tense, the nfl is a war of attrition. fewer games to win a super bowl is a massive advantage. the bye is enormous. then historically, we've never had a regular season matchup with two teams with this many wins. both 14-2. again, the toughest division, i believe, in memory, in the nfc north. the winner of that not only gets the playoff advantage but does decide a question which has been, okay, who is the best team in the nfc in a really hotly

contested race all year? the lions and the vikings are both, i mean, on every level, coach of the year candidates, excellent receivers, quarterbacks who have been reclamation projects in jared goff and sam darnold, down to the defenses which have been excellent. coin flip, i like the vikings. i went to see the vikings lose to the lions in minnesota in october. i was at the game in person. it was a heartbreaker. i think minnesota gets it revenge. >> vikings are heavier. richard, one minute left. there's one more race for the number one. >> so glad we left room for this. >> number one overall pick, the new york giants by somehow winning last week may have, may have taken themselves out of the race, or made it harder. >> almost certainly. >> patriots hold pole position. but looks like they're going to try to win. >> sad, the two worst teams. >> when you said the game of the year, i thought you were talking about the giants/eagles. >> i was not. >> so much is at stake. >> yeah. >> eagles are sitting everyone, including saquon barkley, who is

not going to run for the record. he is going to satisfy himself with just 2,000 yards opposed to going after dickerson. giants, my fear, could win again, and that'll reduce them to number nine. it raises the whole question, worthy of an entire episode, about how the nfl decides draft choices. there's something wrong if the giants don't get the top choice. >> john, promotionally, are you also rooting for defeat in the way that richard must right now? >> i am. i'll admit, i was surprised, the pats have had very little go right this year, but it seems they found their quarterback. drake may had a good season. banged up last week. there's no point in playing him this week. >> why are they playing him? >> coach wants to save his job and try to get a win. that's my fear. yeah. >> familiar. >> here's hoping for a loss, i'll say it. pablo torre, the host of "pablo torre finds out" and also an msnbc contributor. thank you, as always. we'll talk soon. coming up, back to politics. mercifully, we'll be joined by a

democratic lawmaker who is calling on members of his party to try something different with their approach to donald trump's second term in office. also ahead, joe scarborough's sit-down interview with long-time democratic strategist james carville and former virginia governor terryc. what they're saying about the state of the democratic party and their advice for americans who want change in two years. "morning joe" will be right back. as they're the best. eggland's best. psoriatic arthritis symptoms can be unpredictable. one day, your joints hurt. next, it's on your skin. i got cosentyx. feels good to move. feel less joint pain, swelling and tenderness,

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washington, reagan national airport, a little before 7:00 a.m. here on the east coast. there in washington, president biden and fellow democrats celebrated the 235 judicial confirmations that biden secured during his single term. he mentioned it in remarks delivered at the white house yesterday. the judges have all been confirmed to lifetime positions by the senate, including one supreme court justice. this surpasses the 234 judges who were confirmed under president-elect trump during his first term. biden touted the accomplishment yesterday. >> these judges will be independent. they'll be fair. they'll be impartial. respect the rule of law. most importantly, i never thought i'd be saying this, they'll uphold the constitution. they'll uphold the constitution. you know, they've appointed the

most demographically diverse slate of judicial nominees in the history of america. it represents all of america. the best of america. there's numerous historic firsts. >> the president has repeatedly warned against the threat to democratic institutions and went on to say that he believes that his legacy would be creating a bulwark against threats to the nation's democracy. ali vitali, this is a big deal. you know, when trump put up his number over four years, he crow. democrats and biden doing the same. biden, rightfully i think, saying this will be a big piece of how he'll be remembered. >> i agree with you. this is a lasting legacy item. we talked often when trump left the white house the first time about the ways in which he'd remade the judiciary, and we saw the fruits of that. of course at the upreme court but lower levels throughout his legal woes. biden can now say we also remade

the judiciary, notable and important, and it portends the way the senate has been spending its time for the last two years. not much attention was paid from those of us on capitol hill to the daily workings of the senate, but largely, this was their focus. senator dick durbin, head of the judiciary committee, and senate majority leader chuck schumer ushering through the slates of candidates. it was painstaking work, not the thing that earns headlines, until you can say at the end of a term, you've remade the judiciary in more diverse and fair structure. >> absolutely. nbc's ali vitali, thank you. we will, of course, be watching at 5:00 a.m. eastern on monday when you officially take over the hosting duties of "way too early." >> thank you, my friend. >> congratulations. get some sleep. coming up here, we'll get another live report from new orleans as president-elect trump and his allies use this week's deadly attack to push border security even though the suspect was born and raised right here

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how much confidence do you have that you will have the necessary votes to retain the gavel? >> we are going to get this done. i am humbled and honored to have president trump's endorsement as well as leaders across the conservative spectrum and republican party. my colleagues that are standing with us. we will get this done. we live in very serious times. we can't afford any palace drama here. >> that was mike johnson appearing on fox news yesterday. today he will find out if he will indeed be able to retain the title of house speaker. welcome back to "morning joe." it is friday, january 3rd. we are in our second hour now. i'm jonathan lemire. "the washington post" eugene robinson is still with us. and joining the conversation we have msnbc contributor mike barnicle and professor of history of rice university and

president of historian doug brinkley. the latest from new orleans. authorities say the man who drove a pickup truck in into a crowd of people on new year's day on bourbon street likely acted alone. at least 14 people died in wednesday's attack and dozens of others were injured. some seriously. the attacker was then killed in a shootout with police. he has been identified as a 42-year-old army veteran from texas. according to the fbi, he was inspired by isis and claimed to have joined the terror group before the summer. it's also believed that the man planted two blue coolers with explosive devices near the scene. the fbi released an image of one of those coolers. you can see it here. the devices, thankfully, never went off. officials say the suspect did have a remote detonator in his truck. joining us live from new orleans

is nbc news correspondent jay gray. jay, good morning. good to see you. so, now a couple of days into this, what more are we learning about the suspect? >> reporter: let's talk more about that investigation into all of this. we know that the suspect planted those coolers and the incendiary devices inside. still not clear exactly when he was going to detonate those or how it was going to be carried out, but as you talk about it, it did not happen. but they are also looking at an airbnb rental property here in new orleans that the suspect stayed in, and they want to know exactly what happened there and how things transpired and why there was a fire in the hours after the attack. they don't know that the two are related, but there is ongoing questions and an investigation into what is happening with that property.

and this investigation also really centered on his home in the houston area where we learned overnight that investigators have found what they describe as bomb-making supplies in that home. so that's what they are targeting, trying to understand what's going on here, how and why the attack happened. >> music is the pulse of this city and in the wake of the attack on bourbon street local performers want the world to know the heart of new orleans is still beating. >> we do it to memorialize innocent people that lost their lives to this senseless act of terrorism. we are proud to be american. i am proud to be a louisianan and we are not afraid. we are not going to be scared. >> reporter: it's why after a moment of eye silence the superdome crowd cheers as the

sugar bowl pushed back a day because of the attack kicks off with a show of force at the stadium and a mile away as crowds returned to the french quarter. >> it's the safest place to be right now. don't want to let the terrorists win. >> reporter: but it's loss, tiger bech and 134 other victims are struggling with right now. >> he has been a shining star, a bright boy, a clever boy. >> he was my family's role model, inspiration. >> reporter: the memories of those killed and injured driving agents and officers on the ground. >> there is an unprecedented amount of law enforcement resources that are being utilized to close out and to hunt down and finalize this investigation. >> reporter: an investigation that, like the healing here, is going to take some time. yeah, look, i think there is some important points. first of all, the sugar bowl

going off last night after a day's delay an important step for the city, especially with the idea, jonathan, that coming up now they have got the super bowl as well as mardi gras, two huge events in a city based on entertainment, tourists coming into the area. getting through the sugar bowl was very important. i should also point out that we continue to see a strong presence of police, of federal agents on the ground here. i think that's part of the picture. i think we are going to see that as they try to move forward. >> nbc's jay gray live for us from new orleans. jay, thank you. so, doug brinkley, new orleans one of the great american cities, one my favorite cities, a city you know so well. you have been there. you have written about it, studied it. talk to us about the character of that city, what it's going through now, what do you think is next? >> well, new orleans will rise again. they already have with, you

know, being able to hold the sugar bowl. but it always has infrastructure issues, it always has a level of incompetence. you are always worried about graft. why were there another bollards and, you know, cement barricades done in a proper way around the french quarter? the answer we are getting right now is that they were under repair. under repair for new year's eve? where the revelry goes on all night on bourbon street. this should be called the bourbon street attack because the terrorists could have gotten into that quarter if you know it from all different ways. they wanted to go down the iconic road that it would reverberate far, that bourbon street, like statue of liberty or, you know, golden gate bridge. it's an iconic american place. and they did damage, more could have been hurt if it wasn't for some police officers getting on the job. and we have to be, feel lucky

you didn't have some of those explosive devices maim a larger group of people. but new orleans has to gin up the security. don't wait to say, well, when the ball game is here it will be four times greater now. that four time approach has to be held on events like new year's eve, new year's day when bars are open all night long. >> yeah, certainly though you are right. note that the security package that cops am mes with the super will be immense and probably unprecedented. in the wake of at attack many republicans making some bad faith arguments about immigration. others are talking about national security. we will dive into that now of the deputy editor of the "new york times" editorial board, david firestone, has a piece with this headline. trump's cabinet picks won't solve what happened in new orleans. in it david writes in part this. senate republicans say the terrorist attack in new orleans has increased the urgency to

approve donald trump's choices for top national security positions. they're right that the attack sends an urgent message, but they don't see what ht message is. the senate needs to reject the political hacks that trump selected and replace them with real professionals. individuals acting alone are always the hardest perpetrators to detect and if these attacks lead to a resurgence of domestic terrorism by copycats inspired by bloodshed, the country is going to want the best possible people working to track them down. that description does not include kash patel and tulsi gabbard. both appear to have been chosen not because of any background in fighting crime or terrorism, but because of the grudges they share with trump and their fealty to him. many of the nation's best case officers and special agents were probably walk out the door rather than work for these kinds

of leaders. making the nation even more vulnerable to attack. to make the country safer, senate republicans should demand better choices. mike barnicle, i brought some reporting yesterday showing those in trump world were saying this, that they saw the attack in new orleans as a way to push forward through the senate some of their picks, whether it was hegseth, patel, tulsi gabbard. now though this piece argues the exact opposite. >> you know, their picks, their proposed picks have nothing to do with solving what happened in new orleans. what happened in new orleans is not new. it's just large and in front of our eyes and people are dead. there is no doubt about that. it has to do with the mind of the killer. the killer who was killed. it has to do with tracking whatever incident set him off on the path that brought him to bourbon street the other night killing 15 people and injuring many, many more. it's an age-old problem. with the new sciences we have, dna and testifying like that,

you can track certain elements of crimes. but this crime builds up in the mind, the human mind. what triggered it? what happened to this man? when did it happen? did it have to do with isis, with his travels, with his family? all of those things are separate and apart from whoever is appointed to be the next attorney general or the next national intelligence person in the white house or the next fbi director. all of those things are separate and apart from it. an age old situation that requires expertise, requires time, and it requires patience. >> yeah, and, you know, mike, and jonathan, it also requires us to think about various civil liberties issues. for example, how do you anticipate and prevent something like that? how much do we want our government to know and to be

able to track in terms of what we're doing online, what people are reading, what people are saying on facebook or on other social media? and this is -- there are important civil liberties questions that are just going to have to be grappled with, and it's going to require, i think, competent, serious people to do it, and not hacks. and what we have is a slate of mostly hacks. the senate is being asked to put in these important positions, and i really -- i agree with firestone. i think this is an opportunity to think again about some of these picks. >> and eugene, to your point about civil liberties, a tweet from chris murphy saying in the coming days watch for those on the trite to call on trump to use emergency powers or domestic

war powers to confront domestic terrorism. he says they are not to destroy terrorists, they are out to destroy the rule of law. this is a storyline we will be following in the weeks and months ahead. everybody stay here. we will take a quick break. ahead on "morning joe," tom suozzi ahead of today's vote for house speaker. what's ahead for his party as donald trump prepares for his return to the white house. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. oe." we'll be right back. you've got to see this. i've seen it. trust me, after 15 walks, it gets a little old. ugh. stop waiting. start investing. e*trade ® from morgan stanley. how did i ever miss this? before you were preventing migraine with qulipta? you'll never truly forget migraine, but qulipta reduces attacks, making zero-migraine days possible. it's approved to prevent migraine to help give you that forget-you-get migraine feeling. don't take if allergic to qulipta. get help right away for serious

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♪♪ pretty shot of the white house there this friday morning. as president biden prepares to depart the executive mansion, many questions surround the future of the democratic party and recently during the 20th anniversary of the clinton library in little rock, joe scarborough sat down with democratic strategist james carville and virginia governor terry mcauliffe and asked how democrats can rebuild the party's relationship with voters. >> you all have been in politics most of your adult life. i have for most of my adult life. we understand elections are won and lost and another election is coming right away. but james, i want to talk to but about the fact that right it now there is so much second-guessing, so much fighting, there is so much carping going. if you make a discussion there

will be 1,200 people yelling and 1,200 people on the other side. what is your advice to not only democrats, but independents and republicans, that want to see a different outcome two years from now? >> definitely. the first thing i would do in terms of this campaign, when a plane crashes, they don't say let's look forward, forget about it. no. let's go find out, you know, maybe the flaps was set at the wrong angle, could have been maintenance problem. so you find out. and i think we need to find out. i think there was over $3 billion spent on our side. what did we do right? what did we do i don't think? what got wasted? i mean, you know, with a military operation, you got the tidal table wrong, they are going to come back and investigate and say, you know, you didn't think where the troops are going to land or anything else. you represented the station in

pensacola. you know, i am the -- how many investigations do they have because you have to find out where was the bug and fix it. so i think some analysis, a retro look at what happened in 2024 can have some value. >> terry, any thoughts about what democrats, independents, republicans who want a different outcome two years from now need to do now? >> talk to people at home about the issues that they actually care about. bill clinton talked about quality of life, jobs, personal income growing up. we are missing it. obviously, that message did not resonate in the last presidential election. we got it to talk to people about how to make their lives better, quality of life, personal income up. that's what our party has been about, our whole history. we can't get off on side tangents and let other people define the message. stand up and fight for what you believe in.

>> jim, when i ran, a lot of people told me you are way too conservative for me but i will vote for you anyway because i feel like you understand me, you understand my family. there is sometimes so much talk about ideology. but you look at fetterman in pennsylvania, democrats want to see -- in arizona, gallego, he so ploeg. but people weren't thinking he is progressive. they were thinking he gets me, right? isn't that what it's about? >> it is. and ruben, excuse me, senator elect gallego, i heard him say, i don't know anybody who uses the term latinx. if he did, you know, two feet on the side of the border. the biggest problem we have, joe, is large numbers of people in the country don't think about democrats. they think we are an urban party. terry was governor of virginia. i have a place in shen toeandoa

valley. if you talk to them about democrats, they are confused. we have to reconnect with rural small town mid-city america. you know, you look at this -- i don't know what it is, tragedy in new york, this unitedhealthcare. but what -- it is exposed that people do not like these health insurance companies. there should be a bill to introduce -- the health care insurance access act of 2025, all right? if you just tell people you see them. i know your struggles. you are going to do better. >> terry, you know this. if there is a republican governor in the deep south that says i don't want the medicaid money, he is telling people in rural america he doesn't want money to help their hospitals, he doesn't want money to help the moms and dads in retirement homes. shouldn't this be a message easier for democrats to tell people in rural america? >> for four years i pushed

medicaid expansion. you get $4 billion back into my state of virginia, save rural hospitals, help people get health care who have pre-existing conditions, whatever it may be. it's simple. people want to be healthy. life is not complicated. they want their kids to have a quality job, nice income, get the roads and the roads work, they get health care, great educations. this is not rocket science. and that is what we should be talking about. that's our history. as governor this is all i focused on every day, house is personal income, jobs we create, are the roads working. i love governors because, you know, we don't -- we have got to balance budgets. we don't have deficits. we run the health care, education, build, clean your roads. talk to people about the things that they are experiencing every day. this is the greatest country in the world. we got to bring people together. >> james, give people hope who don't have hope right now. >> well, because, you know, we are americans and we think we don't have hope, turns out we do

have hope. and i think we can be an effective opposition party because that's what we are. we to don't have any power. people have to get over that. and it's hope when a democrat says we are going to run everywhere and talk to people everywhere and we are not just a -- party. and we lost some senators, some -- i mentioned casey. we lost sheriff brown. i mean, we lost some -- we lost these seats. and right now the democratic brand is not a brand to run on, but a brand to run from, and we have to change that. we have to make our party brand better. we have real work to do. >> so, mike barnicle, illuminating conversation there. how do democrats make democratic brand better rather than a brand to run from? >> first of all, jonathan, there is no way i could come close to

the expertise of john carrville and terry mcauliffe. one has been on the ballot and one ran successful campaigns for 40 years. just observations, just sidewalk observations, the democratic party has to do one thing above all else and that's get younger. get younger, more approachable, talk to more people. forget the focus groups if you are running for office or state representative in your state or the united states senate or the presidency. forget focus groups. get out of your car and walk the sidewalk and talk to human beings about problems. here's what you will find out. america is worried about a couple of things as they have families, they are worried -- they hope their children don't get, they hope their children get a great education. america is about the future. it's not about the past. it's about the future. they have to address the future in solid, sensible ways that are meaningful from the price of gas to the price of eggs to the price of a college education. talk about the things that impact people's lives. that's it. >> so let's now go to someone

who has some ideas how to do this. democratic congressman tom suozzi of new york. the congressman has an opinion piece in "the new york times," let's try something different in how we deal with trump. in it he writes in part this. as a democratic member of congress, i know my party will be tempted to hold fast against mr. trump at every turn, uniting against his bills, blocking his nominees, and grinding the machinery of the house and the senate to a halt. that would be a mistake, he writes. only by working together to find compromise on parts of the president-elect's agenda could we make progress for americans clearly demanding change in the economy, immigration, crime, and other top issues. he continues. this time in history is both a warning and an opportunity. my newsoms year's resolution, t

extremism, embrace common sense and keep building relationships with republicans and democrats to get that done. congressman, let's dive in a little bit more. let me ask you this first. what do you say to members of your party who experience the four years of donald trump, then his post-presidency, and very much view him as an extensional threat to the nation's democracy, how do you tell them he is someone we got to work with? >> we have been attacking president-elect trump for years, and everybody's dissected everything he said, criticized everything he said, and he won. and he is not running for president again. so the next four years they are going to be looking at the republicans and they are going to be looking at the democrats and say, who is fighting for me? who is looking out for the things i care about? same thing mike said, carrville said, talk about the kitchen table issues that affect everybody's life and work on figuring out how can we get stuff done to make your life

better. i am fighting for you. if the republicans today, you know, are voting -- can't it choose a speaker, the people are like, what about me? what are you doing for me? so we have to start focusing on what the people want. go out and talk to people and find out what the people are talking about and respond to what they care about. >> congressman, i basically think that you raise really good points, but it takes two to dance this particular tango. it's one thing to say, oh, well, of course, we'll collaborate on reasonable policies that help the american people, but those policies have to also be accepted by the other side, by the republican party. do you have any confidence that whoever is the speaker that the republican party is going to be talking even the same language

that you are talking now and is not going to be pursuing an extremist agenda that, in fact, democrats have no choice but to oppose? >> gene, you know that i can't control what they do. i can only control what i do and we can only control what we do. we are reaching out our hand and saying, hey, let's work together. let's try to accomplish things together. if they say, no, my way or the highway, forget about it, i will it do what i want with this crazy right wing agenda, then the people will see that. we as democrats are saying, okay, let's try to work together to increase people's wages, create more middle class jobs, raise the minimum wage, do something about the child tax credit, implement the reunions. we are going to work together with you to see if you believe in working families or not. it's up to them to decide whether or not they are going to respond in behind. >> congressman, it's historian

doug brinkley here. are you going to be going to trump's inaugural? >> of course. absolutely. he is the president of the united states of america. >> do you think many democrats will boycott it? >> i really don't have any sense of that. i don't see as much -- i was elected in 2016 when trump was first elect the. i took office january of 2017. trump soon thereafter. there was a lot more of the resistance movement back then. and resistance is appropriate, i resisted him tying to get rid of the affordable care act, trying to deport dreamers. we can do resistance but it can't be all resistance. let's fight for the people and what the people care about. and not showing up for the president of the united states inauguration is, i think, an irresponsible thing. show up. we are for america. this is an american institution. we believe in the peaceful transfer of power and do our best to work together.

if trump won't do it, mike johnson, whoever the republicans pick as speaker won't do it, that's their problem. we as democrats should be trying to get things done on behalf of the people. >> you just mentioned mike johnson, who later today will stand for a vote to see whether he remains as speaker. what's your assessment of where that vote stands, but also do you think -- i know he is a republican, but do you think, he is the man who should remain in that post? >> listen, i started a mike johnson. we came to congress at the same time. he is nice man. i disagree with him on a lot of issues but he is a nice person. he seems to have support of most of his colleagues. others have 40, 50, 60 votes. he has cobbled together the group. who knows what's gonna happen with these guys? i think it would be a mistake to cave into the far right-wing freedom caucus people. it's one of the reasons they got nothing done the past two under a republican congress.

i am voting for hakeem jefferies for speaker. i think every other democrat will as well. the republicans, they got to get their act together. >> all right. democratic congressman tom suozzi of new york. congressman, thank you for joining us this morning. his opinion piece in "the new york times" available online now. doug, your thoughts on the speaker race. what you have seen from house speaker johnson to this point. donald trump was content to let him twist in the wind wind for a couple of weeks. is now backing him. what do you make of his time as speaker so far? do you think it will continue? >> he has a calming demeanor as you just heard from our democrat across the aisle that people like him well enough. i thought that when elon musk kind of firebombed potential government shutdown that you were going to get more of a war going on this time in early january, but seems like things are being quite cohesive. so i think he is the person.

trump likes him well enough. musk is going to have to learn to respect that he has a skill of vote counting and doing what he does that's different than making millions of dollars like musk does, and he will be a key person in washington now. he is what probably is the leading maga person that has communications with the democrats. >> yeah, we will see what happens with that vote in just a few hours. historian douglas brinkley, thank you for joining us. coming up here, we will take a look at the riveting film hollywood gate which tells the story of a director who spent a year with the taliban in the wake of america's withdrawal from afghanistan. he will explain what the taliban allowed him to capture and what he uncovered along the way. that's next on "morning joe." e.

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that was part of the trailer of the wildly acclaimed documentary "hollywoodgate." taking an inside look at the taliban rule in afghanistan. director ibrahim nash'at risked his life to examine what life is like in that country in the wake of the united states' withdrawal in the summer of 2021. "hollywoodgate" is now on the oscar short list for best documentary. the film's director joins us now. he was the co-producer and cinematographer also for the documentary. ibrahim, thank you for joining us this morning. so, first let's start with how did you achieve this sort of access? what was that -- walk us through this process with the taliban. how did it come about? >> thank you so much, jonathan, first of all, for having me.

i guess i arrived quite early when taliban just got in power and ten days later they wouldn't have given me access. at the beginning they are saying we are taliban and they are seeking a lot of validation through journalism, especially a lot of reports that were positive in the first days. this was the time when i entered afghanistan and i reached the taliban and i requested to get an access like my journalists but my access was different that i asked for permission for one year. they didn't expect me it to stay the whole year. time started to pass by and they tightened their grip around journalism but i was already inside. things got harder. i always say the access is my rock, i need to push it hard to get a couple of days of ak ses and then i need to find people within the taliban allow me to film for one day more and kept going all the way to the last day of shooting. >> so tell us, if you will,

first, explain the title, "hollywoodgate," what that means. also, were there moments as you described this skron going negotiation, this push for access, to push to be able to stay with them. were there moments you felt like you were in danger? >> i 30 will ask the question differently. were there moments where you felt that you were safe? i would answer, no, because i am dealing with people that have been in -- non-stop, people are suffering from high levels of ptsd and you never expect what could happen. in the movie there is a scene they turn against each other. what they would do to me if they felt unsafe towards me, always calling me a spy or different names and they were saying if my intentions were bad, they are gonna kill me. >> ibrahim, watching the film clip we just showed prior to your interview beginning, it struck me to ask you this

question. do you think there is any hope for a civilized version of afghanistan led by the taliban who, in the course of that parade, we saw the suicide bombing battalion march proudly past? >> i hope that there will be some civil society for afghanistan. i don't expect that with the taliban, would lead to something like that. under the ruling of the taliban. i am sure that conducting another war in afghanistan to end what's going on there is not the solution. the world has to work together as much as they worked together 20 years trying to convince them that we are bringing peace to afghanistan and building a nation here. and then they left in the hands of the taliban and failed in their mission. they have to come back again and work together hand in hand, both parties actually. democrats and republicans and others so that the countries of the nato to find the solution

for the afghans and go back to the people that they promised for 20 years to stay with them and betrayed them and left them behind. >> ibrahim, tell us about the title, "hollywoodgate." that was a plate in afghanistan that the americans had control. tell us about that and how that came to be the title of your film. >> so according to the taliban, this place where the movie takes place is a previous cia base. the cia has not confirmed nor denied, which means it was a cia base inside the kabul airport on the military side. that base has a door that has on it "hollywoodgate." and when i saw that door, i wanted to make a movie that represents to the world the difference between taliban and the americans taking over the same space and how both of them live in close doors, not really do the things that the people need in the country, protect themselves with weapons. >> ibrahim, you were there when

members from the russian, iranian and pakistani government met with talibani officials. let's look at that now. >> eyewitness to history there. tell us more about what you saw, and also what do you think comes next for that country? >> i think what i saw was those delegations of foreigners, also

pakistan, iran, including also russians and chinese, and we have been working on an investigation regarding the russians specifically and it's going to come out soon in an article. the talks about who are these russians what were they doing in afghanistan. and regarding the future, we have seen in the movie that the taliban are threatening afghanistan. it says a lot about their homes and dreams to expand and they are not what they claim to be, that they only want to be leading afghanistan. >> all right. the director, coto producer and cinematographer of the documentary "hollywoodgate," ibrahim nash'at, thank you for being here. congratulations on this remarkable achievement. >> thank you so much for having me. up next, what we are learning about the fbi's renewed effort to find the suspects who planted pipe bombs outside the republican and democratic national committee headquarters

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welcome back. we turn to some of the other top headlines. president biden is set toward the medal of honor to seven army veterans of the korean an veith wars today. six medals will be awarded posthumously. it's given to service members who distinguish themselves at the risk of their own lives above and beyond the call of duty. also handing out the medal of valor, america's highest award for courage by a public safety officer. eight first responders will receive the award, including five members of the metropolitan nashville police department who took down the covenant school shooter in 2023. the fbi meanwhile is renewing efforts to track down a suspect who placed pipe bombs near both the republican and democratic national committee headquarters in washington nearly four years ago. the announcement after congressional republicans released a report on the incident sharing frustration over the fact that the fbi had not yet even identified a suspect.

the department released new video of the suspect saying they still have no leads and have not determined a motive for the crimes. they estimate the person to be about 5'7" and a reward of up to about $500,000 is available for information that leads to an arrest. in an interview with nbc news, the assistant director in charge of the fbi washington field office said in the past four years agents, analysts and data scientists have visited more than 1,200 residences and businesses conducted more than 1,000 interviews, reviewed approximately 39,000 videos and assessed more than 600 tips on the case, but in to leads yet. it happened, of course, around the january 6th insurrection. and we are now learning that president biden has decided to block nippon steel's $14.9 billion takeover bid of

u.s. steel and he is doing so by citing national security concerns. that's according to "the washington post." it reports that the white house is expected to announce the decision as soon as today. the committee on foreign investment in the united states said it was unable to reach a consensus on the risks of the nippon steel deal, leaving the final verdict with the white house. late last year nbc reported that biden's opposition to the u.s. steel takeover could test ties with japan, which of course is a key american ally. however, biden's reservations had bipartisan support. last month we reported that trump was reportedly also planning to block the japanese steel firm's bid. so far, nippon steel and u.s. steel vowed to pursue legal action against the government claiming it failed to follow proper procedures during its consideration of the acquisition. this was a political time bomb, mike barnicle, during the campaign. seems that president biden made his decision.

>> you know, jonathan, gene and i were talking about this off camera, this issue. you know, it seems from all the news reports, u.s. steel keeps the name u.s. steel. that name could never go away. the other aspect is the union intervention in this case, insisting that the deal not go through because it's being purchased by a japanese company and yet the japanese are among our closest allies. in terms of national security, i don't know what they would do to interfere with national security. the larger issue is the work itself, are there going to be lay yufs? someone has to figure this out. >> that's an important piece of the puzzle, right, because nippon steel willing to invest in the company. if there were no problem with the company, we wouldn't be talking about a sale. so, something is going to have to, you know, ownership, u.s.

ownership is going to have to step up to avoid layoffs. i understand the national security idea of having steel manufacturing owned by americans in america. i understand that. but once you say, okay, that's what we want, it seems incumbent on government to help try to figure out, okay, who is that? who is going to buy -- you know, i mean, if somebody needs to buy u.s. steel, who is that going to be is? going get elon to, you know, rummage through his couch and get the pocket change, you know -- >> elon musk reminds you of a bond villain? >> absolutely. absolutely. absolutely. >> we will have more on this decision, perhaps with more 007 represents, when don chu of cnbc joins us in the fourth hour. next, a live report from new orleans as authorities uncover more information about the man

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the very latest. plus, we know the identity of the cybertruck driver whose car exploded outside the trump international hotel in las vegas, we will dig into what was found at the scene as authorities raced to find a motive. and also ahead, just hours from now, mike johnson will face a tough fight to remain speaker of the house, we will break down how this could play out and republicans to watch ahead of today's vertical vote. also, president joe biden honors liz cheney and bennie thompson, the leaders of the january 6 select committee with one of the nations top wards, but not everyone was happy about it and that is an understatement, good morning and welcome to morning joe, it is friday, january 3rd. thank you for being with us, we have a great group to get us started and a lot of news to cover, we have associate editor

of the washington post, eugene robinson, nbc news capitol hill correspondent, allie vitelli, officially taking over hosting duties on monday, we will be watching, and president emeritus on counsel of relations, richard haas, we will begin this morning with the latest developments in the investigation of the deadly new year's day terror attack in the great city of new orleans, authorities say the attacker most likely acted alone when he drove a pickup truck through a crowd on bourbon street early wednesday morning. at least 14 people died in the attack and dozens of others were injured. the attacker was killed in a shootout with police, he is identified as a 42-year-old army veteran from texas, according to the fbi he was inspired by isis and claimed to have joined the terrorist group before the summer.

investigators say before the attack, the man posted a series of five videos on facebook, according to the officials, in the first video, the attacker explains he originally planned to harm his family and friends but was concerned that news headlines would not focus on what he called the war between the believers and the disbelievers. the fbi also released these images from surveillance footage that appears to show the man walking down the street about one hour before the attack. another image shows a blue cooler that authority say contained an explosive device. president biden addressed the discovery of those devices after meeting with members of his homeland security team in the situation room yesterday. >> as of now, no information, we have no information that anyone else is involved in the

attack. they have established that the attacker is the same person who planted the explosives in those coolers and in two nearby locations, in the french quarter just a few hours before he rammed into the crowd with his vehicle. he had a remote detonator in his vehicle to set off those ice coolers. >> joining us from outside the university medical hospital is nbc news correspondent, jesse kirsch, what is the latest about the investigation and what are officials learning about the suspect? >> so, let's go back to what the president just said, that the suspect allegedly planted these ied's in the french quarter multiple hours before the ramming attack, so what that means is that there were explosive devices that have gone undetected around bourbon street on new year's eve into

new year's day for quite some time and i asked officials yesterday if there had been bomb sniffing dogs that would have been sweeping this area on new year's eve and the governor's response was effectively suggesting that dogs could sniff something like that out on the street that would have so much going on. so, we are not getting a full explanation from officials at this point as to what kind of sweets would have been done for something potentially like that on bourbon street on new year's eve, so from an investigative standpoint, that is something that i think it still leaves us wanting answers at this point. we are also learning more about the victims, jonathan, and i can tell you, we are talking about multiple young people whose lives have been cut horribly short, we are talking about two 18-year-olds, multiple parents, people who were early in their careers, someone was about to start nursing school, and one account that really stuck out with me

is hearing of a 25-year-old young man who was about to, who went out on bourbon street and had dinner with his parents beforehand, so just imagine you have dinner with your child and then this happens to them, so these are the accounts we are hearing about, the lives that were lost and again, all of this is happening as bourbon street has been reopened but there still a lot of questions. i've got to tell you, i went last night and walked around bourbon street in the late evening to get a sense of what it was like on the first night it reopened, there were hundreds of people out there, certainly plenty of visible personnel including military police in camouflage, but i also have to tell you, it appears that the street is still vulnerable because as i was walking down bourbon street

last night and i looked through the intersections, i saw at multiple points, side streets that did not appear to be heavily fortified and here's what i mean, i was able to walk from bourbon street down one of the side streets and i noticed a police car parallel parked along the curb, not blocking the middle of the street and there was metal barricading, the kind of thing you would see at a parade. nothing that appeared to be heavy or re-fortified and that was all i saw between traffic moving down a side street and access to bourbon street, so to be clear, after bourbon street has been reopened, after officials have made it shown, i still see what appears to be traffic driving by a side street that is not fortified by much beyond a metal gate, and of course authorities may have deployed something we have not seen, we have asked police about this overnight, they have not gotten back to us with any kind of explanation but i can tell you, having been out there again, i saw multiple vehicles

including a taxi, so certainly not law enforcement vehicles in all instances, driving by what appeared to be an easy access point onto bourbon street and it leaves open the possibility that a vehicle could potentially do this again and that is the scenario after they have reopened the street and we have continued to ask for a lot of different answers on how this could have happened and what is being done to prevent this from happening again. the football game thankfully appears to have gone off smoothly, i didn't see anything, i definitely saw law enforcement present but to the bigger picture on this moving forward, top of mind, the victims families who are grieving right now, but moving forward, the super bowl is here in about a month and there's a lot of questions about the city's ability to handle that. >> you are right to highlight to the vulnerabilities, on the horizon of one of the biggest events of the year. thank you, jesse.

president-elect trump and his allies continue to falsely imply that the attack in new orleans was the result of insufficient border security, even though we have learned the attacker was a u.s. citizen born and raised in texas. trump has not directly acknowledged the attack since wednesday, but in several social media posts yesterday, he criticized the biden administration and democrats for open door, open border policy that he claims have led to radical islamic terrorism. and, going further, during an interview on fox news yesterday, mike johnson also falsely suggested that the new orleans attack had something to do with the border. >> the biden administration has been completely derelict in its duty that the congressional republicans in the house and senate have repeatedly asked the dhs under the biden

administration about the correlation, the obvious concern about terrorism and the wide open border, the idea that dangerous people are coming here in droves and setting up potentially terrorist cells around the country, we have been ringing the alarms. >> let's be clear yet again, this terrorist suspect was born in texas, u.s. citizen, served in the army, see, he seems to have nothing to do with the border. but, his fellow republicans including the man who wants to retain his post as house speaker, frankly going on unabated and strikes me as dangerous. >> it is extremely dangerous, and this is so transparent, he is a u.s. citizen, he was born and raised in texas, he is a texan, he is not some sort of foreign radical terrorist, he is a homegrown radical terrorist who happened to serve in the u.s. military. this is innuendo and

implication that's just completely off-base and completely wrong, it is a way of attacking democrats and the biden administration yet again and for speaker johnson, i suppose it is a way for, to try to get people focused on that and not on his own difficulties and his own questions about his speakership which i guess we will see later today, but again, it's just a lie. that would be the simplest and most direct way of saying it, it is a lie that republicans are telling about this tragic incident. >> it is, and it's also the latest in a pattern of donald trump being unable to make a mistake, in the hours after the attack, there was erroneous reporting elsewhere, that suggested that this attack may

have had something to do with the border, he made that the narrative, that reporting had to be retracted, officials have cleaned it up, it has nothing to do with it but he can't let it go and he's trying to use it for his political purposes, even though it could hinder the investigation and certainly could leave other people vulnerable because of this dangerous rhetoric. >> there's also a timeline, for several years, it was fair to criticize the biden administration for their border policy but over the last year it has tightened up, actually donald trump inherits a border situation that is not the crisis that it had been, so that is the first ., second, there some real issues, the lack of defense preparations, you heard maybe it wasn't fixed yet, also the idea that somebody composed videos and why isn't there the ability to react in real time to this menacing video. the other thing, what i found interesting, what he was talking about was between

believers and nonbelievers, i actually would have thought that something like gaza might have been something much more specific and political might have been the motive, but this was truly fundamentalist, he was dividing the world between believers and nonbelievers and the question is, we have been very lucky as a society, we haven't had a lot of this kind of religious or politically inspired terrorism over the last years and the concern is obviously, a tiny number of people can wreak havoc in a modern open society, so i think this is a really serious development particularly when it is juxtaposed about what happened. >> and officials yesterday, saying that there was some suggestion, this suspect, his life was crumbling and he was looking for an outlet to lash out with violence, he found his rhetoric from this terror group and was able to act, also this is a man that is about to be president again dealing with lies on national security issues

, it is deeply dangerous. meanwhile, while new orleans happened, we also know there was the same day, the incident in las vegas, authorities identified the man who died in the tesla cybertruck explosion outside the trump international hotel in vegas just off the strip. officials said the edification belonged to a decorated u.s. army soldier, the 37-year-old was an active duty master sergeant in the u.s. army special forces and a resident of colorado springs, colorado, he was initially leaved to have died in the explosion but investigators believe he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound just prior to the blast. officials say military i.d. and credit cards were found at the scene as well as two handguns. as of now, it is unclear how the explosive device and the vehicle was detonated. authorities have stated that they have not found any association between the las vegas event and the attack that

took place in new orleans. investigators are still working to determine a motive. we will keep you posted. coming up, a preview of today's vote for speaker of the house, the washington post, jackie joins us with the very latest, that is straight ahead here on morning joe. morning joe. if you take or have taken humira for moderate to severe crohn's disease

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>> we turn to politics, as we alluded to at the beginning of the show, the 119th congress is set to convene today and the first item on the to do list, choose a speaker, democrats are expected to universally oppose the current republican speaker mike johnson, meaning johnson could only afford to lose one vote among his caucus. while johnson is expected to win most of the gop conference, he is having a trouble of a handful of far right members, the issue at hand appears to be government spending and the way that johnson handled last month government funding fight. take a listen to what they are saying followed by his response. >> he would have a hard time become the speaker at this point so i'm not sure where the conversations are, so i think hopefully he will become more determined to have some country

changes. >> you can paul -- pull my fingernails out, i am not voting for my johnson tomorrow and you can take that to the bank. >> one day before the election, why are you so undecided? >> people are talking through the process and i think things are going to go well. >> that was speaker johnson, you are on capitol hill, he will be there later, as we figure out what happens today, give us the latest as to where things stand, what is johnson doing to win over these holdouts, do you think they are going to be successful? >> they are making demands and they are right to do that, especially in a world of these razor thin margins, they should ask because they know the speaker is hemmed in any way, so 99% of the members i have been speaking to and who will

go to the capital today believe that johnson should be fine but they also know there is a permission structure for chaos as predicated by two years ago, the last time we did this only with kevin mccarthy at the helm. so there is an incentive structure for being a holdout but we were having this conversation, we will see a lot just by the way this process goes because they vote alphabetically, you know that when you get to m, you are going to lose one. but we are going to see members and if any of them vote present, that means the number is no longer 218 for johnson, it lowers the threshold, if they vote no, you know that johnson is not going to get it on that ballot around, hakeem jeffries will stay at 215 hard votes that he has in his corner because democrats have shown consistency and their willingness to go along with leadership as a united front

but republicans, the alphabet is going to be quite instructive and we will see, do they let him twist in the wind or instead just get this whole thing over with because the prevailing view at the end of the day is that no one else can get to 218 but that is the conventional wisdom. >> that is a good point, the alphabet will be instructive this morning, so the editors on the national review argue republicans should stick with mike johnson as speaker, they write this, emerging from nowhere to the speakership, johnson has filled the role, he is a thoughtful conservative who has proved a shrewd tactician, he will never become a hate fake -- figure like some of his predecessors. he has managed the all- important relationship with trump well given the circumstances. in the real world, given that there's currently no other candidate who can garner 218

votes in the house cannot conduct business without a speaker in place, the only alternative to johnson is chaos, to try to get the same thing while hoping for a different result is the definition of insanity, it is time for the insanity to end, especially given that republicans already have a worthy speaker in place, so i think it is debatable whether johnson has been a shrewd tactician, he has had a lot of trouble getting things done, he has also saddled with this very slim margin, but if that is the compelling case johnson is trying to make, if not me, then who? and you are going to sideline and potentially sabotage the trump agenda coming into the door, your read on this situation? >> i think probably in the end it'll be persuasive because again, there is no viable alternative that any of us can think of right now and anybody else that could get to 218 votes, that said, there is no

218 vote majority in the house for an effective speaker, for a speaker who gets anything done because that requires working with the democrats, so let's assume that either, on the first ballot or the subsequent ballot, my johnson gets re- elected as speaker, great, okay, is that really the first prize or is that down the list because at some point, relatively soon, he is going to be trying to pass some legislation like keeping the government open and raising the debt ceiling, whatever, he's going to need democratic votes so he's going to get them and again, they will be this threat. one question is, are some of the naysayers demanding a rule change that would once again make it easier for them to get rid of the speaker, which is one member coming up and saying that's sorted out, johnson ran

managed to raise that number to nine so that gives him a little bit of cushion but are some members demanding they go back to this sort of precarious one- vote teetering situation for the speaker which will make it even less effective. >> with these two stories we have talked about this morning, it shows the republicans haven't yet made the transition from being outsiders in the party of the government, you've got a supreme court that is tilting in their direction, the reaction in new orleans, given the facts, claiming this was about the border when it wasn't, shows where's the seriousness about homeland security, how are they going to deal with that? and we have this story with johnson, there is a major move that has to happen to become the party of government, what this shows me is donald trump

and house republicans or certainly a number of them are not yet ready, they haven't made the transition to become the party of government, they are going to own this in about three weeks and what this shows me, they are not ready. >> trump has said he much prefers campaigning band governing, and we see that from his party as well, especially on the extreme right, they were throwing darts rather than getting things done. governing is hard, 90% is not throwing darts, it is getting things done, it is the implementation, peeve and helpful -- people haven't dealt with that yet. >> coming up, washington has changed, peter baker is breaking down the seismic shifts of presidential power from jimmy carter to donald

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>> welcome back, time for a look at some of the other stories making headlines this morning, the small country of montenegro is considering a complete ban on gun ownership, it comes after a shooter opened fire on new year's day and killed 12 people, the suspect died of self-inflicted injuries. in the aftermath, the country's president said that weapons must not be on the streets and in the hands of those who can harm others. back at home, a federal court has ended the government's long- running effort to gain stronger oversight over the internet, the court of appeals said the federal communications commission lacked the authority to oversee wireless and broadband services, the issue stems from concerns that companies could play favorites

and picking which websites they carry. and a new york city man is accused of breaking into the mayor's official residence, authorities say the suspect scaled the fence, entered gracie mansion and stole a christmas ornament, mayor eric adams was not home at the time, not only was the man recorded by a surveillance video at the mansion, he also filmed himself committing the crime using a cell phone, that is according to investigators, i suspect that was their first clue. we turn overseas, where authorities in south korea are locked in a standoff with the impeached presidents securities team for hours history aughts -- as they try to carry out an arrest warrant, for weeks, officials try to bring the president in for questioning

after he declared martial law last month, authorities say roughly five hours trying to serve the arrest warrant according to reuters, some 200 presidential guards and military troops blocked those efforts. lawyers for the impeached president argue that the arrest warrant is a legal, significant story, we will keep you posted. and in europe, president zelenskyy is expecting optimism that president trump could help and the invasion, it aired on ukrainian television yesterday, he called trump strong and unbreakable, adding i would really like to see his unpredictability apply to russia. trump has claimed he will end the three-year conflict in just 24 hours, once in office, he has backed off that pledge a little bit, richard, anytime zelenskyy talks about trump, he's trying to butter him up ,

he doesn't necessarily believe these things, but maybe he has a point, so let me ask you, do you think trumps unpredictability and his bizarre relationship with vladimir putin may actually lead to a quicker end to this conflict? >> i think he does have a point, you are right, i think he is trying to get on trumps good side, he is seeing a beginning of a deal that the united states will continue to support ukraine militarily in exchange to ukraine totally embracing a cease-fire, the exchange allows putin to pivot, saying trump is clearly on record, trying to bring a halt to the war. so i think there is a decent chance, rushers economy is faltering, they are running short of manpower, they are going to enormous lengths to get people out there, so i think it is not wildly optimistic to say that 2025 is

going to be the year of a cease- fire. i think the odds are at least even. and russia's efforts to reinforce the troops has not worked. we are watching that. president biden yesterday awarded the two leaders of the january 6 select committee with the presidential citizens medal at a white house ceremony, it is the second highest award that a civilian can earn in the united states. >> and the highest standards set by the men and women we celebrate here today, you know, i have the privilege to bestow this presidential citizens medal, one of our nation's highest honors, on an extraordinary group of americans. you are our elected officials who served in difficult times with honor, decency and ensuring that our democracy is

delivered, i think it is simple, our democracy begins and ends with duties of citizenship, that is our work of the ages, that is what all of you and body. >> bennie thompson and vice chair, former congresswoman, liz cheney of wyoming were both awarded medals for their work leading the investigation into the january 6 insurrection. both received standing ovations when their names were called. some of the other americans awarded included multiple veterans and civil rights activists and ali vitali , we saw an emotional response from the room and an emotional outburst from donald trump allies really criticizing this idea that liz cheney could be honored for her work to investigate what happened on january 6. >> yes, john barrasso who is an

republican leadership says she doesn't deserve this, saying she represents partisanship, not wyoming, of course she does not represent wyoming anymore because of that trump backed primary challenger for pushing her out for investigating the attack on the capital, this is going to be a stark divide in american politics, the reaction to january 6 and those members who in bipartisan fashion rushed to figure out what happened, who was involved, how high this went, and who knew about what was going to happen on the capital, on january 6. it is a really striking moment in american politics, that you can look at a standing ovation

at the white house for bennie thompson and liz cheney who investigated and colorful detail what happened on january 6 and you will see the administration weeks later saying that was not a big deal at all. >> it was unprecedented in american history, it was shocking, violent, 140 police officers were injured. several later died, circumstances connected with this, a woman was shot to death in the middle of the riot, the invasion that threatened the lives of the members of the u.s. congress. in a way that has never happened before in our history, that is what took place, and i don't understand how republicans believe they can pretend that it didn't happen, that it was a bunch of tourists going through the capital or peaceful protests or whatever, and it is also fascinating that

they are not angry at bennie thompson, they were angry at liz cheney because she is a republican and she called it out and she validated the investigation and she called them out and said seriously. so, this divide, this is going to continue, we are not coming together on the narrative of january 6 at all. >> and of course monday will be the anniversary of the insurrection, we expect this time around, it will go off without a hitch and of course donald trump has pledged to pardon most of these january 6 rioters soon after taking office in just a couple weeks. we will turn to sports, and with the semi finals now set, we are looking at some of the surprising teams who advanced to the final four. go irish. morning joe will be right back. k

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>> he said he wants him to stop the run and continue to force takeaways come he stressed they are edge rushers, wanting to continue the intensity. >> he brought to them two touchdowns last year, and he has one for notre dame. >> the notre dame fighting irish, after yesterday's sugar bowl, taking it to the half, combining for 17 points in just 54 seconds of game time. georgia answered with a td just a few minutes later, scoring on this pass from quarterback stockton to running back cass jones, but it wasn't enough, they picked up the upset win in new orleans, the game of course was originally set to be played on wednesday and was delayed due to the bourbon street

terror attack. so, with notre dame winning and advancement in the next round, that means the college football playoff semi finals are set, penn state will face off against the irish in the capital one orange ball on january 9th, and texas will play ohio state in the goodyear cotton bowl classic a day later, the winners will go on to play in the national championship game on january 20th. let's bring in the host of meadowlark media, msnbc contributor, top -- pablo tori. first off, we are glad the game went off safely, there was of course a moment of silence before the game. in the recent years, notre dame has been a team that puts together an impressive regular- season record and if they go to the playoff game, they get

smoked, yesterday, i know georgia is down a quarterback but, georgia was the pick of many to win this whole thing and notre dame just beat them and beat them solidly. >> georgia was my pick, i have been brainwashed to this exceptionalism, as i hang around this table, notre dame for the record had not won a major bowl game since 1994, and georgia had not lost a game in six years, so when stuff like this happens, the 17 points in 54 seconds on top of a dominating run game and dominating defense, there is an echo that is dynamic here, my friends hate when i say this but there has been like a dallas cowboys dynamic here, they have their own nonconference, independent sort of station above and beyond

college football, notre dame does, and finally, they are delivering on the promise that actually you might have one of the biggest brands in college football playing up to their reputation for the first time in almost four years. >> so let's take the games one at a time, let's start here, notre dame it's penn state, you know, that seems to be a pretty even match up of both teams pulling off solid wins this time around, do you think they are going to keep this streak going? >> yes, i do, penn state, as much as they have had a remarkable run, against really good teams, look at james franklin's record, against top 10 teams, it hasn't been great, penn state meeting boise state, yes they got an impressive win but i don't think they have been tested to the level of notre dame quite yet, so to me, look at this bracket, it's the other side of the bracket that

i'm most intrigued by. >> yes, that is the heavyweight side in some ways, for many, ohio state was just a peer dismantling of number one oregon, they are the favorites to win the whole thing. >> super startling to see ohio state, which again, the national media had fired their coach ryan day because he could not beat michigan in the last five years, that guy was basically a dead man walking except for what he has done since then and blowing out oregon has been the most impressive win of the college football playoffs so far, so that team cruising against a texas team which narrowly survived, double overtime against arizona state, ohio state is definitely the favorite in the field right now. >> so, this is the first time of the expanded playoffs, so

the result is going to be viewed as a referendum as to whether this system works. what do you think so far? >> i like the home games, if it is ohio state, it is interesting to give the team a second chance that you don't have to go through the season with no losses, or at most, one loss, some of the teams didn't quite belong in this, so that will be the question of the eligibility, but both things being equal, not bad for the first time around. for ohio state, it looks hard to complain. >> it seems clear that no matter what week it is a championship game matchup, these are four glamour programs and three of the four had really won anything in recent years so i think there's going to be a lot of compelling story lines up ahead. >> you have to say, this playoffs has really worked, we'll just flat out say, it has worked, despite the fact that looks like ohio state could win

it all. and if they cannot beat michigan, i still have that to hold onto, but they look so tough, and you know, but again, i would have done -- not have thought that notre dame, which has been such a disappointment in recent decades, would look as great as they did yesterday. so, i think this whole thing is open, you know, let's not give it all to the buckeyes yet, and let's concede that everybody has a shot at this. >> you should take some comfort, they do take credit to the ball game. that was on the tip of my tongue. >> they are not quite the rose bowl, you know. >> the jury is still out on

that one. so, alabama's loss at san pablo was the first thing that made him sad, the second thing was baker mayfield getting snubbed, there is no greater political surrogate that baker mayfield has than the man that sits in that chair. let's switch to the nfl, a couple quick headlines, on the pro bowl first, there were some notable snobs, baker mayfield, yes, patrick mahomes. >> that is a big one, it is just a testament, look, on paper it is shocking that the greatest player of his generation defending multiple times a bubble champion is not making the pro bowl. but this is a testament really to the question that attends every one of these debates which is okay, in the afc, it is josh allen and joe burrow, and every mvp hierarchy board has those three kinds of guys

ahead of patrick mahomes, yes he has had a lot of comebacks consecutively but just hasn't had the season. even though they are all on mount rushmore. if you take or have taken humira for moderate to severe crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis and still have symptoms... you don't have to settle. ask your gastroenterologist if switching to rinvoq is right for you. it's one of the latest treatments from the makers of humira. rinvoq works differently than humira and may help. rinvoq is a once-daily pill that can deliver rapid symptom relief,

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>> president biden and fellow democrats celebrate the 235 judicial confirmations that biden secure during his single term, he mentioned it in remarks delivered at the white house yesterday, the judges

confirmed the positions by the senate including the one supreme court justice. this surpasses the 234 judges who were confirmed under president-elect trump during his first term, biden touted the accompanist yesterday. >> these judges will be independent, fair and impartial. under respectable law and most importantly, and i never thought i would be saying this, they will uphold the constitution. >> you know, i have appointed the most demographic diverse slate of judicial nominees in america, for the best of america, this historic first. >> the president has repeatedly warned against the threat to democratic institutions and went on to say that he believes his legacy will be creating a bulwark against threats against nations democracy. coming up, a report from new

orleans, what we are learning this morning about wednesday's mass murder, those new developments are straight ahead on morning joe. morning joe

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there is the ball high above times square york it is in fact 2025. january 3rd, in fact york this song is bringing us into the morning hour of "morning joe." it is 9:00 a.m. on the east coast. i am jonathan lemire. we will dive writer now with the latest developments in the deadly new year's day terror attack in new orleans. authorities say the attacker likely acted alone. senior national correspondent tom llamas has the latest. >> reporter: overnight crowds slowly returning to bourbon street, now reopen for the first time since the tragic new year's day attack. we are learning more about the

army veteran who killed 14 and injured dozens more driving a truck at high speeds through the iconic french quarter. >> this was a loan actor. therefore we are confident we can open bourbon street. >> reporter: according to law enforcement officials the fbi uncovered a significant amount of bomb making materials and chemicals at a trailer, the texas home of the suspect, shamsud-din jabbar. video showing inside his home. authorities now have a timeline leading up to the horrific incidents. investigators say jabbar rented a pickup truck in houston on december 30th, drove to new orleans on new year's eve posting online along the way proclaiming support for isis. >> jabbar explained he initially planned on harming his family and friends but was concerned the news headlines would not focus on the, quote,

or between the believers and disbelievers, end quote. >> reporter: authorities releasing these images showing jabbar placing homemade explosive devices on bourbon street, coolers packed with pipe bombs that did not go off. for the first time we are hearing from jabbar's brother who told our affiliates the family is shocked. >> this was in no way a direct representation of who he was as a person and as a human being. >> reporter: he said jabbar grew up muslim but was not aware of any ties to isis. surveillance video shows the moment the truck came down the street at high speed. the chief medical officer where some of the injured are being treated -- >> have you ever seen anything like this? >> not to this extent. this is the largest influx of patients at one time. >> reporter: jeremy is one of

the survivors. >> pieces were all over the place. >> reporter: picture shows the aftermath of the wreckage. you can see what's left of his wheelchair. president biden funked -- think federal law enforcement agents think there is a connection between the attack in new orleans and las vegas. overnight side streets leading to bourbon street without barriers. the city adding these to sidewalks which it had on hand before the attack, but was not using. >> actually we had them. i did not know about them but we have them so we have been able to not put them out. >> that was nbc's tom llamas with that reports. and joining us now lift from new orleans is jesse kirsch. jesse, we just saw video of the

roads near bourbon street that still despite what happened do not have hard barriers in place. tell us about that and officials addressing why there is nothing more secure in the area. >> reporter: yes, jonathan. frankly i've spent most of my time since we got on the ground here near the superdome because we were worried about what might happen at the super -- football game. i went to bourbon street, went there to see what it looked like after it reopened, sought the memorials, saw the law enforcement presence. i was looking around and as you come up to the intersections, i looked left, looked right, and walking down bourbon street i noticed i could see vehicles turning, i could see headlights down that street and i thought, why can i see headlights?

why can i see a car driving by right now? theoretically hard barriers should be blocking that out and that's not what i saw. we did this on two separate side streets and i can tell you the metal fencing you just saw, looking like a bike rack, that is the extent of the barrier i saw between traffic and access to bourbon street. one of the two side streets you could see in the street they've got a lift to operate and have up and down. it was in the down position. i don't know how quickly that can be raised but that was down. i did see police vehicles but they were parallel parked along the curb. i saw cars driving by including at least one taxicab, not law enforcement vehicles. if someone wanted to try to take advantage of that situation, it appears that was possible. we've reached out to new orleans police and have not heard back on this. this raises more questions

about security preparations and judgment calls being made in this city a month ahead of the super bowl, mardi gras, jazz fest, plenty of events and a massive tourist destination. jonathan? >> six weeks until the super bowl there. and jesse, what more have we learned about the victims in the early hours of new year's day? >> reporter: they were teenagers, young adults getting ready to start their careers in the early days of their careers. there are parents, meaning there are children that will grow up without knowing their parents. 14 killed by the isis inspired terrorist and their loved ones are speaking out, remembering lives lost. this morning the victims are coming into sharper focus. many of them young adults just starting out their lives. martin tiger bech graduated

from princeton university. he was a star football player. the 27-year-old had been helping his younger brother prepare for the draft. >> he was my role model. >> reporter: drew's family telling us they will always remember his smile, telling us we cherish the 26 years we had with him and raising him will always be one of the greatest joys in our lives. matthew tenedorio headed to bourbon street to celebrate the new year . the 25-year-old's parents said they had dinner together. >> he was 25 years old, just starting life. >> reporter: ni'kyra dedeaux was days away from starting nursing school like her mother and grandmother. kareem badawi's parents described his kind heart and amazing personality.

63-year-old terrence kennedy remembered by his sister for his extremely big heart. reggie hunter was a father of two sons. his cousin said he was the life of the party with the great sense of humor. >> great father. someone that we are deeply, deeply going to miss. >> reporter: nicole perez was excited about a promotion and leaves behind 5-year-old son. billy was an account executive in new york city. his mother saying he was a gentle hearted soul. and 21-year-old hubert gauthreaux's mother says he was perfect. he would give anybody anything. across the grieving city of new orleans, memorials growing, remembering lives gone too soon. we also know that more than two dozen people were injured and hospitalized in this attack,

but we do not have an update, jonathan, from authorities on the conditions of those who survived. we also do not know how many have been discharged from the hospital. jonathan? >> nbc's jesse kirsch, thank you for bringing us those stories and the lives lost. we will not forget them as the investigation continues. turning to washington. congress is expected to convene at noon but it first needs to select a house speaker. garrett haake brings us the latest. >> reporter: this morning mike johnson is working to lockdown the votes he will need to keep speaker status as members of the paperthin house continue to withhold their support. conservatives weeding a meeting with johnson thursday still undecided. >> we will know tomorrow. politics is like, always

changing. >> reporter: johnson was selected speaker in 2023 ending weeks of chaos after a small group of republicans ousted kevin mccarthy who needed 15 ballots over 4 days to secure the gavel. with a small majority, johnson's gop house relied heavily on democrats to move must pass bills. that, plus his support for ukraine in the war against russia have created skeptics including thomas massie, the only republican to publicly claim he won't vote for johnson today. >> you can pull all of my fingernails out and shove bamboo into them. i am not voting for mike johnson tomorrow and you can take that to the bank. >> reporter: if all democrats vote for hakeem jeffries as expected it'll only take one republican vote to block him. meeting with trump at mar-a-

lago in new year's day, now touting trump's support and he will play victory on the first ballot. >> every single republican can put aside their personal preferences every day and take one for the team. >> reporter: arguing republicans can't start the work or certify donald trump's election until the party rallies around the speaker. ideally him. >> everyone understands the mandate we have at the moment and i think they will come along. >> that was nbc's garrett haake with that report. let's bring it to the conversation from the washington post jackie l amini, ief whithouse correspondent for the new york times peter baker, and special correspondent at vanity fair and host of the fast politics podcast, molly. thank you all for being here. jackie, let's start with you. what is the latest here in terms of johnson's support? trump tweeted out he wants

johnson to remain as speaker but it seems his fate is linked to the idea if not him, who? that does not seem like there is anybody else. >> jonathan, good morning. i am not in the business of prediction making but this is the first test of many for donald trump on how far he can go on getting the house gop conference to bend to his will, the first setting the stage and getting mike johnson in the speaker's race and tackling the laundry list of items he has installing his agenda but it's unclear whether mike johnson will be able to get this done on the first ballot or not. something extremely important here, there are a lack of interested parties. there are people who don't want to get the spiked start hit.

sort of an endorsement of johnson yesterday, who has often proxied for house members that a good plan now is better than a perfect plan later but there are a handful of people outside of tom massey gop lawmakers who are undecided. raf norman said he will only support him if there are future budget negotiations and he wants johnson not to rely on democrats for votes going ahead. sparks has indicated she does not support johnson. there is chip roy and donald trump who spoke yesterday and chip roy said he is willing to help johnson by whipping the vote if something goes awry on the first ballot. but it's also a question of just how much political capital the president-elect wants to expand on this with so many other bruising and more substantive policy fights

ahead. >> so, peter baker, let's start with that. those on the hill we have talked to suggest johnson has better than a 50-50 chance to remain speaker but it's not a sure thing and this is a test of trump's political capital. how much will he go to bat for johnson? now he seems onboard but peter, you are seeing the tweet from this morning. you and i have covered this man for some time. if he feels you are not going to make it, he is willing. >> good luck. it is not like you said you absolutely must do this or i will punish you. trump has a way of making his well-known and the wording is important because he wants to keep some distance if johnson does not get elected at least on the first ballot. trump does not want this to look like a defeat for him if that is what happens and we've seen the freedom caucus and the

far right on the house republican conference has been kind of bulky. they didn't go along with trump in the last minute effort to blow up the spending deal right before the holidays. he wanted to postpone the debt ceiling issue for two years and they said, no, we will not go along with that, so he does not have a complete hold over this republican conference and one or two can make things look bad. what a time for us, jonathan. this used to be the most very basic responsibility of a house majority every two years. pick a speaker. it never used to be such a drama but in this era we are living in, everything is up in the air. chaos and dysfunction are the norms. >> molly, we are seeing it again there at the house. you know, speaker johnson fighting for his political

survival later today. speak to us more about what peter started to address, the idea nothing is easy. it is tumultuous and apolitical show but if he were to falter here there could be real repercussions for what trump republicans want to do once he actually has power. >> johnson has had trouble getting the republican votes he needed in the congress. he's always relied on democratic votes to pass things. and so, if you think about it, democrats have all said they will vote for hakeem jeffries so can he get what he needs numerically? i'm not sure that is true. >> so, peter, as we are preparing for donald trump to return to office, next week washington will say goodbye to former president jimmy carter, your latest piece looks at how the presidency in washington has changed since carter's time in office to trump 2.0.

the panama canal fits nicely as an example of just how different things are today. >> it is striking when you go back and look at what happened in the 1970s. it's controversial, right? ronald reagan and others said, no. this is about america's interest in the world. we built it and paid for it. we will keep it. carter decided it was back -- right to give back the canal because he was told by the joint chief of staff it would require 100,000 american troops and it would be a guerrilla war if he decided to not do that. he decided to win people over who did not agree with him. he decided to work with the opposition and he worked with the republican leader of the senate. he lobbied and recruited his republican predecessor, ford, who he had just beaten in the

election. he endorsed these panama canal treaties and he won a big bipartisan vote with 68 votes in the senate to ratify these treaties even though it was politically risky for all involved. hard to imagine 68 votes in the senate with something as controversial as the panama canal treaties. in the end it turned out to be a success story. reagan decided i will not reverse things. we will keep these treaties and no one questioned it seriously until the last few days when donald trump brought them up. >> he has parroted reagan talking points on twitter, talking about taking back the panama canal saying it was the worst mistake jimmy carter every made. how will this moment in time be viewed from the biden to trump transition? >> inflation, hostages he is

trying to release before he leaves office, who was seen as handling some foreign-policy issues like afghanistan invited's case, or iran. we don't want to take it too far obviously. we see with the panama canal reagan had a pragmatic side and in the end when he became president he looked at the treaties and set okay, this is working. that's not where trump is. trump is raising an issue where no one was making it an issue until he brought it up. >> molly, he's not just raising issues with panama. he's being frankly aggressive towards greenland to canada. we have thought about as trump comes back to office these global hotspots, like ukraine and the middle east that he

will have to deal with, but he is also creating turmoil on several matters and sometimes with real allies. >> we saw this in trump 1.0, right? very aggressive language that maybe was sort of in order to create trade, you know, negotiations. remember he was very aggressive in his language towards mexico and canada. in the end, the hardest part i think of covering trump is knowing what is really meaningful and what is just bluster. that is not to say it is not important we cover everything. it is just to say it is really important to remember what is the sort of real important elements of trump and what are sort of for boast, for lack of a better word. >> p is throwing so much out

there every day. we will return to politics in a few minutes but we want to get to the cybertruck explosion outside the trump hotel in las vegas. authorities have it narrowed in on a decorated army soldier as the driver and the motive for what happened remains unknown. morgan chesky has more. >> reporter: this morning authorities are working to fully i.d. the driver of the cybertruck that exploded on new year's day outside the trump hotel on the vegas strip. >> at this time there is no information about additional subjects the fbi is tracking. >> reporter: law enforcement says mounting evidence points to master sergeant matthew livelsberger as the primary suspect. investigators found his passport, credit card, and military i.d. inside the charred vehicle and are awaiting dna testing

recovered behind the wheel. >> looking into what the motivation is, that remains our number one priority. >> reporter: authorities say the driver died from a self- inflicted gunshot wound to the head before the explosion leading to more questions than answers. >> he wasn't looking for casualties but to deliver a message in a symbolic event. >> reporter: inside the truck they found fuel canisters, mortars, and handguns livelsberger bought legally on monday. using tesla charging stations authorities have traced his route from denver through new mexico, arizona, and las vegas. he was on active duty and served as a green beret assigned to special operations command. he was based in germany but on approved leave according to army officials. he was deployed multiple times and was the recipient of a bronze star with valor. in colorado springs, a neighbor

says livelsberger and his partner had a new baby at home and seemed normal enough. >> we would come out at the same time with our dogs and we would say hi to each other. >> reporter: the investigation stretching across the country and abroad with his motives still unknown. >> what was his motivation to go from an honorably serving special sergeant to carrying out political violence? >> that was nbc's morgan chesky with that report. let's take a look at other headlines making -- stories making headlines this morning. teen alcohol use reached a record low in 2024 according to a large national survey. 42% of 12th graders reported drinking alcohol in the past month, down from 75% in 1997. meanwhile, marijuana usage levels were the lowest they've been in decades at 26% for 12th- graders.

the only increase found was with the nicotine pouch use, which was up about 3%. the result of a new survey could not come at a better time as this morning the u.s. surgeon general said alcohol is a leading cause of cancer and alcoholic averages should carry a warning label just as cigarettes do. a new report by u.s. surgeon general states that alcohol directly contributes to 100,000 cancer cases and 20,000 related deaths each year. any label mandate would require an act of congress. more and more science adding up about the dangers of alcohol. president biden and his family were given gifts from foreign leaders in 2023. the most expensive? a $20,000 diamond from the prime minister of india. first lady jill biden received

the 7.5 carat diamond as part of prime minister modi's visit to the white house in 2023. federal law requires executive branch officials declare the gift they received from foreign leaders with an estimated value over $480. the diamond was retained for official use in the white house east wing and will be turned over to the national archives when the biden's leave the white house in a few weeks. four meanwhile researchers have discovered dinosaur footprints in what is believed to be the biggest find in the united kingdom's history. the startling discovery was made in central england after a worker operating a digger noticed unusual bumps in the clay. these footprints date back 166 million years. the longest continuous track stretches nearly 500 feet. most of the tracks are believed

to have been made by longnecked herbivore dinosaurs. the discovery will be featured in a new bbc documentary that airs next wednesday. coming up on "morning joe," the 119th congress is set to begin with republicans in full control of the house and senate. we will break down what you need to know as the new congress reconvenes on capitol hill. plus, the incoming democratic governor of delaware will join the conversation as his state's concussion nation -- congregation makes history of its own today. when we come back. wi colon cancer rising in adults under 50, the american cancer society recommends starting to screen earlier, at age 45. i'm cologuard, a noninvasive way to screen at home, on your schedule. and i find 92% of colon cancers. i'm for people 45+ at average risk for colon cancer,

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election. we have been talking about that all morning. then they will consider a new rules package that would make it harder to oust the same speaker. over in the senate, only the reelected senators will be sworn in on the senate floor by vice president kamala harris. joining us now, democratic governor elect matt meyer of delaware. mr. governor, good to see you and congratulations on your victory back in november. your state is making history today but let's start with you and your vision for your state as you prepare to take office. >> thank you, jonathan, and good morning to viewers. 10 years ago i was a sixth and seventh grade math teacher after serving in iraq overseas. it was a victory because in

delaware, i run the largest county and we are about delivering for the working people of our state. we are putting in place policies to be off and running when we start about 2 1/2 weeks from now. >> hi. it's molly jong-fast. can you explain those policies and how they will help people? >> sure. based on current test scores, we are 34th or 35th in the country, delaware. we will roll up our sleeves and make sure teachers are staying in the classroom, making sure we are getting resources to teachers and funding the schools appropriately. my wife is an emergency room physician and we will bring down healthcare costs, increasing accessibility for people, you know, to deliver for the people of our state and quite frankly it's the future leadership our state and our country needs, and our party needs. >> sir, it is peter baker of

the new york times. you are entering a period this new year where democrats are in the minority of the house and the senate will lose the white house in a few days. the president in your state, joe biden, of course. how will the nation operate in this new trump era? how much should they be in opposition and resistance to trump? how much should they try to work out a deal with him? how much should they contrast themselves with him? how to get another look in the next round of elections? >> peter, i'm biased but i think our job is rolling up our sleeves to deliver for in my case the people of delaware with great, innovative policies that benefit democrats, republicans, independents, all corners of the community and we are determined to do that. we live in an incredibly technological time.

you can do incredible things in the palm of your hand but there are so many americans falling behind and i think those leaders in the party that's able to deliver for those falling behind will ultimately be the winner regardless of what the election results were a few months ago so that is what we are focused on in delaware. how do we put our heads down and be a model for the country? as we have seen delaware can be a model for the country and we are looking to do that with innovative policy. >> hey, it's jacqueline alemany from the washington post. thank you for coming on this morning. something that comes up in my conversations on the hill right now, the drawbacks of the tax credits relating to clean energy investments. that has been dispersed to the states through the inflation reduction act and i'm wondering if there are any plans you have to try to protect some of the

investments that have already been made, or future investments in the case republicans decide to repeal the ira. >> we are in the midst of the climate crisis. we see it in delaware, the lowest lying state in the country in terms of elevation. we've got a coastline flooded on a regular basis by rainfall. we will do everything we can to extend those credits within our state to make sure we are protecting people in delaware and across the country and world. that is the advantage that states have these days and, you know, blue states like delaware, we have a democratic senate and house. in my view, the chips are down and it is an opportunity to show we are going to lead. >> mr. governor, i will close with some of the history your status making right now. of course, delaware's favorite son, joe biden, is exiting the white house in the coming weeks but you have lisa rochester,

the third black woman to be reelected to the senate. as well as sarah mcbride, the first openly transgender person elected to congress. talk to us about these two history making individuals. >> for 237 years, the state has sent representatives to the senate and every single one of those people has been a u.s. mail, a man, a white man, until today. today it changes and not just because of the race or agenda of lisa blunt rochester but because she is a courageous leader who i personally have had the opportunity to collaborate with, to prevent homelessness and address housing with. she worked hard on supply-chain and reducing the cost of living for everyday americans and we are excited about that. sarah mick ride is extraordinary and has shown extraordinary courage.

she doesn't get much coverage nationally creating paid family leave for delaware families and also reducing the cost and accessibility of health care so we are very excited about having these two individuals represent us starting today. they will be sworn in later today. >> history being made in washington from the great state of delaware. matt meyer, thank you for joining us this morning. on monday, president biden and the first lady will travel to new orleans to mourn with the community there in the wake of the new year's day terror attacks and to thank first responders who were there moments later at the terrible scene on bourbon street. the president and first lady to new orleans on monday. coming up, president biden announced the white house will block a $15 billion bid by a japanese company for u.s. steel. we will have the latest details

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welcome back. some significant news here. moments ago president biden announced the white house would block a $15 billion bid from a japanese buyer to purchase u.s. steel. biden opposed the sale of the company to a foreign buyer for months now and it's now official. for more, let's bring in cnbc's dominic chu. this is something the president has delayed several times. we now have his final call. explain to viewers why this was so politically charged and why the reactions to what biden did are so split. >> reporter: politically charged in one way but not in others, jonathan. first of all i should point out u.s. steel shares stocks are down roughly 6% in early trading and it tacks onto the

4% loss in yesterday's session after the initial reports of the formal blocking came to light. this move to block japan's nippon from taking over u.s. steel is one that by the way had a lot of bipartisan support and is one of a handful of issues both the biden administration and incoming trump administration actually agreed on. for national security reasons, u.s. steel should be domestically owned, domestically operated. with this decision, there are a whole new set of questions about the future for u.s. steel, the company itself, and the workers. is u.s. steel economically viable on its own? there is a reason why you put itself on the cellblock to potential buyers. willie need to cut operations hypothetically? factories, mills, even jobs to continue its business as a standalone business?

then there is who else could domestically take it over and make it work while keeping those jobs and mills open. remember, an ohio based company was a potential buyer of u.s. steel prior to this but has since purchased canada-based because it could not get the deal for u.s. steel done. there are a handful of domestic steel companies with the size and capacity to make u.s. steel part of their operations, so the coming months will be key and that's the reason things are so charged right now. yes, foreign versus domestic ownership, but will u.s. steel be able to exist in the future and will people be able to work in those mills and factories? that will be huge, jonathan. >> donald trump also opposed this, but take us behind closed doors. how did president biden get to

this eventual call? >> reporter: he delayed for a while to give the owners or the buyers a chance to read through the deal that did not happen in a way that satisfied the president. the committee that judges these kind of foreign sales didn't come up with a recommendation. didn't say yes or no but expressed concerns over what the sale would mean for u.s. national security. of course, there is always been concerned america has control over the capacity to create steel that would be used in any kind of military buildup kind of situation. the idea of a foreign patrol across party lines. biden, of course, has prided himself on being a president to help restore manufacturing. he passed the chips act which invested a lot in the semiconductor industry and he boasted in his statement about steel plants being reopen in

america and so forth, so for him, this is the last bid for him to address the workers he knew in pennsylvania that he was always, you know, appealing to in terms of his background. all of that played into his decision here in the waning hours of his presidency. >> what is the congressional reaction to this? >> reporter: yes, jonathan. i am planning on heading over to congress shortly as soon as we wrap for more real-time reactions but there have been discrepancies between republican reactions to the rejection of the deal. we know donald trump came out against it not just on the campaign trail but reiterated his opposition earlier this month and said he wanted to grow the company domestically through tax credits and tariffs but there have been republicans including former trump

administration officials like mike pompeo who believes protection of the deal has been shortsighted and it would have been beneficial to the u.s. to shore up national security by increasing the production of steel. i do think that a lot of the isolationist, hard-line republicans are in vigorous agreement with president-elect trump and with joe biden on the rejection of the deal. >> the washington post's jacqueline alemany, peter baker, thank you for your time. dom chu, back to you. striking down the neutrality roles? explain that to us. >> reporter: this is a big deal when it comes to big tech companies. regulatory and judicial powers have come to a conclusion with regard to the net neutrality. that has been prevalent for decades at this point. it is a big deal out of the

court of appeals in cincinnati, ohio. this three-judge panel ruled the federal indications commission, the fcc's regulations on cable and broadband internet industry are not within the confines of the law. this effectively strikes down one of the most controversial policies on the business dynamic between big companies, tech companies like google and facebook's parent company meta versus companies like at&t, cnbc, msnbc 's parent company, comcast, versus consumers of all of this content. the appellate court basically said the fcc does not have the authority to put rules into place that prohibit these internet service providers from deciding how to deliver internet traffic on their own. the ruling means those service providers can actually do things, like either block or slow delivery speeds for certain types of content at their discretion.

all of this is being made possible because recent supreme court decisions on things you will here refer to as the chevron difference, all of those decisions mean courts have more say in evaluating and rejecting interpretations of the law that have been deferred to federal agencies in the past. it is a big deal that net neutrality was struck down. electric vehicles now. tesla delivered for the final corridor of the year with 590,000+ vehicles, less than estimates for 504,000 plus vehicles. deliveries mean 1.79 million which represents the first time in tesla's history that full year deliveries fell on a year- over-year basis.

it is a big story to watch here as well, jonathan. >> cnbc's dom chu, thank you. have a great weekend. coming up on "morning joe," the man who wants to live forever. our next guest has dedicated his life to define aging and is the subject of a new netflix documentary. he will join us when "morning joe" comes right back. the oh, oh, ohhhhs! now whatcha wanna do with this? but the feeling that, no matter what, you're taken care of. ohhh, i just earned a hotel suite! hee! you only get that here. at the sportsbook born in vegas, where they know how to treat you right. who you talking to jamie foxx? bonus bets. exclusive offers. real world rewards. betmgm. download and bet today.

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as a species, we accept the inevitable decline and death. i want to argue that the opposite should be true. my name is bryan johnson and i've been spending millions of dollars hacking aging. i take pills, plasma exchanges, and they will be injected with my first gene therapy.

i am trying to be on the outermost edge of possibility for the science. >> that is part of the trailer for the new netflix documentary with the title "don't die: the man who wants to live forever" and the film chronicles a wealthy entrepreneur, bryan johnson, in his personal project titled blueprint highly coordinated effort that aims to reduce the aging experience of the human body. well, bryan joins us now. bryan, thank you for joining us this morning. why did you agree to give access? was there anything considered off-limits? what was that process like for you? >> yeah, so nothing was off limits. you have open access to film everything and here is all of my footage. you can tell any story you want. it really was an arm length process and really what i'm

trying to do here is ask the question are we the first generation who won't die? >> hi, bryan. molly jong-fast here. can you explain to us why you decided to take this path? what was it that made you so interested in reverse aging? >> i imagined being present in the 25th century, a few hundred years into the future. whoever they were in that moment speaking about our time and place in the 2020s, they are wondering, what should we do as a species to allow sapiens to thrive? one, we gave birth to super intelligence and the birth of a.i. and two, we are transitioning from inevitable death to expanding our lifespans and the

only thing on our to do list, we are evolving into something new and we are all being passed the current limitations of our lifespans. >> bryan, you are 47 years old and you've got a multi-general exchange with your son and father estimating to spend $2 million a year on this process. that has been reported. what is the most challenging part of this, and is it simply answering the question why do you want to live forever? >> yeah, so really wanting to live for tomorrow and wanting to live forever are the same ideas. most humans cannot comprehend wanting to live forever but we understand wanting to live for tomorrow and what's interesting, i've got the most comprehensive biomarkers than anyone on earth and on the healthiest human alive and what i'm trying to do is explain that health can be a quantified endeavor. if this were a sport, i would be a gold metal champion, the number one athlete in the world. i am trying to create a new

sport for health. they are so confused about what people say with conflicting things and using a scientific approach to quantitatively show you can achieve these markers. my current speed of aging is 2.57, which means my birthdays every 21 months now. >> there are so many outstanding questions about this process and i'm glad we have this documentary to watch. it is titled "don't die: the man who wants to live forever" and it's available now on netflix. bryan johnson, thank you. that does it for us this morning. we will see you back here on monday for "morning joe." ana cabrera picks up coverage after a quick break. when migraine strikes...

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a chewy order is on the way for radar — who knows that sounds means... kibble... squeaky toy... ...and birdseed. delivered fast — at prices everyone loves. for low prices. for life with pets, there's chewy right now on ana cabrera reports, speaker fight. the 119 congress set to be sworn in. will a republican revolt to mike johnson's