said, there's going to be a lot of executive orders coming down on day one, and you got to imagine that's going to be one of the first things that the trump administration tries to roll back. >> yeah, and the cbc is incredibly worried about this already. of course, we have seen you know, you think about walmart, you think about lowe's. you think about all of these companies that are rolling back. >> you think about the house office of diversity and inclusion being gone. >> so definitely a top of concern for the cbc. >> cheyenne daniels, thank you for joining us and waking up. and that was way too early for wednesday morning. morning joe starts right now. >> you know, perhaps the most damning comment about pete hegseth came from pete hegseth himself, when he was explaining what the military needs in its leadership. >> the die policies of today are not putting meritocracy first. every single senior officer will be reviewed based on meritocracy. getting anything that doesn't contribute to meritocracy out of how decisions are made inside the pentagon, ensuring readiness and

meritocracy is front and center. meritocracy, meritocracy. meritocracy. >> oh, i know what his next kid is going to be named. >> you heard him, though. you heard him, folks. a military cannot function unless it's staffed by a system based on pure merit, where only the most qualified people rise to the top. so says your next secretary of defense, who will run the most complicated, powerful, deadly organization the world has ever known and whose only qualification is that? trump liked watching him sit on a couch on saturday mornings? >> that is the daily show. >> reacting to pete hegseth contentious confirmation hearing yesterday. we're going to go over the important exchanges as two democratic senators grilled donald trump's defense secretary pick over his character, views on women in combat, and whether he is fit to actually lead the military. >> plus, we're following more confirmations on capitol hill as some big name republicans face

more scrutiny from lawmakers this morning. >> we're going to tell you who they are. >> also ahead, president biden is capping off a five decade career in politics as he is set to deliver his farewell address to the nation tonight, just days before donald trump is sworn in. >> good morning, and welcome to morning joe. it is wednesday, january 15th. along with joe, willie and me, we have msnbc contributor mike barnicle, the co-host of our fourth hour. jonathan lemire, he's now a contributing writer at the atlantic covering the white house and national politics. >> so a lot to get to this morning. >> those hearings yesterday were quite something. they really were at a different time. >> things might go differently, but this isn't a different time. >> and when we get to a wall street journal editorial page basically said. >> pete hegseth got a free pass. democrats weren't able to make any positive advances forward.

>> and meanwhile, the republicans just again gave him a free pass. and he got by with with with just general general answers. they end by saying mr. hegseth made noises about restoring the us military. but it appears we're on track to have a secretary of defense whose real views are a mystery. >> let's hope he rises to the occasion. we'll. we'll see. >> yep. >> but we got to start with our top story out west and the winds just making things worse. >> and they keep coming, willie. >> yeah, they actually were a little bit better than forecast yesterday. but today is shaping up to be a really difficult day. the death toll from those wildfires now has climbed to 25. this comes as crews are dealing with strong santa ana winds that have ignited new fires, many of which are under control. the winds expected to last until tomorrow. as of now, the largest of the wildfires, the palisades,

fires, 18% contained. the eaton fire is at 35% containment. in all, the fires have swept through 40,000 acres, nearly the size now as washington, dc. joining us live from altadena, california is nbc's steve patterson. steve good morning. what's the latest there? >> well good morning to you. >> the devastation here is just endless. these are some of the same images that you've been seeing of course, all week long. >> it's now been more than a week since these fires started. >> and now firefighters are worried about what the national weather service has warned us about, which is this particularly dangerous situation. that is the designation that they are now saying we are under. it's been about the last 48 hours or so. it's resulted in several spot fires, several brush fires. but as you mentioned, a little bit lesser than we expected so far. the winds, though, expected to pick up again in just a few hours. we are maybe within the last few hours of this designation, but they could be the worst hours that we've seen

so far. >> the winds expected to be heavier again, the humidity very low. >> it's very dangerous fire weather, especially for firefighters who are doing their best to put out the fires that have already started that are still going. the eaton fire, the palisades fire, both still with containment left to go until they get those fires completely down. it is not safe for most residents to come back here. so residents still heartbroken. obviously they want to see the results of the damage. they want to see what their home looks like, they want to start the process of insurance and everything that comes with it is a very long journey for thousands and thousands of people who are impacted by this fire. but the fires are not out yet. 35% containment where i'm standing at the eaton fire, 18% containment at the palisades fire. but with these wind events again expected to raise the danger over the next few hours, firefighters are doing all they can to make sure hotspots are suppressed and looking out across the region because it covers such a large swath of southern california for any

possibility that a new fire may start, the embers from an old fire may cause a new fire that the front of these fires doesn't shift to somewhere else, as they put more containment down on these fires. meanwhile, the insurance process, of course, starting for a lot of homeowners, a lot of homeowners trying to contact fema and get that process started, the emergency funds that are available for homeowners need to be available and readily so. but meanwhile, the investigation has started as well. the atf leading the palisades investigation. there have been multiple lawsuits here at the eaton fire, at the energy company socal energy. but meanwhile, firefighters are doing the best they can to first get this major operation, which is the firefight itself, under control. when that happens, then we can move on and start talking about everything else. guys. >> yeah, the firefighters doing heroic around the clock work. there is a new report just this morning from the l.a. times, though, about a lack of preparation when we saw these winds kicking up and the fires beginning, that some engines could have been put in place in palisades, pacific palisades

that were not. so there will be big questions. but for now, we hope they can get those fires under control. steve patterson in altadena steve, thanks so much. let's go over to meteorologist angie lassen for a look at those winds today. >> angie, what are you seeing? >> hi there willie. we're seeing just what steve said, basically a fluctuation. so we've got these four main fires that we're watching. >> we are still dealing with that red flag warning, as steve said, 10 million people right now, though under that risk, it stretches from san luis obispo all the way down to the border. >> winds have, as expected, ramped up over the past 24 hours. so 45 to 65 mile per hour gusts is what we're expecting for the peak of today. but notice the areas that we're looking at, that particularly dangerous situation, wording that extra level of danger, because we do have those extremely critical fire conditions in these places. >> so parts of the san gabriel mountains, simi valley, san fernando valley, those are some of the spots stretching up into ventura, where we're still see that high risk for these kind of large explosives fires to grow at a rapid pace. >> the current wind speeds right now ten, 15, 20mph, for the most

part, we've got a couple of spots, especially up in the higher elevations that are gusting about 50 plus miles per hour. >> that's going to ramp up, especially as we get past 4 a.m. pacific time notice as we head into the later morning hours, those peak gusts closer to 65mph. humidity levels around 15 to 30%. so a slight uptick. we're going to see a better uptick here in the humidity levels as we move forward through the week. but for now, we kind of fluctuate between ten, 15, ten, 15% humidity levels. so we don't have a whole lot of relief from that. but later in the afternoon, specifically into the evening hours, we will start to see relief when it comes to the winds. so 20, 30, 40 mile per hour gusts for the later parts of the afternoon overnight tonight. notice those peak wind gusts. they get down to 35mph. willie, the good news is also closer to the coast. we'll see those ten 15mph. so there will be some improvements, but we got to get through the morning first. >> all right, angie, we'll be watching closely along with you. angie lassman, thanks so much. we appreciate it, guys. >> all right. >> the confirmation process for president elect donald trump's

cabinet picks kicked off yesterday with the senate armed services committee holding a hearing for one of the most controversial choices. >> defense secretary pick pete hegseth. >> hegseth, a combat veteran and former fox news host with little experience in leadership, pitched himself as the much needed change at the pentagon and brushed off the numerous controversies surrounding him. >> now, it is true, and has been acknowledged, that i don't have a similar biography to defense secretaries of the last 30 years. but as president trump also told me, we've repeatedly placed people atop the pentagon with supposedly the right credentials, whether they are retired generals, academics or defense contractor executives. and where has it gotten us? he believes, and i humbly agree, that it's time to give someone with dust on his boots the helm, a change agent, someone with no vested interest in certain companies or specific programs

or approved narratives. my only special interest is the war fighter. >> you know. there's so much that was said yesterday, it would literally take us four hours just to get through the misinformation that was put out there. but there there are just some things that we just we just have to stop before we even go any further and talk through the fact that when somebody asks the question, where has it gotten us? anybody that knows anything about the united states military, anybody that knows anything about today's united states military and our armed forces and the men and women that serve proudly, will tell you america's military is more powerful relative to the rest of the world than any time.

certainly in the last 25 years and perhaps since the postwar world. >> the fearsome ability of the united states military to extend power across the globe unparalleled. >> and where has it gotten us? with a nato that is stronger and more powerful than ever before? >> we have helped ukraine wreck the second most powerful military in the world without losing a single american sailor or soldier or marine or airman. >> and in asia, china, more hemmed in today than ever before. because what we've done in guam, what we've done in the philippines, what we've done with japan, japan and south korea becoming allies, what

we've been doing with australia, helping them build a nuclear navy. i could go on and on, but this idea, this idea, republicans that we need somebody with dust on their boots and this position and the suggestion that we haven't had people with dust on their boots in this position. is either willfully lying or willfully ignorant. we have had actually some of the most decorated, heroic, brave, battle tested men that have been holding the top positions over the past 4 to 8 years in the military and yes, women as well that have been there. so the idea that this is some feel good exercise ignores

the fact that whether from mad dog mattis to general milley, you have people that have been fighting and in iraq and afghanistan were there at the worst times in fallujah. and it's just an insult, just an absolute. and again, we there is so much to talk about here, but we've just got to go full stop because i'm sick and tired of people tearing down the men and women in uniform that are protecting us. and i'm sick and tired. you know, people want to lie about the economy. they can lie about the economy. well, i don't take that as personally. i mean, because that's their own problem, because they're going to be judged by how they do compared to the united states economy right now, which is the envy of the world. we have record low jobless rates. the stock market is at record highs. i mean, they'll have to deal with that. but this insult that somehow our military is weak and

woke is just an outrageous lie. and it's an insult to our men and women in uniform. i want to bring in right now, general barry mccaffrey, you talk about american heroes. he's got he's had little dust on his boots through the years. and, sir, we thank you. we thank you for your service to this country. thank you also for getting up very early this morning on the west coast. why? i'm just i want you to give me your general, general feelings about what you saw yesterday. but first, let let let's blow apart this lie that our military is weak and woke and not the strongest in the world by far. first, could we do that, sir? >> boy, that was such a terrific opening statement on your part. you know, this magnificent armed forces active guard reserve, 2.1 million men and women in uniform, by the way, a thousand

some odd killed and wounded among women fighting in the war on terror. 60,000 some odd casualties in total. enormously complex, globally deployed. the u.s. navy is fighting actively day in and day out, trying to keep sea lanes open in the middle east. it is astonishing the courage, the devotion to duty that we see among the active duty. and by the way, everybody goes back to afghanistan. the disgrace of the withdrawal. mr. trump ran for presidency and said he was going to get us out of afghanistan. and he handed biden, who ran for office, to get out of afghanistan, a situation with 2500 troops on the ground. we pulled out over 100,000 screaming civilians and a miracle operation. that could have been the french defeat at dien bien phu, because we put

seven elite battalions on the ground and intimidated the taliban, who had been 7000 of whom had been released by mr. trump. so there's a lot of nonsense floating around. but look, the hearing yesterday, divisive partizan in some ways an unqualified candidate, he did remarkably well. he's articulate, he's smart. he's a decorated combat veteran. he's a princeton grad. he's quick on his feet. he's going to get confirmed. senator jack reed, my friend, said it all in his opening statement. behavioral problems, alcohol abuse, lack of experience, his statements on the role of women in the armed forces. so we're in a in a period, though, where we've got to remind ourselves the real problem is mr. trump suggesting we might invade greenland, we might seize the panama canal, we

might use military power against drug cartels in mexico. we might coerce canada into being the 51st state. this is comical stuff. that's going to be the challenge. less so, mr. hegseth. >> well, here are some of the key lines of questioning from of hegseth, from democrats in yesterday's hearing. take a listen. >> i do not believe that you are qualified to meet the overwhelming demands of this job. we must acknowledge the concerning public reports against you, a variety of sources, including your own writings, implicate you with disregarding the laws of war, financial mismanagement, racist and sexist remarks about men and women in uniform, alcohol abuse, sexual assault, sexual harassment, and other troubling issues. i have reviewed many of these allegations and find them extremely alarming indeed. the

totality of your own writings and alleged conduct would disqualify any service member from holding any leadership position in the military, much less being confirmed as the secretary of defense. >> an event in north carolina drunk in front of three young female staff members. after you had instituted a no alcohol policy and then reversed it. true or false? anonymous smears december of 2014 at the christmas party at the grand hyatt at washington, d.c, you were noticeably intoxicated and had to be carried up to your room. is that true or false? >> anonymous smears. >> another time, a staffer stated that you passed out in the back of a party bus. is that true or false? >> anonymous smears. >> i'm going to leave with concerns about your transparency. you say you've had personal issues in your past, yet when asked about those very issues, you blame an anonymous smear campaign. even when many

of these claims are not anonymous. which is it? have you overcome personal issues or are you the target of a smear campaign? it can't be both. >> senator, i sit here before you. an open book. as everyone who's watched this process with with multiple nondisclosure and confidentiality agreements tying the hands of many people who would like to comment to us, many of your work colleagues have said that you show up for work under the influence of alcohol or drunk. >> i know you've denied that, but you would agree with me, right? that if that was the case, that would be disqualifying for somebody to be secretary of defense. >> senator, those are all anonymous false claims. >> and the totality, they're not they're not anonymous letters on the record here. >> they're not anonymous on the record. we've seen records with names attached to them. >> one, on behalf of one of your colleagues, said that you got drunk at an event at a bar and chanted, kill all muslims. another colleague, not anonymous. we have this said that you took coworkers to a strip club. you were drunk, you

tried to dance with strippers. you had to be held off the stage and one of your employees in that event filed a sexual harassment charge as a result of it. now, i know you denied these things, but isn't that the kind of behavior that, if true, would be disqualifying for somebody to be secretary of defense? >> senator? anonymous false charges, they're not anonymous. >> and i'll just conclude and say this to the chairman. you claim that this was all anonymous. we have seen records with names attached to all of these, including the name of your own mother. so don't make this into some anonymous press thing. we have seen multiple names of colleagues consistently throughout your career that have talked about your abusive actions. >> senator tim kaine pressing there on pete hegseth, despite everything we heard over those several hours yesterday. following that hearing, hegseth did pick up the support of republican senator joni ernst of iowa, significant for a number

of reasons, because she's a combat veteran, distinguished career in the military, also a survivor of sexual assault who is seen as one of the most likely republicans who could potentially vote against him. so jonathan lemire, joni ernst certainly gives cover to other republicans, a military veteran, a survivor of sexual assault. two of the big concerns put forward about pete hegseth. >> if she says i'm a yes, doesn't that give license to all the other republicans? yeah, it certainly seems that way. >> ernst, signaling that she will vote yes is a huge win for the trump team. >> and their effort to get hegseth confirmed. just backing up a step. you just ran through her resume. why? right from the beginning, she was seen as a key swing vote here on set. and after haig's pick was announced by the president elect, joni ernst, senator ernst was deeply skeptical. she made it clear in her public remarks and leaking through aides that she did not think that hegseth would be qualified. she should put up a lot of resistance at the start. and then a pressure campaign begun, a pressure campaign by

the trump team, by some outside groups, seem to have been effective and rattled her. and we saw, you know, after she met with hegseth before the holidays, she came out more receptive, still not committing, but more receptive. but i was told at the time, and we heard again over, over the holidays that that they believe they had moved her. and it seems like yesterday they did. and she gave an interview after the hearing, which she said she would support him. and now there were still a few votes here we're not sure about. i saw senator collins expressed some skepticism still yesterday, but but collins, murkowski, even mcconnell that's not enough. that's only three. you need at least four. now, that doesn't mean there won't be someone else who steps forward. but ernst was seen as the most likely candidate for that. and if joe mika, if she's the one who says, you know what, i'm going to do this. despite a pretty halting hearing yesterday from hegseth, who missed some some very basic answers, you know, and was wrong, as joe pointed out earlier, that, of course, other defense secretaries have served in combat. but if senator ernst is going to if the pressure campaign got to her, if her fear of the maga base and donald trump coming to office got to

her, that's a pretty good signal that most republicans will fall in line. and those i talked to last night feel now feel very bullish about this chance. not done. but they feel good. >> well i say not done. i would say not done also because you know joni ernst came out and she spoke her mind and was very concerned obviously about women in combat, something that she has fought for in her public life. also very concerned about sexual harassment and sexual abuse inside the military. and she made no secret of the fact that she was concerned about pete hegseth. and then she had a couple of hours of people saying nasty things about her on x and ask somebody reportedly, how do i make this stop? the people who get voting cards these days? it's crazy. it really is. but but that doesn't mean it's over. i mean, we will see what happens with lisa murkowski, somebody

who does not let an hour and a half of tough times on social media move her. we'll see what happens with susan collins. we'll see what happens with mitch mcconnell. we will see what happens to dave mccormick. there's no reason to think that dave mccormick would vote against pete hegseth. that said, he's not up for six more years. he went to west point. if there's anybody who understands how woefully ill qualified pete hegseth is, even if you put all of these documented again, again, not anonymous documented character questions about the nominee that the republicans are blocking from seeing the light of day. even if you put that aside, people like dave mccormick, people like senator young from indiana, who's very serious thinker on defense policy, and also the new the new

senator from utah who has expressed concerns about hegseth and also tulsi gabbard. i'm not saying it's over. i understand i understand the committee went went in lockstep, and there's no reason to think that that republicans will act differently moving forward. but there still are three, four, five that that we have questions about. >> well, you have me thinking about dave mccormick. but really, all the republicans general who are on this, it seems to me that what we saw yesterday was not a lot of accountability, not a lot of taking responsibility. a lot of information was held back for the public not to see whether it be through ndas or decisions not to share. but i'm just wondering, general, if the republicans on the committee care about this pick and they're

not thinking about donald trump's influence over them or what people are saying on next. but really, is this person qualified to be secretary of defense? what should they be looking at in terms of what we saw yesterday? >> well, look, i the reality of it is, in my view that he did a magnificent job in terms of being evasive, smart, responsive only to republicans. he went we went into this committee hearing having refused to see any democratic senators, which is, i think, the first time in probably 50 years that's happened. so this was a partizan attempt to get him through the ordeal of four hours and 15 minutes of a hearing. and to some extent, you know, senator jack reed, senator kelly laid it all out there, an enduring concern about alcohol abuse. it's very difficult to walk away from alcohol abuse without

therapy, without help. so that's that's on the table. but, you know, the fact he didn't know the countries of asean. come on, give me a break. you aren't 100 people outside the foreign policy process that know that brunei is a member of asean. so i think he through the wickets, we got to hope that he is able to surround himself with people that understand audits and defense, acquisition and management of large organizations. and because he i think he's going to be the secretary of defense to some extent, it's going to be a popular nomination. he is a decorated combat veteran. he acquitted himself well as a as a soldier. he's obviously extremely capable as a communicator. so that's the situation rolling in. and by the way, there's some other picks.

tulsi gabbard, mr. kennedy, who the you know, the fbi director nomination that are truly frightening. so i think this issue is probably behind us. >> well, let's just let's just say thank you so much. retired four star army general barry mccaffrey. and let's take note as we say goodbye to you, that you have a hell of a lot of dust on your boots and far more accumulated through the years serving this great country. thank you than than most that we saw yesterday. we thank you. and again, thank you for your service. >> good to be with you. >> appreciate it. >> all right mike. sometimes the stupidity is just too much to take from these hearings, from political campaigns. we had a political campaign decided in part by by a 32nd ad about a

procedure that may, i don't know, maybe he's done once. i'm not sure to prisoners. we have a hearing yesterday that talks about everything, but what needs to be talked about and the wall street journal editorial page once again skeptical of pete hegseth. just so anybody out there watching doesn't believe this is some left wing attack. there are a lot of us that want a tough military and a strong military and want people in there that actually have dust on their boots, understand what it's like to serve in uniform and also have the experience and the qualifications to, to ably run that probably the toughest bureaucracy in america to run. this is what the wall street journal editorial page said. hegseth gets a senate pass.

americans didn't learn much about pentagon nominee pete hegseth at his senate confirmation hearing on tuesday, but they did learn more about the world's greatest non deliberative body. and they talk about the failures that the democrats and the republicans make. this is what they say about the republicans. senator mullin from oklahoma noted that senators sometimes show up drunk at votes at night and cheat on their wives. but as the wall street journal editorial page says, they aren't in the chain of command of u.s. military forces. senator sheehy, from montana, after opening his remarks asking how many genders there are, finally asked about navy shipbuilding, hegseth answer donald trump wants to build ships. no details. senator biden asked about what the us should do about its shortage of fighter aircrafts. mr. hegseth said he was going to look under

the hood. he gave the same vague answer to senator deb fischer when she inquired whether the nominee supports a nuclear armed, sea launched cruise missile system to counter russian and chinese nuclear capabilities. he said he was going to look under the hood. mr. hegseth, the wall street journal editorial page concludes, made noises about restoring u.s. military deterrence. and that's something. but it appears we're on track to have a secretary of defense whose real views are a mystery. let us hope, as general mccaffrey says, that he rises to the occasion. mike. mike lifes rich pageant is rem said. or perhaps in this case, if you look at how this the questions in this this. questions conducted yesterday. it sure made a mockery of this this

supposedly most deliberative body. >> well, joe, i would submit that yesterday's hearing was one of the most depressing aspects of politics in washington that i have witnessed in a long, long time. >> sitting there watching pete hegseth take questions from both sides. >> all i could think of was that most of the panel, both republicans and democrats, apparently have never seen the full fbi report. >> only the chairs, the majority chair and the minority chair saw the whole report and shared anecdotally, i guess, information from that report with others. i'm also thinking that the principal client of the fbi was the trump transition committee, which is shocking because the principal client of the fbi ought to be and is the

american taxpayers, you and me, all of us here. >> but no, not in this case. so this this was further proof, at least to me. and i'm probably pretty much alone in this, that the process is broken. the committee process is broken. it's not working. >> you have pete hegseth, you know, he will be probably the next secretary of defense. he wasn't asked about shipping lanes in the south china sea and the dangers that lurk there. >> he wasn't asked about ai and its impact on weapons systems. >> he wasn't asked that for a reason. they probably knew the republicans as well as the democrats, that he wouldn't know what he was talking about. >> and he didn't, but he was talking about his his lust for better war fighters and greater lethality. >> we do pretty good in both departments. >> war fighting and lethal war fighting. >> we've done pretty good at that for quite some time. >> we have the greatest,

strongest, most powerful, most feared armed forces in the history of the world. >> the history of the world, history of the world. not a close second, mike. not a close second. and go ahead. >> it was just it was depressing to watch. >> that's what the system has come to. >> totally depressing. yeah. you kept you kept talking. you kept talking about a warrior like the warrior ethos. warrior ethos. >> joe, ask. >> ask the 500 russians. mike. that bum rushed us troops in syria a few years back about that warrior ethos. wait a second. you can't we kill them in about 15 seconds? you don't screw with the united states armed forces. we are lethal. we are across the world. we are everywhere. we need to be. and the fact that yokels like tommy tuberville somehow suggest that we are weak because somebody

reads a poem over, over the loudspeaker on a battleship, like the idiocy coming from some of these people who who for some reason think there is political gain in tearing down the united states armed forces is just insanity. i'm proud of the armed forces. and i know as as do our enemies across the world that our military is stronger today relative to the rest of the world than ever before. >> what about the history of the position? >> secretary of defense george c marshall was secretary of defense, the marshall plan, the general who ushered us through world war two? >> yeah, he and dwight eisenhower. what about chuck hagel, an enlisted man from nebraska. he has dust on his boots. he was secretary of defense. >> a lot of people had dust on

their boots, mike. and that that that that was one of the things that's one of the false choices that i found insulting because of the men and women who have sacrificed everything and risked their lives for this country, defending this country in warfare, that have served in that position. the suggestion that this has not happened before, and that there's not a warrior class right now, whatever. i will say, mike talked about the chairman and the ranking member. they did a very good job in, in in trying to stop the all the nonsense and the interruptions that were going through there. and you can tell roger wicker and jack reed worked together very well. >> i just i hope republicans really look at this candidate without thinking about anything else. just look at this candidate and look at his qualifications and make a decision based on that. coming up, president biden is set to deliver his farewell address tonight. we'll take a look at his four years in office and the

legacy he is leaving behind. >> plus, we're learning more about who will be attending donald trump's inauguration next week. and the one prominent figure who will not be there. we'll tell you who it is you're watching morning joe. we're back in 90s. >> muscle cramps were keeping me up at night. >> so then i tried slimming the magnesium plus calcium supplement that helps relax tense muscles so i can rest comfortably and slow. meg tablets have a slow release formula that's gentle on my stomach. that's why i use slow meg. >> well, you're in the big leagues now. >> how was your vacation, sir? >> well, i needed one with your 10% loyalty program discount. >> that's $225 for the night. >> not bad. >> $155 for the night. >> hold up. how? >> it's easy when you know where to look. trivago compares hotel prices from hundreds of sites so you can save up to 40%.

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of washington at 638 in the morning, where senate confirmation hearings will continue today, with six more of donald trump's cabinet picks set to face lawmakers. >> homeland security secretary nominee kristi noem was supposed to be among them, but the hearing for the south dakota governor was pushed back to friday morning because of a delay on her fbi background check. so today's high profile hearings include one for senator marco rubio, who, of course, is the president elect's pick for secretary of state. he is expected to have a relatively smooth path to confirmation with bipartisan support. john ratcliffe though trump's selection for cia director and pam bondi, the nominee for attorney general, are likely to face much more scrutiny for democrats. let's bring in the host of way too early, ali vitali. ali. good morning. so what will you be watching today? >> certainly the pam bondi hearing willie is going to be instructive. >> a lot of questions for her around the idea of if people who have spoken out against the

former president, now president elect, will be facing any kind of retribution. >> we've had a lot of conversations about if members of the january 6th select committee, someone like senator adam schiff, should have preemptive pardons. >> that's something the biden administration has actively had to grapple with on their way out the door, in large part because of the ways that the president elect has threatened and targeted some of those people. >> so that's going to likely be a key line of questioning from bondi. >> but i actually think yesterday's hearing was instructive for all of these confirmation battles going forward. that's not to say that i think every single one of trump's picks is going to absolutely get through. i think there's really valid questions to be asked about tulsi gabbard and about rfk jr. >> i think those people have whip count problems in terms of getting enough republicans on board, let alone democrats who are skeptical and in many cases, rightly so. but i think the hegseth hearing yesterday showed us exactly how tribal this senate and this washington is going to be. >> one of the key things was that trump had way less

naysayers in this group of congressional republicans in both the house and the senate. and now we're watching where the rubber meets the road on that. the fact that even his most controversial picks with really valid questions to be asked about them, are on a likely glide path, really shows how the litmus test of the confirmations writ large is playing out even before any votes are cast. >> and so i think that's one of the key things that you can take away from yesterday. >> and then also apply to today, on friday and then of course, into next week as these hearings start to roll on. >> so let's follow up a little bit more on what we saw yesterday in the hearing for secretary of defense nominee hegseth. we talked about joni ernst, you know, who for a long time was viewed as a many perceived as a likely no vote. and she says, yes, she's in. is your sense of it that will now indeed give cover to other republicans who maybe were waffling on hegseth. what's your sense of the whip count? how good are they feeling after the hearing? >> yeah. >> look, i think the mood shift

on capitol hill from when we left at the end of last year when it felt like the hegseth nomination was in shambles, and all they needed to do was get him to drop out and mop the dust up off the floor. >> that mood has significantly changed even before this hearing yesterday. but then watching the way that joni ernst, immediately, the first thing she said when the hearing when her line of questioning began in the hearing was entering into the record, a letter from a fellow iowan, which is always a tell for the iowa senators of how they were praising pete hegseth and his work atop one of the veterans organizations that he was questioned about for his alleged mismanagement. >> that really set the tone. and so, yes, joni ernst likely means that he's getting out of committee with a favorable recommendation. i think there are still valid questions to ask about what happens when it gets to the floor. you're right to point out that you need to count to four, and at this point, we can only count to four people who are openly skeptical. that's collins, murkowski, mcconnell, and then the new senator from utah, john curtis. that's still

four that i think you could go either way. and i think there's valid questions that they can ask. i don't know that that hearing is changing any minds, but i do know that the vibe among republicans among trump world is that hegseth is in really good shape to be confirmed. and frankly, democrats saw that, too. >> yep. the host of way too early, ali vitali, thank you very much for coming on this morning. coming up, ukraine launches its largest attack yet launches its largest attack yet against russia. we'll have those honestly, i was scared when i was told age related macular degeneration could jeopardize my vision. great. one more thing to worry about. it was all too hard to deal with in the beginning, but making a plan with my doctor to add precision was easy. preservision areds2 contains the exact nei recommended, clinically proven nutrient formula to help reduce the risk of moderate to advanced amd progression. thanks to preservision, i feel better

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>> i feel like i'm a completely different person. >> get growing at nutrafol. >> com. >> 47 past the hour. time now for a look at some of the other stories making headlines this morning. ukraine has launched its largest attack yet against russia. according to officials in kiev, ukraine used drones and long range missiles provided by the us government to strike several targets deep across the border, including ammunition depots, chemical plants and a storage base for oil will follow that. brazil is banning students from using cell phones in schools. the new rule was signed into law on monday. the country's education ministry says the law is aimed at safeguarding the mental, physical and psychological health of children and adolescents, and flags at the us capitol will fly at full staff

during donald trump's inauguration next week. house speaker mike johnson issued that order after the president elect complained about the flags being lowered. johnson's decision overrides a white house proclamation to honor the life of the late president jimmy carter, who died last month. the flags will be lowered to half staff the day after trump is sworn in. and we're also learning who will and who will not be attending trump's inauguration on monday, former president bill clinton and former secretary of state hillary clinton will both be there, along with former president george w bush, former first lady laura bush and former president barack obama. tech leaders elon musk, mark zuckerberg and jeff bezos are expected to attend and will be seated on the inaugural platform, positioned near cabinet officials and elected leaders, but notably missing from the list is former first lady michelle obama. so far, no

reason was given for her absence. she did not attend last week's funeral service for former president jimmy carter as well. meanwhile, president biden will deliver a farewell address to the nation tonight from the oval office scheduled for 8 p.m. eastern. according to sources, biden is expected to reflect on his decades of service to the country and will include a message to americans about the country's future as president biden prepares to bid farewell to the white house. a new opinion piece in the financial times is describing his final curtain call as, quote, tragic. us national editor for the times ed luce contends the 46th president will be, quote, remembered chiefly for easing trump's return. and editor joins us now with more on this. >> ed, thank you so much. some light reading from you this morning in the financial times.

you say that joe biden defeated donald trump, stood up to russia, enacted more reforms than bill clinton and barack obama, and bequeathed a robust economy that made biden a hero to america's left and beyond. yet most of his achievements will now be erased. his legacy is trump's return after biden the deluge. he largely has himself to blame. the greek tragic hero's defect is hubris. but is the flawed hero's nobility that gives biden a greek ending virtue and hubris, hubris were both present in his personal tragedies, explained. >> so, yeah, well, the greek tragedy is, of course, the hero is a brings his own downfall, is a flawed hero. >> and biden was undoubtedly a very good president until he wasn't. and where i think he wasn't was in failing to step

down. >> we had a number of journalists, but not enough. >> david ignatius most prominently saying blowing the whistle on biden's waning powers and on the fact that public opinion was indicating two years before the 2024 election that it was skeptical of whether he could serve another term. david ignatius blew the whistle on that. ezra klein did. they were very much sort of censored and ostracized for saying what everybody in this town knew, which was that biden was being shielded from unscripted encounters with the public, with the media, and was having a shorter and shorter day as president, in other words, that he wasn't fit to run again in 2024. and that didn't come through till the debate last june. >> it really left it too late for an open primary. it made it very difficult for kamala harris to launch a credible winning

campaign against donald trump. and i think that therefore, history being brutal is going to remember biden, not just as a bridge away from trump in 2020, but as a bridge back to trump in 2024. >> that's the tragedy of this. >> he was and has been a very good president. but history will remember him chiefly for being the bridge back to trump. and i, i, i take absolutely no pleasure in saying that. >> let me press you on a, on a few things here. you said that david ignatius said something that everybody in washington knew. i must say, there are many of us who know joe biden fairly well. i'm sitting next to one of them. i'm sure mike barnicle will have a question for you as well. mike barnicle, his chief complaints early on, quietly, to me and others, was that they were not letting joe biden out enough. mike talks to president biden in the house regularly

throughout the year. i spent, as i've said before, two and a half, three hours with joe biden in the white house, all over the white house, talking at length, at length and in depth about foreign policy matters. and he was as sharp as as anybody else i've spoken to and spoke actually like a man who's been doing this since he was 29 years old and new world leaders. was he slower physically? yes. did he occasionally jumble a few words or a few names? yes. but he corrected those as well. so after two, two and a half, three hours of it with him in the white house, going all over the white house, i did not see that. i spoke with french leaders after they had some pretty tough negotiations with him a couple of years ago. they left that meeting surprised how how how sharp he was and how they had listened to press reports saying that he had lost one, two,

three, four steps. they were surprised by the fact that actually he was pressing macron on every single issue. i've spoken to leaders in the middle east. i mean, i, i could go on and on about this. i heard also at the same time that he would be at fundraisers at night and he would, he would, he would be wandering in his statements, even reading from a teleprompter. i don't know that it's quite so easy that everybody in washington, d.c, thought the man was ill equipped to be president of the united states. i know that's that's what they say on social media, but that certainly wasn't my experience. i would guess mike barnicle will tell you the same thing as well as as well as mika and maybe but i mean, foreign leaders and foreign governments told me very different things to what you've just said. >> i think that people, you know, who are getting older and have waning energy and vitality can go in and out. they can have

strong moments, they can have weak moments. i think, though, the key thing here was that the debate last june occurred several days after biden had been traveling and wasn't considered to be shocking by a lot of the people i know, you know, in in various circles around the white house, that that was the performance that reflected biden's mental powers at the time. so i think the american public had it right. >> i'm sorry. >> wait, wait, i've got to interrupt you again and again. and you and i are very good friends. i've got to stop you right there. i've had in-depth conversations with people in the white house before, during and after who are still trying to figure out what happened that night. i just just over the past, you know what? you know, i think i said on the air, jeff zients said that he still will go out and his friends will be saying, why didn't you tell? you think we knew that was going to happen? there's still people that are trying to figure out. and i said this to susan page a

couple of weeks ago, what exactly happened that night? because anybody that's telling you that that is a reflection of how joe biden was operating inside of the white house regularly, that's something radically different than people that worked closest with him and people that i know that were around him for large parts of the day were saying, yeah, joe, i'm not actually making stuff up here. >> i talk to people who know biden as well, and i can assure you, i had many conversations over the previous couple of years about his declining energy, his declining memory, his increasingly short daily schedule to accommodate his declining memory and energy. so, you know, i'm not i'm not putting this out of thin air. >> we know we're not saying that. editor, let me interrupt again. >> we're going to we're going to keep you here and continue this conversation after a quick break, because i think one of the answers is that two things can be true at the same time. but let's take a quick break and we'll be back at the top of the hour.

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wilcom now and make it count. >> live. look at the white house. >> it is just about the top of the hour. >> we have a lot of news to get to, but we continue our conversation with editor at the financial times. >> exactly. and editor, as mika said, you know, two things can be true at once. i'm never in a million years would suggest you're making anything up. i'm saying, in retrospect, things certainly look clearer on the other side of it. for people that are talking to you, when i mean, i guess the question is, why didn't why didn't they talk six months ago? why didn't they talk a year ago? if that's how they if that's what they saw, why didn't they say? because if i had seen it, i would have said it. you're right though, a couple of notables, david ignatius did come out very early and say that joe biden should step down. he was one of the few. the wall street journal had a story over the summer suggesting that that joe biden was was, was not strong

mentally. of course, the weakness of that article is they quoted kevin mccarthy, citing a meeting where he walked out and told reporters that joe biden was the albert einstein of our time, basically, and he was looking forward to talking to biden every day biden was running the show, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. so again, it certainly it i guess my question is, if that is the case, why weren't people saying things earlier? >> well, i mean, as we i reread david's piece actually the other day, he made it very plain, i think set out the right argument september 23rd. and i don't think david was sort of uniquely accessed at that point. certainly the conversations i had with people in our profession, but also people working in and around the white house that were very similar conclusions being drawn. and that and that was, you know, 15 months before the election, there was time then for biden to cede the field and have a full

open primary for the democratic party. i think in terms of your conversation last week with susan page, where the interview that president biden, the exit interview he gave to usa today, he he said he thought he could have won. anyway, i think that's i think that's highly contestable. i think you see the difference between the numbers that kamala harris got. she came within a point and a half of trump's number and the numbers that the polls were very consistently showing biden at, which was far lower than that. i think that that's understandable sense of sort of pride in the fact that he defeated trump in 2020 and that he was, as i wish to emphasize, a very good president, that he thought he could beat trump in november. but i do think that's completely wrong. i think there is no basis for him to believe that. >> and of course, the polls have

always been so great. >> well, i would say that he saw what happened in the midterms and he thought he still had a shot. i'm sure that's what was happening. but i will say, mike, even before the debate, we were commenting that that joe biden was losing ground in minnesota, in new hampshire, in virginia, the polls were going in a terrible direction for him. even before that disaster of a debate. so the idea that he could have won, i know mika believes he still could have won. the numbers, certainly at the time did not suggest that. >> no. >> and, you know, you can't i don't think you can talk president biden out of his belief that he could have won. >> i mean, but that's the way he is. that's the business he's in. and i don't think anyone would quibble with what you wrote today in your assessment of the biden presidency. but that's today. it's a snapshot. it's not history. don't you think that history's view of joe biden is going to be a little bit different than your view of joe biden in today's piece that you've written, in the sense

that it's going to take into account joe biden's role in keeping nato together and keeping ukraine alive in the day to day tug of war match that he's had with bibi netanyahu for a year and a half. and most importantly, the economic underpinnings of legislation that he passed by on a bipartisan basis in the first 18 months of his presidency that are going to transform many middle class cities and towns in this country over a longer period of time. not today, not yet, but within 2 or 3 years, i and all of the chip manufacturing that's going to happen in this country is going to transform and help a lot of american families. >> that's a very good question, mike, and i hope that you're right. a lot, of course, depends on on how much of this trump tries to reverse and repeal and abolish in congress. i think if you look at the inflation reduction act, there's tons of investment there that has gone to red districts that the

investment that republicans in those districts voted against at the time, but claim credit for now and would be, i think, loath to see abolish because they've created jobs in their districts. i think the chips act, you know, which is trying to reshore semiconductor investment to america might survive. and i think the infrastructure bill, although most of it hasn't really been implemented, might survive two. but on ukraine, you know, i'm a little bit less sanguine. i think biden did an excellent job of supporting zelenskyy, expanding nato, restoring morale to the western alliance. but if you ask anybody in europe now or indeed in washington, d.c, they think that era is over, that the advantage is shifting to putin and therefore those gains under biden look like they might be very, very fragile right now. if not, you know, headed for the ash heap. so a lot depends in

answer to your question, mike, on how much of it trump reverses and indeed whether trump himself is succeeded by a trumpian in 2028, or whether the democratic party can rebound and become competitive again. >> yeah, we've got a democrats need to figure that out in a big way. us national editor for the financial times, ed luce thank you. >> thank you, editor. we love you much. >> thanks, editor. thank you. all right. the news continues now with willie. yeah. >> back now at seven after the hour to the confirmation hearings on capitol hill of pete hegseth to become the next secretary of defense. among the democrats asking questions, first term senator elissa slotkin of michigan, who pressed the former fox news host and military veteran on whether he would carry out an illegal order if president trump were to issue one. >> what i think i'm most concerned with is that no president has the right to use the uniform military in a way

that violates the us constitution and further taints the military as that apolitical institution that we all want, right? and our founders designed the system so that, you know, we had posse comitatus that we weren't going to use active duty military inside the united states and make american citizens potentially scared of their own military. we went through our own experience with that, with the british as the secretary of defense, you will be the one man standing in the breach. should president trump give an illegal order, right? i'm not saying he will, but if he does, you are going to be the guy that he calls to implement this order. do you agree that there are some orders that can be given by the commander in chief that would violate the us constitution? >> senator, thank you for your service, but i reject the premise that president trump is going to be giving illegal orders. >> no, i'm not saying he will. but if do you believe there is such a thing as an illegal order that joe biden or any other

president donald trump could give, is there anything that a commander in chief could ask you to do with the uniformed military that would be in violation of the us constitution, senator? >> anybody of any party could give an order that is against the constitution or against the law. >> right? okay. so and are you so are you saying that you would stand in the breach and push back if you were given an illegal order? >> i start by saying i reject the premise that president. >> i understand you've done your any illegal orders at all. my, my, this isn't a hypothetical, okay? your predecessor in a trump administration, secretary esper, was asked and did use uniformed military to clear unarmed protesters. he was given the order to potentially shoot at them. helos flew low in washington, dc as crowd control. he later apologized publicly for those actions. was he right or wrong to apologize? >> senator, i was there on the ground and i saw the i saw i understand and i respect that. i've been there. you're about the level of secretary of

defense involved in that moment. >> was he right? >> so he was legality and the constitution. >> was he right or wrong to apologize? >> i'm not going to put words in the mouth of secretary esper or anybody else. >> he said them himself. you don't have to. what are you scared of? did he do the right thing by apologizing? >> i'm not scared of anything, senator. and say yes or no. you can say no. the laws and the constitution. >> no answer. senator slotkin joins us now. she serves on the armed services and veterans affairs committees, also with us, nbc news senior executive editor for national security, david rohde. good morning to you both. senator, obviously, a frustrating line of questioning there. you never got an answer. i think a lot of your colleagues on the democratic side would say the same in their lines of questioning, never getting a firm answer or anything satisfying based on what you heard yesterday in that hearing. how will you vote? >> well, you know, look, i it's not that that hearing gave me more confidence in his ability

to be the secretary of defense. >> i mean, i've worked for four secretaries of defense, democrat and republican, very proudly. >> i've gone up for senate confirmation to be an assistant secretary of defense. i've seen secretaries make life and death decisions in the dark of night that actually impact deeply the security of americans. >> so that hearing did not give me more confidence. >> he did something a little bit unusual. >> he did not meet with any of the senate democrats, with the exception of the ranking member before the hearing, but instead scheduled meetings with us after the hearing. i was supposed to have one today. he postponed it. i'm still willing to meet with him, so i'm going to withhold final judgment until i have that private conversation. maybe he can say something, particularly on the constitutional issues, but if he wasn't willing to say them in public, i don't have a ton of confidence that he feels them as strongly as i'd like him to feel them. >> what did you make, senator of the performance? the lines of questioning the defense of pete hegseth by your republican colleagues all down the line. do

you believe there's anyone on the republican side in the united states senate on the republican side of things that will vote against this nomination? >> well, you know, the senators on the republican side will be typically the first ones to talk to you about the importance of national defense and national security. and i'm right there with them on the importance of it. but it was therefore hard to watch, as many of them literally just gave them softballs. i mean, pitched them and in some cases just made the case for him. and i think that regardless of sort of whether you're going to vote for him or not, at least exercise the role of the committee, which is oversight, right, as our founders intended. just oversee, push and prod on behalf of the 3 million people in the department of defense. so it was a little disappointing to see people who i know have asked tough questions of others, including other republican secretaries of defense, then kind of just like, give him a softball and watch him hit it

out of the park. >> senator slotkin, good morning. it wasn't just that he had no answer there to that line of questioning, but also in the hearing yesterday, he gave no answer at all to whether or not he would uphold the geneva conventions. of course, such a foundational agreement, one to protect u.s. soldiers abroad. what is your make of that? how troubling do you find that revelation? >> yeah, i mean, we i tried to follow up a little bit at the end of my questioning about the ucmj, the uniform code of military justice. is he going to interfere with that? you know, he he has been known to defend strenuously soldiers who were convicted of war crimes, whose own fellow soldiers in their own fellow unit, in his own unit turned him in and said, this is what he just did. he just shot at innocent afghans. mr. hegseth is known very widely as as defending him and getting president trump to pardon them. and so i want to know what standards is he going to be upholding? is he going to uphold the uniform code? is he going to

interfere in the uniform code? he wouldn't. he actually didn't give me a lot of comfort on that. he said, well, it's my job to be involved in that. well, if you're going to go mucking around with individual soldiers and the system of justice that has governed this institution for its entire founding, i just it's very concerning because he's got to be the guy who's holding up these values for our institution. >> senator, were you given access? >> were you able to read the fbi report on on pete hegseth? >> i was not the ranking member and the chairman were the only ones, as i understand it, on the committee who were given access to it. and, you know, again, this is just sort of one of those due diligence, like, let's just be transparent. you want to run one of the most important institutions in the world. just just make that report available. and so, you know, i didn't i don't know that it has i've heard it's kind of thin. but i think again, if i were him, i

would want to be full transparency, given some of the negative stuff that's out there. >> were you under the impression that you would automatically receive the right, the ability to read the whole report yourself as a united states senator? >> you know, this is yeah, again, you know, i think what we all have to remember is in the era of president trump, you know, there are norms and there are laws. >> and president trump and his nominees do not tend to follow norms. of course, the norm is that an fbi report on any candidate, on anyone up for, for, you know, confirmation, democrat or republican, that information would be made available. think of supreme court justices, think of other cabinet level officials. but it's a norm, not a law. and i think it's a harbinger of what's to come. right? we should all be aware that as of monday, a lot of the norms that have kind of governed democrats and republicans, again, are going to be upended. and so i would have liked to have seen it. i still hope to see it, but i'm not

shocked that they're putting these sort of they're breaking some of these norms. >> so, senator, was there anything you heard from pete hegseth in this hearing that showed he had the experience, the temperament and the knowledge to lead the pentagon? what was the best thing you heard and the most concerning? >> well, i do want to say, you know, hide. and i come from a state that trump won. right. i just want on the ballot in november and so did donald trump. people are looking for a disrupter, right? people are saying, well, you know, he doesn't have the typical experience. that's not a negative to a lot of americans right now. so i just i think that for me, you know, i think what i'm concerned about is that under trump, the last time general mattis was his first secretary of defense, i had served in and around him for a long time. i trusted that if the

president had asked him to do something that would taint forever the view of americans of their military, that general mattis would have said no. secretary esper, we didn't always agree on things. but when push came to shove and lafayette square happened and there was outrage by retired military across the board, he apologized and he said, i'm not going to use, for instance, the 82nd airborne active duty troops. he stood up. and i think what i'm concerned about is that as we go into a second administration, you're not looking for people who are standing up for the institutions. yeah. >> senator, i want to ask you about transparency, and maybe you can explain this to us. how how it worked, who may have blocked information from getting to the american people so they could have a more educated judgment on, on this nominee. but time and again, and it really was highlighted by tim kaine. he would talk about some of the most disturbing incidences. and pete hegseth background, and pete hegseth

would call them anonymous smears. and then senator kaine would follow up and say, well, actually, they're not. these are whistleblower reports, and we have names attached to these whistleblower reports. yeah. mark kelly said the same thing. he also, mark kelly brought up a really good line and basically said, if you've had this road to damascus, damascus experience, where you've had this great. conversion, that's inconsistent with you saying it never happened before, that it was anonymous smear. so it's trying to have it both ways. but i am curious, why is it that the american people were not able to see those whistleblower reports that would have attached names to these deeply disturbing incidences for a lot of americans? and instead he could just say something that was obviously a lie when he said, they're anonymous smears,

because, again, as senator kaine and others said, they weren't anonymous smears, there were names attached. republicans just didn't want americans to see those whistleblower reports. what can those reports come out? how could how could the republicans have stopped them from coming out? >> yeah. again, this is a norms versus laws. and i think what you have here is just, you know, my republican colleagues are now in the majority as of, you know, last week. and they they are setting the rules for these committee hearings. i mean, we're hoping to keep the standard of just having the certain senior members of the committee see these fbi reports. and i think, again, we're just going to have to press and try to make the case and appeal to people and their conscience about some of these nominees. but i also will say, you know, it's not crazy for some of these folks to be very concerned about retribution, not the republican senators. i'm talking about the

whistleblowers, the former family members of mr. hegseth. i think we've we've heard rumors that there's a lot of concern about coming and being public, putting your name out there, coming and testifying, coming and talking to people because of fear of retribution. and so i just again, this is norms versus laws. we all know that in on monday. you know, the president trump what we hear is potentially 100 executive orders in at least the first couple of weeks. so we hang on to our hats here. you know, things are going to come fast and furious, and there are substantive issues to look at, separate even from just process. you did your best to get to some of the truth. >> yesterday in that hearing, democratic senator elissa slotkin of michigan. senator, we always appreciate you being with us. thank you. let's turn to david rohde. so, david, you were watching closely this hearing. we'll talk about some of the hearings to come today and later this week. but what did you see in that room as pete hegseth sat

in the chair yesterday? >> i thought the most important line of question was what senator slotkin asked. and it was really concerning, because just to go back, it's, you know, lafayette square, the protests are happening in the summer of 2020. mark esper, the secretary of defense, bill barr, the attorney general, mark milley, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, said, mr. president, president trump, do not deploy the 82nd airborne on the streets of the united states against protesters. and they won that argument and he would not commit to that. and he would not praise esper for that. and he would not talk about the bedrock american principle of an apolitical military. and that was startling. and that shows and we don't know what's going to happen, but the need for these nominees to be as loyal as possible to donald trump and not criticize him in any way in public. and so that was very concerning. >> and by the way, you could go down the line. it's not just pete hegseth. if you know that you're there in your position because of the loyalty you have shown to donald trump, that is

the foundation, the bedrock. that's your operating principle, isn't it? yes. >> and i and i there was talk about whistleblowersnd people who talked about his issues. and look, i edited and approved the story. nbc news ran of ten current and former fox employees saying that pete hegseth drinking worried them on the job. he would come in smelling of alcohol. he would come in hungover. you know, they all would not be named because they fear being fired. they fear retribution. and, you know, we stand by that story. and but, you know, this is the atmosphere we're going into. >> david, it was such a political theater yesterday. it seemed much more people trying to score points than actually get the questions. yeah. joe, i heard you wanted to jump in. you know, the hegseth, as david was just saying, like, these are fundamental, bedrock, foundational tenets of the united states military and the constitution. and he yesterday, at least, was not willing to support. >> yeah. i'm so sorry. i'm sorry that we that i stepped on your

question. get to it. i just want really quickly, just procedurally. david, if you could give us a time frame of the whistleblowers over at fox news because we kept hearing about this road to damascus conversion that he once was lost and now he's found. and that was in the before times. of course, when you asked him specifically about anything, he said, oh, it never happened. those are anonymous smears, but i'm just curious what was what was the timeline on the fox news employee saying that he would show up drunk to work. >> we had people who worked with him, you know, recently saying that that this has continued, that they'd seen him drink recently. but he his narrative, some of it was that he he moved to tennessee and he, you know, with this new relationship, his new wife that he had changed and maybe, you know, becoming more religious. that helped him. but we didn't hear any of that yesterday. and instead and again, it's very trumpian. it's

just deny, deflect and sort of attack and say, this is all false, this is all smears. and look, it's, you know, work politically and that the republicans have won the election. but that's that's the kind of political culture we're in. that's the political era we're in. >> yeah. very trumpian. and as some republicans had told me over the weekend and i said yesterday, right out of the brett kavanaugh playbook, and that was on full display yesterday. so let's turn to what we're going to see today, marco rubio, the secretary of state nominee that's expected to be pretty, pretty clean in terms of the nomination process. we've seen some democrats already say they're on board with this pick, pam bondi, though there seem to be some fireworks. you know, she there's not been as much in the way of controversy around her than donald trump's initial a.g. pick in terms of matt gaetz. so she is seen as perhaps more palatable. but what are some issues that could come up today? what could be some some tension points? >> the key question for bondi will be if president trump asks you to look for fraud in the midterm elections, you know, will you have an investigation again? bill barr said, no, he

would not do that. the justice department, you know, pushed back on the claims, false claims that 2020 was stolen. and we'll see what she says about that. and then there's a famous sort of clip, again, this loyalty to trump, where she was asked on fox about prosecuting trump's rivals. and she said, we're going to go after the bad investigators. you know, i'm sorry. we're going to go after the investigators. we're going to go after the prosecutors. and she added the bad ones. so she is more trusted, far, far better than matt gaetz. but again, is she going to make the kind of promises that, you know, senator slotkin tried to get out of hegseth yesterday? we'll see what she says. >> and again, we talk about the loyalty question. she defended donald trump in his first impeachment trial. she was there in 2020, helping him push some of those lies about the election and on the campaign trail again with him this time. so there you have it. nbc news senior executive editor for national security, david rohde. david, thanks so much, mika. >> all right. still ahead on morning joe, the ranking member of the senate judiciary committee, dick durbin, joins us before his panel questions donald trump's choice for

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people will perform at one of trump's inaugural balls, leading many to ask why?

>> the village people are set to perform on sunday at the turning point inaugural eve ball. it will be the first time trump has ever paid a construction worker on time. >> all right. the late night show is having some fun with the village people performing at monday's inauguration of donald trump. meanwhile, president biden will cap a 50 year career in public service tonight with his presidential farewell address from the oval office. it's tonight at 8 p.m. eastern. joining us now, white house communications director and senior adviser to president biden, ben labolt. ben, thank you so much for coming back on the show. what can you tell us about what the president will be sharing with the american public tonight? >> thanks for having me, mika. well, tonight the president is going to reflect on the past four years in office and the journey that the country has been on. you know, four years

ago, when the president took office, we were in the middle of a once in a century pandemic. we've beaten that. we just lost 2 million jobs. the country was flat on its back, deep in the pandemic. we now, according to the economist, have an economy that's the envy of the world. he's created 16 million jobs under this administration, the most in any one term. and inflation is down to 2%. and he's rebuilt and restored our alliances around the world, which had been frayed. nato is larger and stronger than ever. it's helped defend ukraine and europe. our alliances in the pacific have been rebuilt. he brought japan and south korea together against all odds. and we're in a much stronger and more secure position. so he'll reflect on those things. but it's not going to be a laundry list of accomplishments. it's really also going to leverage the 50 years he's had in public life to reflect on the moment we're in and where we go from here, how we keep our democracy strong and defend it.

>> well, that's my next question is how much of a nod will he make to the next administration, the incoming president, that is, former president donald trump. >> it's not going to be a partizan speech. it's going to be a reflection on on the moment that the country is in. i think he'll talk about principles like how important balance of power is, why it's enshrined into our constitution, the importance of speaking out and standing up for what's right and having a strong civil society. you know, the election results are clear, but it was, at the end of the day, still a close election. it was only decided by a point and a half, you know, less than 300,000 votes. and the blue wall would have changed the outcome. there are a lot of people with strong views on on both sides. and so he's going to make a call for americans to stay engaged. i know he's going to stay engaged and stand up for what's right, and also how we tackle some of the generational challenges that

we're facing as as a nation and a world. existential threats like climate change, for example. >> ben, this is the president's last weekend in the white house. where is he going to go? monday afternoon, after the inauguration. >> well, there's a couple of things happening this weekend. first, this sunday, he's going to go down to charleston, south carolina, where he spent a good amount of time in his career. i expect various faith leaders and civil rights leaders to join him on that day and go to the ame church in, in charleston and reflect on the term, but also reflect on a 50 year career in public service that was spurred by getting involved in the civil rights movement in the first place. on monday, he'll participate in the inaugural and the traditional ceremonies and the peaceful transfer of power, which has been very important to him to have an orderly transition, a peaceful transfer of power, things that did not

happen four years ago. and then i think he's going to take some time and take a breath, but then he'll be back out there again at some point in the not too distant future, giving speeches, writing a memoir, sharing the lessons he's learned from 50 years in public life, and many of the relationships he's been building with congressional and world leaders that helped deliver all the outcomes of this administration. >> so, ben, the president speaks a lot about america's role in the world, a role that likely is going to change in the new president elect. does president biden believe after these four years, the world is a stable, safer place than when he took office? >> the president talks a lot about the end of the cold war era. you heard that when he went to the state department on monday, and how we've seen the return of geopolitics in the world. he believes the best way to deal with that is to have

strong alliances and friends around the world. and that's why he spent so much time rebuilding our alliances in europe, creating new partnerships and alliances like the quad and aukus, which help us both from a security standpoint and an economic standpoint. our adversaries are weakened as the president leaves office. iran hasn't been in a weaker position for years. when the president was entering office, people said that china was prepared to dominate economically. that hasn't happened. we have a stronger economy here in the united states, but it's going to take very vigilant leadership and a continued investment in those alliances over our adversaries. and so he believes he's left the country in a more stable place and a more powerful position in the world. and he hopes that those policies continue. >> ben, good morning. as part of this reflection for president biden ahead of the speech and ahead of the inauguration of the

next president five days from now, what about regrets as he thinks through? he said in an interview a couple of weeks ago that he thought perhaps he should have stayed in the race, and that he believes he actually would have had a shot to beat donald trump. does he regret not moving quicker on the border, an issue that really was at the center of a lot of people's concerns during the election? what are some of the regrets or a regret that the president has? >> yeah. well, look, we could go issue by issue on the border. the first piece of legislation he introduced had republicans in congress passed. it involves significant border security. he took executive action to make sure that we did reduce illegal border crossings and get the border into a manageable place. we could go on and on through that list. i think the thing he regrets, regrets about where washington is today, you know, he's really tried to govern in a bipartisan way. and he did that throughout his career, his over 30 years in the senate. people said he couldn't govern in a

bipartisan way. when he came in. he passed, for example, the infrastructure bill and the chips and science bill to bring the semiconductor industry back to the united states in a bipartisan way. but he talks about the fact that on the hill, republican and democratic senators used to be able to eat together in the cafeteria and get to know each other and get to know each other in a personal way, where they didn't question each other's motives and had respect for each other. and he believes the country should get back to a place where everybody can work together again. everybody can talk to each other again. we can lessen the sort of heavy partizanship that that you've been seeing coming from the other side. he would like to get back to that. he tried to do it in a bipartisan way and wants to leave that as an example. but he does believe that the country is too fractured right now and the parties are too fractured. >> sounds like moreon with d.c. than personal regret. white house communications director, senior adviser to

president biden ben labolt. ben, thanks so much. we appreciate it. let's turn back to the wildfires in southern california. that part of the country now facing extremely critical fire conditions this morning as unrelenting winds ignite new fires. nbc news national correspondent morgan chesky has the latest from pacific palisades. >> overnight winds again kicking up in the los angeles area as crews work to remove brush along the fire ravaged pacific coast highway. 37 people still remain unaccounted for and at least 25 have lost their lives. more than 60mi!s of l.a. county, scorched from above the scope of devastation. clear. >> you can turn around and another structure will start burning. >> air teams attacking hotspots with the help of crucial line crews. we joined one high above topanga canyon. among this team, firefighters from mexico and colorado. with most of the major flames knocked down. this is the new front line of this

firefight. crews tackling hotspots one by one for lead firefighter josh simon. the search for embers not far from his childhood home. you can have an embers sit in here for how long? >> weeks, really? >> near the coast. investigators still searching for what ignited the palisades fire. the atf telling nbc news agents are examining burn patterns and the fire's depth. >> we are following all the leads and processing all the physical evidence. >> residents like peter branch may have clues refusing to evacuate, branch told nbc los angeles. the deadly fire behind his home broke out in the same area as a new year's blaze sparked by fireworks. >> it can smolder for weeks, possibly months. >> in pasadena, pedro rojas recorded this video at the base of an electrical transmission tower in eaton canyon. the possible source of that fire. officials are investigating at least two new lawsuits filed now. blame power companies socal

edison alleging negligence for, in part, failing to de-energize that transmission line, which the suit says sparked the deadly eaton fire. >> they have tools like psps public safety power shut off that they could have used and chose not to. >> in a statement, the utility company saying they're reviewing the lawsuits. but amid the ruins, some community spirit. and at this local bookstore in altadena, no room for books, only donations. >> we've just become this hub where people can come and get what they need. >> nbc's morgan chesky reporting. let's bring in staff writer at the los angeles times, noah goldberg. he's written extensively about the fires and the people impacted by them. noah, thanks for stopping with us so early this morning. we appreciate it. can you speak to the conditions today? i think a lot of people have been concerned over the last 24 hours and the next 24 hours about these winds, which look like, according to meteorologists, will pick up today. what's the forecast there?

>> yeah, there's certainly high winds today. not quite as high as we had last week when the fires broke out. they're supposed to be at tops around 70mph, to give a sense. it was about 100mph last tuesday when the fires broke out, but still extremely dangerous santa ana winds. and we're still getting these red flag warnings that show that we could have winds that we haven't seen basically in a decade or so. still, it's not quite as bad as last week. i just remember the winds whipping in a in a way i'd never experienced before last week so far. you know, just waking up early this morning, it doesn't seem to be nearly as bad, but it is supposed to pick up throughout the day. >> so, you know, i have driven through altadena. you've done what a lot of people are not able to do. as a reporter, you've seen with your own eyes the destruction left behind by these fires. can you describe for our viewers what it's like to be there on the ground? >> yeah. so there are all these evacuation areas that are just covered by a long line of

caution tape and are guarded by lapd, as well as the national guard. and my colleague sal hernandez and i were able to drive right past that. and it's very abandoned and ghostly, and it's an incredibly strange scene because you have these these burned out structures, blocks and blocks where nothing remains. but just across the street, you'll be able to see, for example, we saw a middle school standing seemingly untouched, the lawn still entirely green, just across from an office park that was entirely burned out. we walked through that office park, and we were in what seemed to be a garden area. there was still a koi pond with koi inside of it, and i saw them jump out of the pond. but right next to that was a pond that was entirely dried up. there were little statues that hadn't been touched at all, houses that have been taken completely to the ground, that are still smoldering, just like you guys were saying in your last segment. i mean, these embers can burn for a really long time. and that's what firefighters are still working against. >> so, noah, talk to us about

the plight of the people there. how much of the region is still under evacuation order, and what have you learned about people who have lost their homes or have had to flee their homes? you know, hotels are overrun or the shelters or people seeking refuge with homes? just talk to us a little bit about that human experience. for people who have lost everything or may still lose everything, there's never been anything like this in los angeles my entire life. >> here. the number of people who are out of a home who are looking for homes is just incredible and shocking. and everyone who lives in los angeles knows someone or knows numerous people, dozens of people who have lost a home and who are currently searching for another place to stay. you have companies like airbnb offering discounts on places. the hotels are definitely overrun. i spent the first day after the fire broke out last week actually going to the beverly hills hotel, which is an extremely upscale hotel on the west side of los angeles. and i talked to

people from the palisades, you know, people who are very well off who had evacuated, been in those massive traffic jams and gone to stay at the beverly hills hotel as part of their evacuation. but obviously, there are people with less means who are struggling to find family or friends that they can stay with. and, you know, the death toll has risen to 25, but that's expected to grow. i spoke with a woman yesterday whose son has been missing since the fires broke out. he lived in altadena and his landlord said that he drove away from the fires, but he's been missing ever since. his mom and the rest of his family haven't heard from him. so even though the fires seem to be a little more contained than they were last week, people are still just sort of coming to terms with the amount of destruction and the human toll that this has taken. >> so, noah, on that score, all the displaced people, all the electeds, from the mayor to the governor, they're getting hammered, probably deservedly, on a daily basis, on an hourly basis. but is l.a. county or l.a. city? are they do they have

any plans in effect now to help these displaced people? thousands of them lost their homes and might never be able to afford rebuilding their own homes. >> well, there there are a ton of different things that people can access, whether it's fema or the city trying to find extra housing. i know the mayor just opened up another thousand or so units for people to move into immediately. so they're definitely trying to do things. there's a lot of federal help coming in as well, but i think just the scale is very hard for the government to deal with. at this moment. there are just thousands and thousands of people who have been displaced. so, so much of it comes to turning to community. i mean, we're seeing so many donations, so many people working all the time just to try to help out their community members. and people are really looking for friends and family to stay with. i think at this point, and then looking for longer term housing in a rental market that's just skyrocketing right now, rents are going up as landlords see, like an ability to make more

money off people who need housing. >> noah, before you go, let me ask you about this new reporting overnight from your paper, the los angeles times. i know it's not your reporting specifically, but the times reporting that the l.a. fire department did not deploy a thousand available firefighters or extra engines that had available in advance of the palisades fire, the department only calling up additional firefighters after the fire was out of control. that's according to the l.a. times. what more can you tell us about that? >> well, it's not my reporting, but i think what it shows is that already we're trying to do a postmortem on this and figure out what exactly went wrong. you see the same thing when people are trying to figure out what exactly were the causes of these fires. it's something that we're not going to know for a long time. but obviously something went extremely wrong when it comes to, you know, fighting these fires and getting them dealt with as quickly as possible. obviously, there were terrible, terrible weather conditions, but still the responsibility lies with someone. so that's what we're

seeing now. yeah. >> obviously there we're talking about preparation. since then these firefighters have done absolutely heroic work with almost no break here for over a week now. los angeles times staff writer noah goldberg. noah, thanks so much for your reporting. we appreciate it. >> thanks for having me. >> coming up, the senate intelligence committee will hold a confirmation hearing today for john ratcliffe, donald trump's pick to lead the cia. we'll talk to a member of that panel, democratic senator ron wyden of oregon, about what to expect. morning joe is coming right back. >> i don't want a ding on my good credit. so i'm using experian to find cards with no ding decline cds. they say no ding decline. which means if i get denied, my fico score won't get a ding. sounds good to me. get the free experian app now. >> you. no, no, no, that is against the hoa bylaws. >> bylaws, bylaws. we're showing

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you key moments of the day, followed by analysis from our prime time anchors as the new term begins monday, beginning at six on msnbc. >> live. look at the white house as the sun comes up over washington, d.c. president elect trump has revealed plans to create the, quote, external revenue service aimed at collecting tariffs, duties and other revenue from foreign sources. trump made the announcement yesterday on social media, stating that the irs would begin its work this monday. urs, urs, the urs would begin its work this monday, january 20th, the same day of his inauguration. he didn't give any additional details about the proposed government entity. currently, u.s. customs and border protection is responsible for collecting tariffs, so we will see what happens. >> willie, let's bring in democratic senator ron wyden of

oregon. he's the ranking member of the senate finance committee, which will hear from trump's treasury secretary pick tomorrow. senator wyden, also a member of the senate intelligence committee, which is set to hear from cia director nominee john ratcliffe today, as well as director of national intelligence nominee tulsi gabbard in the coming days. and senator wyden is out with a new book titled it takes chutzpah how to fight fearlessly for progressive change. senator, good morning. good to have you with us in new york. we'll get to the book in just a second. i'm curious about your busy week ahead, though. as i mentioned, you're on both the finance and intelligence committees. let's start with what we saw yesterday as sort of a tone setter for how republicans in particular, are going to behave in these hearings. what did you see in that room? >> well, first of all, willie, the trump people are just making a mockery out of the whole advise and consent process, this idea that senators aren't going to get the information from the fbi and remember what's going on here. these fbi folks are going to be working for trump here in

a couple of weeks. so that's what's going on. i thought the nominee, particularly on the issues relating to character and management ability, just came up way short. and we're still going to see the additional questioning members want to make. senator slotkin, i thought, was very persuasive on these illegal order questions. and we'll go from there. >> what about john ratcliffe, who is set to become, if donald trump has his way and republicans do, the head of the cia, obviously a critical position in our government? what's your early assessment of him and what questions might you have? >> this is a crucial time in the intelligence area. you look at salt typhoon, i mean, the chinese working to climb into our phone systems. some of the most conservative senators have said that that salt typhoon is the biggest hack in american history. so these are huge challenges. also, the foreign intelligence surveillance act questions and his counterpart, the nominee for intelligence is

tulsi gabbard. she's all over the map. she was against the foreign intelligence surveillance act. now a bunch of republicans talk to her. she's for it. >> so, senator, you won't be in the hearing today for ratcliffe. i know you'll be submitting questions. you expect to attend the one for tulsi gabbard. you just sort of alluded to some of the mystery or uncertainty around her nomination. what are some of the things that you think she needs to answer to prove to the senate, but also to the american people that she's up for the job? >> i want to know why the flip flop on the foreign intelligence surveillance act? this is a hugely important question. and open sources, i can tell you that there was an effort, for example, to make special breaks for data centers. a number of us were concerned about that, but we said, okay, let's see if we can work that out. but now we're talking about, in effect, conscripting people who work in any place where there's a hard drive into spying for the government. we've got to get these issues resolved. you know, i don't want to concentrate too much on the intelligence issues, because i'll get a headache when you consider the potential fbi head, the dni head, the

secretary of defense. what i want to find out is what you think about the potential for increased tariffs from the trump administration from day one, and the impact it's going to have, not only on our economy, but the global economy. that will be one of the big issues in the finance hearing. look, the trump people are talking about a universal across the board tariff. if you target a tariff, sometimes that can be an appropriate tool. but across the board means that working people and small businesses are going to get clobbered. that's external revenue service is just sort of window dressing, trying to decide it all through the campaign, mike trump said that the foreigners were going to pay these tariffs. that's just nonsense. they're going to be paid by workers and small businesses, and i'm going to do everything i can to derail it, because the big issue in my part of the world, mike, when i have my town hall meetings, i'm going to have some. this weekend is where the second word is, bill.

it can be medical bill, it can be housing bill, it can be gas bill. that's what we're focused on. these tariffs are going to be really hard on working families and small businesses. >> so senator let's turn to the book. the title again. it takes chutzpah how to fight fearlessly for progressive change. we're a couple of months removed from the election of donald trump, the defeat of kamala harris, and in many ways, some progressive values. it would seem at the ballot box. what needs to change in the progressive movement? >> well, i think we want to make it clear what our goals are. and that's one of my priorities, for example, on the energy and climate front, i feel very, very strongly that what we need is a lower carbon economy with affordable energy. in other words, the two aren't mutually exclusive. you can have both. and what i do is talk there about ron's rules of chutzpah, about how you can get people to find some common ground. >> joe, let me ask you, senator, what's gone wrong with the progressive movement? when you

look at the election results and what needs to be done, when you when you look at exit polls that show democrats lost working families making less than $50,000 a year, there's got to be a sharper focus on those issues that i just described. >> joe, where the second word is bill on the social issues. i'm a live and let live democrat. for example, i was the first senator to support marriage equality, and i did it with one sentence. my sentence was, if you don't like gay marriage, don't get one. so let's get back to the economic issues. that's how we're going to get working people. >> what does that mean exactly, senator? because clearly, donald trump's message resonated with a lot of working people across racial divides, across gender in this last election. how did democrats win that argument? >> well, i think we focus, as i said, on these issues that people bring up at the town hall meetings. i'm going to fight like crazy to protect people's privacy and individual liberty.

we can't lose sight of these economic issues. and what i tried to do is say there's a prism out there. it's working. people in their kitchens, in their living rooms. they want to hear what you're going to do so that their kid, for example, can buy a house. i mean, all these kids, they can't even pay rent, let alone start their first home. >> the new book is called it takes chutzpah how to fight fearlessly for progressive change. it's on sale now. democratic senator ron wyden of oregon, senator, thanks for being here today. >> thanks for having me. >> thank you. still ahead, ranking member of the judiciary committee, dick durbin, will join us ahead of the morning's confirmation hearing for pam bondi, donald trump's pick for attorney general. senator durbin will outline his concerns about her nomination. and we will go back live to california with an update on the wildfires still raging across parts of los raging across parts of los angele go-friends, gather! keke! chris! jason! boop! friends. let's go, let's go, friends! hold onto your dice.

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pete hegseth himself, when he

was explaining what the military needs in its leadership, the die policies of today are not putting meritocracy first. >> every single senior officer will be reviewed based on meritocracy. getting anything that doesn't contribute to meritocracy out of how decisions are made inside the pentagon, ensuring readiness and meritocracy is front and center. meritocracy. meritocracy, meritocracy. >> oh, i know what his next kid's going to be named. you heard him, though. you heard him. folks, a military cannot function unless it's staffed by a system based on pure merit, where only the most qualified people rise to the top. so says your next secretary of defense, who will run the most complicated, powerful, deadly organization the world has ever known and whose only qualification is that? trump liked watching him sit on a couch on saturday mornings? >> that is the daily show. reacting to pete hegseth

contentious confirmation hearing yesterday. we're going to go over the important exchanges as the democratic senators grilled donald trump's defense secretary pick over his character, views on women in combat, and whether he is fit to actually lead the military. plus, we're following more confirmations on capitol hill as some big name republicans face more scrutiny from lawmakers this morning. we're going to tell you who they are. also ahead, president biden is capping off a five decade career in politics as he is set to deliver his farewell address to the nation tonight, just days before donald trump is sworn in. good morning, and welcome to morning joe. it is wednesday, january 15th. along with joe, willie and me, we have msnbc contributor mike barnicle, the co-host of our fourth hour, jonathan lemire. he's now a contributing writer at the atlantic covering the white house and national politics. so a lot to get to this morning.

those hearings yesterday were quite something. it seems like were at a different time. things might go differently, but this isn't a different time. >> and when we get to it, the wall street journal editorial page basically said. pete hegseth got a free pass. democrats weren't able to make any positive advances forward. and meanwhile, the republicans just again gave him a free pass. and he got by with with with just general general answers. they end by saying mr. hegseth made noises about restoring the us military. but it appears we're on track to have the secretary of defense, whose real views are a mystery. let's hope he rises to the occasion. we'll we'll see. >> yep. but we got to start with our top story out west and the winds just making things worse. and they keep coming willie. >> yeah they actually were a little bit better than forecast

yesterday. but today is shaping up to be a really difficult day. the death toll from those wildfires now has climbed to 25. this comes as crews are dealing with strong santa ana winds that have ignited new fires, many of which are under control. the winds expected to last until tomorrow. as of now, the largest of the wildfires, the palisades, fires, 18% contained. the eaton is at 35% containment. in all, the fires have swept through 40,000 acres, nearly the size now as washington dc. joining us live from altadena, california, is nbc's steve patterson. steve good morning. what's the latest there? >> well good morning to you. >> the devastation here is just endless. these are some of the same images that you've been seeing of course, all week long. it's now been more than a week since these fires started. and now firefighters are worried about what the national weather service has warned us about, which is this particularly dangerous situation. that is the

designation that they are now saying we are under. it's been about the last 48 hours or so. it's resulted in several spot fires, several brush fires. but as you mentioned, a little bit lesser than we expected so far. the winds, though, expected to pick up again in just a few hours. we are maybe within the last few hours of this designation, but they could be the worst hours that we've seen so far. the winds expected to be heavier again, the humidity very low. it's very dangerous fire weather, especially for firefighters who are doing their best to put out the fires that have already started that are still going. the eaton fire, the palisades fire, both still with containment left to go until they get those fires completely down. it is not safe for most residents to come back here. so residents still heartbroken. obviously they want to see the results of the damage. they want to see what their home looks like, they want to start the process of insurance and everything that comes with it is a very long journey for thousands and thousands of people who are impacted by this fire. but the fires are not out

yet. 35% containment where i'm standing at the eaton fire, 18% containment at the palisades fire. but with these wind events again expected to raise the danger over the next few hours, firefighters are doing all they can to make sure hotspots are suppressed. and looking out across the region because it covers such a large swath of southern california for any possibility that a new fire may start, the embers from an old fire may cause a new fire, that the front of these fires doesn't shift to somewhere else, as they put more containment down on these fires. meanwhile, the insurance process, of course, starting for a lot of homeowners, a lot of homeowners trying to contact fema and get that process started, the emergency funds that are available for homeowners need to be available and readily show. but meanwhile, the investigation has started as well. the atf leading the palisades investigation. there have been multiple lawsuits here at the eaton fire, at the energy company socal energy. but meanwhile, firefighters are doing the best they can to first get this major operation, which is the firefight itself, under

control. when that happens, then we can move on and start talking about everything else. guys. >> yeah, the firefighters doing heroic around the clock work. there is a new report just this morning from the l.a. times, though, about a lack of preparation when we saw these winds kicking up and the fires beginning, that some engines could have been put in place in palisades, pacific palisades, that were not. so there will be big questions. but for now, we hope they can get those fires under control. steve patterson in altadena steve, thanks so much. let's go over to meteorologist angie glassman for a look at those winds today. angie, what are you seeing? >> hi there willie. >> we're seeing just what steve said basically a fluctuation. >> so we've got these four main fires that we're watching. we are still dealing with that red flag warning, as steve said, 10 million people right now, though under that risk, it stretches from san luis obispo all the way down to the border. winds have, as expected, ramped up over the past 24 hours. so 45 to 65 mile per hour gusts is what we're expecting for the peak of today. but notice the areas that we're looking at, that particularly dangerous situation, wording that extra level of danger,

because we do have those extremely critical fire conditions in these places. so parts of the san gabriel mountains, simi valley, san fernando valley, those are some of the spots stretching up into ventura, where we're still see that high risk for these kind of large explosives fires to grow at a rapid pace. the current wind speeds right now ten, 15, 20mph, for the most part. we've got a couple of spots, especially up in the higher elevations that are gusting about 50 plus miles per hour. that's going to ramp up, especially as we get past 4 a.m. pacific time notice as we head into the later morning hours, those peak gusts closer to 65mph, humidity levels around 15 to 30%. so a slight uptick. we're going to see a better uptick here in the humidity levels as we move forward through the week. but for now, we kind of fluctuate between ten, 15, ten, 15% humidity levels. so we don't have a whole lot of relief from that. but later in the afternoon, specifically into the evening hours, we will start to see relief when it comes to the winds. so 20, 30, 40 mile per hour gusts for the later parts

of the afternoon overnight tonight. notice those peak wind gusts. they get down to 35mph. willie, the good news is also closer to the coast. we'll see those ten 15mph. so there will be some improvements, but we got to get through the morning first. >> all right, angie, we'll be watching closely along with you. angie lassman, thanks so much. we appreciate it, guys. >> all right. the confirmation process for president elect donald trump's cabinet picks kicked off yesterday with the senate armed services committee holding a hearing for one of the most controversial choices. defense secretary pick pete hegseth. hegseth, a combat veteran and former fox news host with little experience in leadership, pitched himself as the much needed change at the pentagon and brushed off the numerous controversies surrounding him. >> now, it is true, and has been acknowledged, that i don't have a similar biography to defense secretaries of the last 30 years. but as president trump also told me, we've repeatedly placed people atop the pentagon with supposedly the right

credentials, whether they are retired generals, academics or defense contractor executives. and where has it gotten us? he believes, and i humbly agree, that it's time to give someone with dust on his boots the helm, a change agent, someone with no vested interest in certain companies or specific programs or approved narratives. my only special interest is the war fighter. >> you know? there's so much that was said yesterday, it would literally take us four hours just to get through the misinformation that was put out there. but there there are just some things that we just we just have to stop before we even go any further and talk through the fact that when somebody asks the question, where has it gotten us? anybody that knows anything

about the united states military, anybody that knows anything about today's united states military and our armed forces and the men and women that serve proudly, will tell you america's military is more powerful relative to the rest of the world than any time. certainly in the last 25 years and perhaps since the postwar world. the fearsome ability of the united states military to extend power across the globe unparalleled. and where has it gotten us? with a nato that is stronger and more powerful than ever before? we have helped ukraine wreck the second most powerful military in the world without losing a single american

sailor or soldier or marine or airman. and in asia, china, more hemmed in today than ever before. because what we've done in guam, what we've done in the philippines, what we've done with japan, japan and south korea becoming allies, what we've been doing with australia, helping them build a nuclear navy. i could go on and on, but this idea, this idea, republicans that we need somebody with dust on their boots in this position and the suggestion that we haven't had people with dust on their boots in this position. is either willfully lying or willfully ignorant. we have had actually some of the most decorated,

heroic, brave, battle tested men that have been holding the top positions over the past 4 to 8 years in the military and yes, women as well that have been there. so the idea that this is some feel good exercise ignores the fact that whether from mad dog mattis, the general milley, you have people that have been fighting and in iraq and afghanistan where they're at the worst times in fallujah, and it's just an insult, just an absolute. and again, we there is so much to talk about here, but we've just got to go full stop because i'm sick and tired of people tearing down the men and women in uniform that are protecting us. and i'm sick and tired. you know, people want to lie about the economy. they can lie about the economy. well, i don't take that as personally. i

mean, because that's their own problem, because they're going to be judged by how they do compared to the united states economy right now, which is the envy of the world. we have record low jobless rates. the stock market is at record highs. i mean, they'll have to deal with that. but this insult that somehow our military is weak and woke, it's just an outrageous lie. and it's an insult to our men and women in uniform. i want to bring in right now, general barry mccaffrey, you talk about american heroes. he's got he's had little dust on his boots through the years. and, sir, we thank you. we thank you for your service to this country. thank you also for getting up very early this morning on the west coast. why? i'm just i want you to give me your general, general feelings about what you saw yesterday. but first, let let let's blow apart this lie that our military is weak and woke

and not the strongest in the world by far. first, could we do that, sir? >> boy, that was such a terrific opening statement on your part. you know, this magnificent armed forces active guard reserve, 2.1 million men and women in uniform, by the way, a thousand some odd killed and wounded among women fighting in the war on terror. 60,000 some odd casualties in total. enormously complex, globally deployed. the u.s. navy is fighting actively, day in and day out, trying to keep sea lanes open in the middle east. it is astonishing the courage, the devotion to duty that we see among the active duty. and by the way, everybody goes back to afghanistan, the disgrace of the withdrawal. mr. trump ran for presidency and said he was going to get us out of afghanistan.

and he handed biden, who ran for office, to get out of afghanistan, a situation with 2500 troops on the ground. we pulled out over 100,000 screaming civilians and a miracle operation. that could have been the french defeat at dien bien phu, because we put seven elite battalions on the ground and intimidated the taliban, who had been 7000 of whom had been released by mr. trump. so there's a lot of nonsense floating around. but look, the hearing yesterday, divisive partizan in some ways an unqualified candidate, he did remarkably well. he's articulate, he's smart. he's a decorated combat veteran. he's a princeton grad. he's quick on his feet. he's going to get confirmed. senator jack reed, my friend, said it all in his

opening statement. behavioral problems, alcohol abuse, lack of experience, his statements on the role of women in the armed forces. so we're in a in a period, though, where we've got to remind ourselves the real problem is mr. trump suggesting we might invade greenland, we might seize the panama canal, we might use military power against drug cartels in mexico. we might coerce canada into being the 51st state. this is comical stuff. that's going to be the challenge. less so, mr. hegseth. >> general, stay with us. we're going to sneak in a quick 92nd break. and when we come back, more of the key questions posed yesterday to donald trump's pick to lead the pentagon. that's straight ahead on morning joe. >> suffering from painful inflammation. >> tired of meds that don't work? >> take a natural approach and

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loyalty program discount. >> that's $225 for the night. >> not bad. >> $155 for the night. hold up. how? it's easy when you know where to look. >> trivago compares hotel prices from hundreds of sites so you can save up to 40%. >> trivago is my secret tactic. >> hotel trivago. >> here are some of the key lines of questioning from of hegseth from democrats in yesterday's hearing. take a listen. >> i do not believe that you are qualified to meet the overwhelming demands of this job. >> we must acknowledge the concerning public reports against you. >> a variety of sources, including your own writings, implicate you with disregarding the laws of war, financial mismanagement, racist and sexist remarks about men and women in uniform, alcohol abuse, sexual

assault, sexual harassment, and other troubling issues. i have reviewed many of these allegations and find them extremely alarming indeed. the totality of your own writings and alleged conduct would disqualify any service member from holding any leadership position in the military, much less being confirmed as the secretary of defense. >> an event in north carolina drunk in front of three young female staff members after you had instituted a no alcohol policy and then reversed it. true or false? anonymous smears december of 2014 at the christmas party at the grand hyatt at washington, d.c, you were noticeably intoxicated and had to be carried up to your room. is that true or false? >> anonymous smears. >> another time, a staffer stated that you passed out in the back of a party bus. is that true or false? >> anonymous smears. >> i'm going to leave with

concerns about your transparency. you say you've had personal issues in your past. yet when asked about those very issues, you blame an anonymous smear campaign, even when many of these claims are not anonymous. which is it? have you overcome personal issues or are you the target of a smear campaign? it can't be both. >> senator, i sit here before you. an open book, as everyone who's watched this process with with multiple nondisclosure and confidentiality agreements tying the hands of many people who would like to comment to us, many of your work colleagues have said that you show up for work under the influence of alcohol or drunk. i know you've denied that, but you would agree with me, right? that if that was the case, that would be disqualifying for somebody to be secretary of defense. senator, those are all anonymous false claims. and the totality, they're not they're not anonymous letters on the record here. they're not anonymous on the record. we've seen records with names attached to them. one, on behalf of one of your

colleagues, said that you got drunk at an event at a bar and chanted, kill all muslims. another colleague, not anonymous. we have this, said that you took coworkers to a strip club. you were drunk. you tried to dance with strippers, you had to be held off the stage and one of your employees in that event filed a sexual harassment charge as a result of it. now, i know you denied these things, but isn't that the kind of behavior that, if true, would be disqualifying for somebody to be secretary of defense? senator? anonymous false charges? you're not anonymous. and i'll just conclude and say this to the chairman. you claim that this was all anonymous. we have seen records with names attached to all of these, including the name of your own mother. so don't make this into some anonymous press thing. we have seen multiple names of colleagues consistently throughout your career that have talked about your abusive actions. >> senator tim kaine pressing

there on pete hegseth, despite everything we heard over those several hours yesterday. following that hearing, hegseth did pick up the support of republican senator joni ernst of iowa, significant for a number of reasons because she's a combat veteran, distinguished career in the military, also a survivor of sexual assault who is seen as one of the most likely republicans who could potentially vote against him. so jonathan lemire, joni ernst certainly gives cover to other republicans. a military veteran, a survivor of sexual assault. two of the big concerns put forward about pete hegseth. if she says i'm a yes, doesn't that give license to all the other republicans? >> it certainly seems that way. ernst, signaling that she will vote yes is a huge win for the trump team. and their effort to get hegseth confirmed. just backing up a step. you just ran through her resume. why? right from the beginning, she was seen as a key swing vote here on hegseth. and after hicks pick was announced by the president elect, joni ernst, senator ernst was deeply skeptical. she made

it clear in her public remarks and leaking through aides that she did not think that hegseth would be qualified. she put up a lot of resistance at the start, and then a pressure campaign begun, a pressure campaign by the trump team, by some outside groups, seem to have been effective and rattled her. and we saw it, you know, after she met with hegseth before the holidays, she came out more receptive. still not committing, but more receptive. but i was told at the time, and we heard again over, over the holidays that that they believe they had moved her. and it seems like yesterday they did. i mean, she gave an interview after the hearing in which she said she would support him. and now there were still a few votes here we're not sure about. i saw senator collins expressed some skepticism still yesterday, but but collins, murkowski, even mcconnell that's not enough. that's only three. you need at least four. now, that doesn't mean there won't be someone else who steps forward. but ernst was seen as the most likely candidate for that. and if jamaica if she's the one who says, you know what, i'm going to do this. despite a pretty halting hearing yesterday from hegseth, who missed some some very basic answers, you know,

and was wrong, as joe pointed out earlier, that, of course, other defense secretaries have served in combat. but if senator ernst is going to if the pressure campaign got to her, her fear of the maga base and donald trump coming to office got to her, that's a pretty good signal that most republicans will fall in line. and those i talked to last night feel now feel very bullish about this chance. not done. but they feel good. >> well i say not done. i would say not done also because you know joni ernst came out and she spoke her mind and was very concerned obviously about women in combat, something that she has fought for in her public life. also very concerned about sexual harassment and sexual abuse inside the military. and she made no secret of the fact that she was concerned about pete hegseth and that she had a couple of hours of people saying nasty things about her on x and ask somebody reportedly, how do i make this stop? the people who

get voting cards these days, it's crazy. it really is. but but that doesn't mean it's over. i mean, we will see what happens with lisa murkowski, somebody who does not let an hour and a half of tough times on social media move her. we'll see what happens with susan collins. we'll see what happens with mitch mcconnell. we will see what happens to dave mccormick. there's no reason to think that dave mccormick would vote against pete hegseth. that said, he's not up for six more years. he went to west point. if there's anybody who understands how woefully ill qualified pete hegseth is, even if you put all of these documented again, again, not anonymous. documented character questions about the nominee that the republicans are blocking from seeing the light

of day. even if you put that aside, people like dave mccormick, people like senator young from indiana, who's very serious thinker on defense policy, and also the new the new senator from utah who has expressed concerns about hegseth and also tulsi gabbard. i'm not saying it's over. i understand i understand the committee went in lockstep, and there's no reason to think that that republicans will act differently moving forward. but there still are three, four, five that that we have questions about. >> well, you have me thinking about dave mccormick. but really, all the republicans, general who are on this, it seems to me that what we saw yesterday was not a lot of accountability, not a lot of taking responsibility. a lot of information was held back for the public not to see whether it

be through ndas or decisions not to share. but i'm just wondering, general, if the republicans on the committee care about this pick and they're not thinking about donald trump's influence over them or what people are saying on next. but really, is this person qualified to be secretary of defense? what should they be looking at in terms of what we saw yesterday? >> well, look, i the reality of it is, in my view that he did a magnificent job in terms of being evasive, smart, responsive only to republicans. he went we went into this committee hearing having refused to see any democratic senators, which is, i think, the first time in probably 50 years that's happened. so this is a partizan attempt to get him through the ordeal of four hours and 15 minutes of a hearing. and to some extent, you know, senator

jack reed, senator kelly laid it all out there, an enduring concern about alcohol abuse. it's very difficult to walk away from alcohol abuse without therapy, without help. so that's that's on the table. but you know, the fact he didn't know the countries of asean. come on, give me a break. you aren't 100 people outside the foreign policy process that know that brunei is a member of asean. so i think he through the wickets, we got to hope that he is able to surround himself with people that understand audits and defense, acquisition and management of large organizations. and because he i think he's going to be the secretary of defense to some extent, it's going to be a popular nomination. he is a decorated combat veteran. he acquitted himself well as a as a

soldier. he's obviously extremely capable as a communicator. so that's the situation rolling in. and by the way, there's some other picks. tulsi gabbard, mr. kennedy, who the you know, the fbi director nomination that are truly frightening. so i think this issue is probably behind us. >> well, let's just let's just say thank you so much. retired four star army general barry mccaffrey. and let's take note as we say goodbye to you, that you have a hell of a lot of dust on your boots and far more accumulated through the years serving this great country. thank you than than most that we saw yesterday. we thank you. and again, thank you for your service. >> coming up, a conversation with one of the senators set to question pam bondi this morning in her bid to become attorney general, ranking member of the judiciary committee, senator

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gun violence. >> it has been over 400 days since the war in gaza started. >> you're watching trump hire a fiercely loyal staff. >> much more to come here tonight. stay with us. >> mike. sometimes the stupidity is just too much to take from these hearings. from political campaigns. we had a political campaign decided in part by by a 32nd ad about a procedure that may. i don't know, maybe he's done once. i'm not sure. to prisoners. we have a hearing yesterday that talks about everything, but what needs to be talked about. and the wall street journal editorial page once again skeptical of pete hegseth. just so anybody out there watching doesn't believe

this is some left wing attack. there are a lot of us that want a tough military and a strong military and want people in there that actually have dust on their boots. understand what it's like to serve in uniform and also have the experience and the qualifications to, to, to, to ably run the probably the toughest bureaucracy in america to run. this is what the wall street journal editorial page said. hegseth gets a senate pass. americans didn't learn much about pentagon nominee pete hegseth at his senate confirmation hearing on tuesday, but they did learn more about the world's greatest non deliberative body. and they talk about the failures that the democrats and the republicans make. this is what they say about the republicans. senator mullin from oklahoma noted that senators sometimes show up drunk at votes at night and cheat on their wives. but as the wall

street journal editorial page says, they aren't in the chain of command of u.s. military forces. senator sheehy, from montana, after opening his remarks asking how many genders there are, finally asked about navy shipbuilding. hegseth answer donald trump wants to build ships. no details. senator biden asked about what the us should do about its shortage of fighter aircrafts. mr. hegseth said he was going to look under the hood. he gave the same vague answer to senator deb fischer when she inquired whether the nominee supports a nuclear armed, sea launched cruise missile system to counter russian chinese nuclear capability. said he was going to look under the hood. mr. hegseth, the wall street journal editorial page concludes, made noises about restoring u.s. military deterrence. and that's something. but it appears we're on track to have a secretary of defense whose real views are a

mystery. let us hope, as general mccaffrey says, that he rises to the occasion. mike. mike. lifes rich pageant. r.e.m. said, or perhaps in this case, if you look at how this the questions in this, this. questions conducted yesterday. it sure made a mockery of the this this supposedly most deliberative body. >> well, joe, i would submit that yesterday's hearing was one of the most depressing aspects of politics in washington that i have witnessed in a long, long time. sitting there watching pete hegseth take questions from both sides. all i could think of was that most of the panel, both republicans and democrats,

apparently have never seen the full fbi report. only the chairs, the majority chair and the minority chair saw the whole report and shared anecdotally, i guess, information from that report with others. i'm also thinking that the principal client of the fbi was the trump transition committee, which is shocking because the principal client of the fbi ought to be and is the american taxpayers, you and me, all of us here. but no, not in this case. so this this was further proof, at least to me. and i'm probably pretty much alone in this, that the process is broken. the committee process is broken. it's not working. you have pete hegseth, you know, he will be probably the next secretary of defense. he wasn't asked about shipping lanes in the south china sea and the dangers that lurk there. he wasn't asked about ai and its

impact on weapons systems. he wasn't asked that for a reason. they probably knew the republicans as well as the democrats, that he wouldn't know what he was talking about. and he didn't, but he was talking about his his lust for better war fighters and greater lethality. we do pretty good in both departments. war fighting and lethal war fighting. we've done pretty good at that for quite some time. we have the greatest, strongest, most powerful, most feared armed forces in the history of the world, the history of the world. >> coming up, a live report from southern california as crews kick off another day of fighting those deadly wildfires. the latest from los angeles straight ahead on morning joe. >> what drives your business? numbers, data? sales? sure, but it's your people who define your

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more of donald trump's cabinet picks set to face lawmakers. homeland security secretary nominee kristi noem was supposed to be among them, but the hearing for the south dakota governor was pushed back to friday morning because of a delay on her fbi background check. so today's high profile hearings include one for senator marco rubio, who, of course, is the president elect's pick for secretary of state. he is expected to have a relatively smooth path to confirmation with bipartisan support. john ratcliffe though trump's selection for cia director and pam bondi, the nominee for attorney general, are likely to face much more scrutiny. for democrats, let's bring in the host of way too early, ali vitali. ali. good morning. so what will you be watching today? >> certainly the pam bondi hearing willie is going to be instructive. a lot of questions for her around the idea of if people who have spoken out against the former president, now president elect, will be facing any kind of retribution. we've had a lot of conversations

about if members of the january 6th select committee, someone like senator adam schiff, should have preemptive pardons. that's something the biden administration has actively had to grapple with on their way out the door, in large part because of the ways that the president elect has threatened and targeted some of those people. so that's going to likely be a key line of questioning from bondi. but i actually think yesterday's hearing was instructive for all of these confirmation battles going forward. that's not to say that i think every single one of trump's picks is going to absolutely get through. i think there's really valid questions to be asked about tulsi gabbard and about rfk jr. i think those people have whip count problems in terms of getting enough republicans on board, let alone democrats who are skeptical and in many cases, rightly so. but i think the hegseth hearing yesterday showed us exactly how tribal this senate and this washington is going to be. one key things was that trump had way less naysayers in this group of congressional republicans in both the house and the senate. and now we're

watching where the rubber meets the road on that. the fact that even his most controversial picks with really valid questions to be asked about them, are on a likely glide path, really shows how the litmus test of the confirmations writ large is playing out even before any votes are cast. and so i think that's one of the key things that you can take away from yesterday. and then also apply to today, on friday, and then of course, into next week as these hearings start to roll on the host of way too early. >> ali vitali, thank you very much for coming on this morning. coming up, ukraine launches its largest attack yet against russia. we'll have those details next on morning joe. >> hello i'm veronica. >> my name is darvin. >> i'm courtney, i'm jackie, and we switch to consumer cellular. >> my previous provider is terrible. >> surprise. >> we've changed your rate. >> we wouldn't get to talk to a person. >> and then all of a sudden it disconnects. >> now, with consumer cellular, no problems, better customer

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mark zuckerberg's decision to end fact checking. >> what's your message to concerned voters about where the country may be headed after the biden administration leaves actually behind closed doors? >> they're still asking what the hell happened? >> time now for a look at some of the other stories making headlines this morning. ukraine has launched its largest attack yet against russia, according to officials in kyiv, ukraine used drones and long range missiles provided by the us government to

strike several targets deep across the border, including ammunition depots, chemical plants and a storage space for oil will follow that. brazil is banning students from using cell phones in schools. the new rule was signed into law on monday, the country's education ministry says the law is aimed at safeguarding the mental, physical and psychological health of children and adolescents, and flags at the us capitol will fly at full staff during donald trump's inauguration next week. house speaker mike johnson issued that order after the president elect complained about the flags being lowered. johnson's decision overrides a white house proclamation to honor the life of the late president jimmy carter, who died last month. the flags will be lowered to half staff the day after trump is sworn in. coming up, we'll check in with cnbc's andrew ross sorkin on this very busy news

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you. start today at four hers.com. >> maybe if you could spend a minute just elaborating a little bit about the wokeness, where it comes from, and who will be held accountable. >> tell me something about your wife that you love. she's the smartest, most capable, loving, humble, honest person i've ever met. in addition to being incredibly beautiful. and don't forget about your kids. i'm supposed to talk about my kids. no, no. well, she's also the mother o an amazing mother. yes. of our blended family of seven kids. i'm pulling you. i'm trying to help you here. how many genders are there? tough one. senator, there are two

genders. i know that. well, i'm a sheehy, so i'm on board. how many push ups can you do? i did five sets of 47 this morning. >> all right, republican senators, they're taking kind of a soft approach yesterday to defense secretary nominee pete hegseth. in the hearing yesterday. and in just about 30 minutes, president elect trump's pick for attorney general, pam bondi, will face members of the senate judiciary committee on capitol hill for her confirmation hearing. let's bring in the ranking member of that committee, democratic senator dick durbin of illinois. >> are you going to ask him how many push ups he can do? >> i want to know if he can talk. all right. senator durbin, i do want to ask you about yesterday. i know we're going to talk about pam bondi and today in your committee, but what stood out to you from the hearings yesterday for defense secretary nominee pete hegseth? >> there were many good questions, and i have to commend

my colleague, tammy duckworth. >> there's hardly a person more qualified to ask someone who wants to be secretary of defense what their background is and whether it's good enough for the job. tammy duckworth, like so many of our veterans, has sacrificed more than all of us combined. >> and when she comes to the conclusion that he's unqualified for the job, i take that very seriously. >> you know, senator, we i think we all would agree. i think you would agree that a president that's elected by 77 million americans usually should have the right there should be a presumption that that president elect has the right to put who he wants in to, to cabinet agencies and judicial to, to judicial positions. in this case, i must say, though, it seems extraordinary. does it not, that a man who has very little managerial experience and

whatever managerial experience he's had has been driving two veteran organizations into the ground, according to whistleblower reports, that he would be responsible for the largest, most complicated and probably most important bureaucracy in american government. how do we how do we get to this point as a country where somebody so woefully ill equipped to handle that bureaucracy is rubber stamped by republicans? >> you have a president who will make a decision that matt gaetz. matt gaetz should have been the leading law enforcement official in the united states of america, and that kash patel should be given control of the federal bureau of investigation to solve his political problems. i mean, the bottom line is neither of those persons are qualified. and certainly mr. hegseth raises questions about his qualifications. and you just

wonder if you want to be president of the united states, and you want a team that you're proud of that can execute your policy. you want people who are credible, and none of those people are really credible. >> senator durbin, good morning. let's zero in on the hearing for attorney general nominee pam bondi. in particular, much has been made of donald trump's wish for the department of justice to carry out a campaign of retribution against his political foes and the like. what sort of questions do you want to pose to her about that particular topic? how grave of a concern is it? >> well, it's a very grave concern. and here's the bottom line. pam bondi is eminently qualified as a lawyer to be the attorney general. ten years in florida and her own private practice. i mean, she has the legal resume for the job. the question is, does she have the courage and the strength to say no to donald trump? what happens to an attorney general under donald trump who says no? we have, unfortunately, a history to look to when it came to that

situation. you had first jeff sessions, who was fired because he said no to donald trump, and then bill barr, who was fired. the question is whether pam bondi has courage to say to donald trump, what you want to do is wrong. it's illegal. it's unconstitutional. you should not do it. even if he doesn't want to hear that conclusion. >> and on that, i mean, she was a supporter of his efforts to overturn the 2020 election. what what would you want? is there anything she could say today to explain that, to assuage that, to sort of offer any sort of comfort that she would be willing, to your point, to say no to the president, united states, if he asks her to do something potentially illegal? >> i'm going to give her that chance. the questioning that i have is going to let her clear the record on some of the bizarre positions she's taken, and whether she believes, as she chanted at the republican national committee, lock her up is the philosophy when it comes

to her. federal bureau of investigation and department of justice. let's put her on the record under oath as to what she would do as attorney general. that's the best we can hope for. >> so let's talk about joe biden. he's going to be giving his farewell address tonight. curious what your thoughts are on the biden legacy as he moves towards january the 20th. and also, let's talk about something you're very proud of, the number of federal judges that joe biden has appointed and that the senate's confirmed. >> yes, i can tell you, i went to the floor yesterday and spoke about the accomplishments of the biden administration. i'm sure other colleagues will join me in that effort, too. but whether we're talking about putting an end to the covid epidemic, building this economy back after the devastation of that event, whether we're talking about his whole issue on inflation, the anti-inflation act that created

an opportunity for energy savings and for environmental responses, his mobilizing nato across the board to confront putin in ukraine. it's a long list and a strong list. i'm proud of what joe did. i can disagree with one thing or the other, but i think he's been a great president. >> all right. democratic senator dick durbin of illinois, thank you very much. we'll be watching the hearing, of course, which starts in about 25 minutes. thanks for being on this morning. joining us now, nbc news national affairs analyst and partner and chief political columnist at puck, john heilemann. >> john, you know, it's a fascinating. we just heard from senator durbin, who actually said pam bondi was qualified as an attorney. she was attorney general for eight years. however, things that she said through the years causes him great concern. and so they're going to obviously be addressing that during the hearing yesterday with pete hegseth. you

have a candidate who not only has said things that caused grave concerns to people on both sides of the aisle, but a man that i've yet to hear a single legislator or foreign policy advisor or ambassador say is qualified to be secretary of defense. does he, after yesterday's hearing, do you think it's all but likely that he will be the next secretary of defense? >> alas, joe, i do, and i honestly have to say even more, alas, that it's been my view since, and i think i've enunciated it on the show on multiple occasions, that i think that all of these candidates are likely to get through. >> and i think that that speaks to how much washington has changed and how much the confirmation process has changed. and donald trump's iron grip over the republican party. and i there's i get i never want

to rule out the possibility that there will be some new piece of information, some new witness to come forward, who will transform the politics of this. but i think joni ernst is the writing on the wall. and i i'll i'll go to my grave not understanding her line of thinking about this, given the experience that she's had, the role that she's played in the in the military, i think people rightly focused on her as kind of the, the telltale sign. and i think the fact that she's apparently decided to go over to my side kind of seals the deal. but i mean, honestly, to your point, this is not a hearing, traditionally speaking, where the job is of a bunch of prosecutors to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that pete hegseth is not qualified. you walk in the door of these hearings traditionally, and your job is to prove that you are qualified. and there was not a republican yesterday, joe, not one who made an affirmative case

for why pete hegseth is qualified. instead, we were treated to republican senators making of themselves by asking the man how many push ups he could do. it's truly, profoundly dispiriting, disappointing, but wholly predictable. >> yeah, john, to that point, it is the brett kavanaugh playbook. it's also just pure fealty to donald trump, a competition to see who could be more on board, more maga in the in these hearings with the cameras on them. so let's look forward a little bit here. you know, i. pete hegseth i agree people i talked to last night do think likely not guarantee but likely he'll get through. do you suspect that other cabinet nominees. there seems to be a lot of concerns growing, particularly among republicans, about tulsi gabbard? you know, just even more than than perhaps hegseth becoming a problematic choice. but do you see, is there anything that would make you think that a republican senator could maybe it's a national principal, national security issue or something else entirely that could take a stand against her or on vaccines. robert f kennedy jr. or do you just

expect more of the same? >> well, i said a second ago, jonathan, i do i expect more of the same. i mean, look, i'm, i'm open to and would be delighted by surprise. and this is because the margins are relatively narrow. it's a case where there could be idiosyncratic and surprising moments of resistance on the republican side to some of these nominees who are plainly unqualified. i think tulsi gabbard is one of those, and i think that robert f kennedy jr is the other on the point that you raised, which is the vaccine point. we know about mitch mcconnell, for instance, and his history with polio and the fact that some of the people around robert f kennedy jr would like to ban the polio vaccine. so is it possible that that these things will take an unsurprising turn? it's possible, but i do think that that the difference between this moment and the moment in 2017, in terms of the deference being accorded to donald trump within his own party and again, i'll say, largely across washington

and across across the business community and elsewhere, is really is really striking. and so i don't think anyone should expect that any of these nominees are going to go down. i'm not saying it's impossible, but i think your expectation should be that they will all get through. >> all right. we'll have more on these hearings coming up. and of course, at 930, the bottom of the hour here, the pam bondi hearing for attorney general will begin on capitol hill. but now we'll turn to our other top story, which, of course, the devastating wildfires in southern california, where the death toll has now climbed to 25. the region is still facing extremely critical fire conditions this morning as unrelenting winds continue to challenge fire crews ability to contain the flames. and there's a new report from the los angeles times that says top commanders from the l.a. fire department decided against assigning roughly 1000 firefighters and dozens of engines for deployment ahead of the fires. as the winds began to fan the flames last tuesday.

joining us now from altadena, california, is nbc's steve patterson. steve sun still not up there in southern california, but what's the latest on the ground? what are the fears for the day ahead? >> yeah jonathan the fears are here. we are in the final few hours of what's called a pds, a particularly dangerous situation. it's a designation from the national weather service. it's even more dangerous than the normal red flag winds that we've had so far since these fires have sparked the dangers. of course, here, the eaton fire, the palisades fire, both those fires now have significant containment, but they are not fully out yet. there is not that perimeter that would allow homeowners to come back to see their homes. meanwhile, this pds, this is a wind event combined with very low humidity. it means that, you know, basically southern california is covered in this dry brush. so these scenes, it could exacerbate the situation on the ground. pick up a pocket of embers, send the front of the fire somewhere else. but across southern california, you have

all of this brush that is spread out. it is just like a runway for what would be a fire if it were to spark. so officials very concerned about the next few hours, including right before sunrise particularly, can be the windiest part of the day. officials really focused on that. we've had maybe a few spot fires since this event started, maybe six or so. officials obviously extremely vigilant right now, putting those fires out almost as soon as they start. but if you get a good gust of winds, there's almost nothing they can do. if they can't get aircraft up. that is the major concern. meanwhile, the investigation continues. obviously there are multiple now lawsuits against the energy company here alleging that, you know, was maybe the utility's fault, that the palisades fire, that the edison company may have started the fire here at eaton. obviously, those utilities pushing back against that, saying that, you know, there were no anomalies before these fires started. the palisades fire, atf is focused on a particular ridge, which would have been above where they say maybe it was a human start.

they're sort of eliminating a lightning strike, a utility pole there, saying it was likely something that was done by a person that was there, whether or not that was intentional, it's on the list of possibilities. meanwhile, homeowners are just starting to sort of wake and see some of the damage that has been wrought as the zone for letting people in expands a little bit further on, they're starting to see what they have to deal with, including dealing with fema assistance, talking about the insurance. you know, obviously these are problems. that is going to be an uphill battle for some time. and as this fire could take weeks to fully put out before they can lift, fully lift the evacuation orders, let people back in their homes and start that process. in the meantime, it is still a full on firefighting operation, with the danger of these winds posing a significant threat today. back to you. >> all right, nbc's steve patterson, thank you very much. we're going to be watching, especially today with the winds picking up. >> yeah. so, john heilemann, let's dig through this for a minute. and i want to start by

talking about climate change being a part of this. of course. wall street journal editorial page a couple of days ago sort of scoffed at that and said, oh, well, there's been winds. there have been problems through the years. i will just say noaa came out and said 2024 was the hottest year on record now since they began recording the hottest years are temperatures on this planet in 1850, ten of the hottest ten years have come over the last ten years. so if people don't think that climate change is not having an impact on this, it's preposterous. it's just preposterous. that is a big wind up to say, though, at the same time, there's so many things as we saw with katrina that went into years of mismanagement,

years of bad planning. and john is a guy that knows la, who loves la, who's grown up in la. i'm sure this is beyond shocking to you like it is to all of us. but you hear that the decision was made to withhold resources. you hear that that you had a reservoir in palisades. that that pacific palisades, that that wasn't used, that was under repair. so many warnings that just just were missed. it's just it seems like a perfect storm o, of climate catastrophe and also really bungled mismanagement by officials. >> yeah, joe, you know, look, it's been it's been horrifying to watch as, as a native angeleno and someone who is pretty familiar with the santa ana winds and pretty familiar

with with the with the weather patterns and the way that they were in the 20 years that i spent my, my whole, every almost every day there and then and then subsequently going back an awful lot over the years. there's this is this los angeles is a really complicated place. and it's a complicated it's not like any other city in the country, maybe in the world, because it's so spread out and because the unique aspects of the climate there are, if not unique, unusual aspects of the climate, climate there that have always been like that. but they have undoubtedly the extremes of california weather and the things that have always been dangerous about california. and in addition to where the my, my fellow angelenos choose to put their houses, they build them in places where maybe man is not meant to build structures that are not meant to build domiciles. but all of those things have grown more extreme. the weather has gotten more extreme over my lifetime in los angeles, and anyone who's lived

in los angeles for any period of time will not deny that fact. these the extremeness and extreme weather is what climate science tells us is going to be the result of climate change. so your point though the perfect storm, you just that analogy is the analogy everyone has to get their head around, because this is not going to be a situation like this is not going to be explained by a single variable. it's not going to be climate change, did it? nothing else went wrong. it's also not going to be because one reservoir ran out of water, or because there were funding issues. there have been human error, policy error, extreme weather, have afflicted los angeles for a long time, and yet not only with this fire, but with the increasing series of dangerous fires that have become a bigger and bigger problem over the last decade in los angeles, show that it's everything. it's all of these things. you don't get an inferno like this, an apocalyptic weather event like this without human elements, natural elements, policy problems, all of it is part of

the story here, and trying to reduce it to a single thing is just stupidity. >> wow. >> john heilemann, so well, thank you very, very much. we appreciate it. and coming up on morning joe, we're going to get to the latest economic news as a key inflation gauge was just released just moments ago, cnbc's andrew ross sorkin and msnbc's stephanie ruhle join us to break it all down. plus, we are moments away from pam bondi's confirmation hearing for president elect. trump's choice for attorney general. we'll have it live when it gets underway. we're back in two minutes. let's confirm for me on the harder you push, the better we get. >> introducing copper fit ice, the world's first compression sleeve with a cooling sensation of menthol. >> the more you move, the more you'll feel the support. our most advanced compression sleeve yet a more durable heavyweight weave with seamless four way

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tech pants by jack archer. get yours today at jack archer.com/tv. >> all right, welcome back. it's time now at 20 past the hour for a look at some of the other stories making headlines this morning. the number of deaths in the u.s. is expected to exceed the number of births by 2033, according to a new projection by the congressional budget office.

the rate of population growth projected over the next three decades, 0.2%. it's significantly lower than the rate seen in the prior five decades. the slow rate attributed to low fertility, an aging population and lower immigration. in new jersey, governor phil murphy is calling for a ban on cell phones in all public schools in the state. today, our children are inundated with screens, the governor said in his state of the state address on tuesday. he went on honestly, is it any surprise that the rise in smartphone usage has coincided with a growing youth mental health crisis? for sure, the white house is moving to lift cuba's designation as a state sponsor of terrorism. it comes four years after then-president trump put the cuban government back on the list. trump's pick for secretary of state, marco rubio, senator, is among washington's fiercest critics of

cuba's communist government, and starbucks will require people visiting its coffee shops to buy something in order to stay or to use its bathrooms. oh come on. the company announced in a new code of conduct trump sent to store managers. people who violate the rules will be asked to leave the store, and employees may call law enforcement. the change is part of an attempt by the company to make their stores more inviting. the new policy will be enacted later this year. >> and now to the latest in economic news after that, devastating news for jonathan lemire, who usually just kind of wanders around new york city going into starbucks without doing much of anything at all, the december congratulations, by the way, i'm buying 9 a.m. host the consumer december consumer price index is released moments ago and was in line with expectations. let's break it down with the co-anchor of cnbc squawk box and new york times columnist andrew ross sorkin. also, nbc news senior business analyst and the host of the 11th

hour, stephanie ruhle. i want to talk also about banks and their earnings. surprising earnings vary, but we'll get we'll get to that in a minute. first of all, a lot of concerns about inflation that maybe the rate cut came a little bit early for a lot of different reasons. what is the news out today though, andrew tell you about where inflation is going. well the truth is actually inflation is a little bit better than had been expected. you could argue in line depending on which metrics you're looking at, you could say better than with. in some respects you're seeing potentially either a relief rally taking place because i think there was an expectation maybe it would be worse than people had thought. and you're seeing the markets this morning flying on the back of that news. as you can see, the dow up about 685 points. but it does look like we are getting down now. hopefully at least in this last quarter under 3% still got to get to 2%. i mean that's still the target that the federal reserve has put out there. can

they ever get there? i think it's actually going to be a long shot. and especially as we start to think about the new policies that we're going to see from the trump administration, it is going to be a challenge and some headwinds. but this piece of news, in terms of this piece of data suggesting that maybe things are a little a little bit better than a little bit better, the worst case fears. yeah. you know, you know, casual viewers of this show may think i get str of times i mentioned the wall street journal editorial page, but i obviously read it every day, and i and a couple of days ago, they suggested that that perhaps jay powell and the fed cut rates prematurely because of inflationary pressures. also obviously a lot of concerns about tariffs. et cetera. et cetera. et cetera i'm curious what do you make of the news today. and is there a chance that maybe those rate cuts weren't premature and that we could avoid another spike in inflation? >> remember, jay powell doesn't have many tools in his quiver, but how he has managed the

economy rates through through a post-covid economy has been really strong. now what is the number show us today. life is still expensive. so you know we talk on and on. look at the data, look how strong the economy is and try to connect the dots of why people are so frustrated. well, look at the screen, right? things are still expensive eggs. you know, obviously extra expensive given bird flu. try to buy a plane ticket over the last couple of months. gas. even though it might be cheaper than where it was a year ago, it's still ticked up in the last month. so for the everyday person out there, especially that person who voted for donald trump because they are frustrated with the price of rent, mortgage, insurance on anything, we don't see that changing in the near future. and you've even seen donald trump sort of start to change his language when he was running and he said, grocery prices, we're going to get them down. and when he sat down with our colleague kristen welker a few weeks ago, he sort of said, yeah, i might not be able to get that done harder than it looks. >> well, i mean, you got health

care costs, housing costs. there's so many things that just keep going up and it just makes it hard for so many americans. let's talk about banks and their earnings. i mean, i read a couple of days ago the possibility that the bond market was going to crush earnings for a lot of banks. but man, a banner morning. you guys talk about it. start with you, steph. >> listen banks had a really strong year. and think about the year they're headed into. they are looking forward to sort of a mergers and acquisitions bonanza. now that we are going to be faced with a different fcc chair. you know, we don't think we're going to be in a strict antitrust environment. i mean, the fact that that an elon musk could who already owns twitter now x could potentially buy tiktok and that the government, our regulators would let him do so. banks are very you know, they had a very strong 2024. and they're looking at 2025 where there's not a there's not going to be a lot of rules. there's

not going to be a lot of restrictions, which in the short term for them seems like a dance party. of course, in the long term, when there's no guardrails on the highway, accidents happen. >> sir andrew ross sorkin, what say you on this very topic? >> look, steph is 100% right. what i think you're going to see is an expectation that there's going to be massive number of mergers and acquisitions in the banking space. we've all talked about the idea of too big to fail for a very long time. and as a result of the financial crisis, there have been very few big deals among banks because there's been a view that you don't want, frankly, them consolidating. there's also been a i don't want to say protectionist movement, but a view that it's almost sacrilegious to allow some of the community banks, some of the smaller banks throughout the country to merge. i think you're going to see a lot of that this year, not necessarily jp morgan picking them up, but you're going to see a lot of regional banks picking each other up. you're also seeing in terms of just the profits this past year. and you saw in this last quarter

almost everybody beating across the board jp morgan having a record. you're looking at citigroup. you had goldman sachs by the way blackrock which now has $11.6 trillion with a that's with a t saw over the last year, 600 more than $600 billion of inflows, meaning one of the $650 billion was effectively sent to them. so the financial world you talk about why wall street is happy about where they are right now and how they're feeling. that explains a lot of it. dylan ratigan, after the crash in 2008, talked about money party, money party, all this may all this may be great. we'll wrap with you steph. but man i'm concerned about a bubble in the in the stock market. i'm concerned about a crypto bubble. the fiscal bubble where at $36 trillion. they're talking about adding another $10 trillion. those are three massive bubbles. if one of those burst like we're in trouble steph has two seconds steph yeah yeah let's say

absolutely concerned right. >> you have got these potential bubble environments when you've got massive business guys sitting right next to president trump saying, we don't need any rules. in fact, we can help you set the rules. that has lots of people very concerned, lots of people in the business community saying, great, the party is only getting bigger. but for consumers out there, watch, pay attention to what your lawmakers, what they're doing and who they're siding with. because when a bailout needs to happen, you got to you got to focus on who they're going to help. >> all right, stephanie ruhle, we'll be watching the 11th hour weeknights at 11 p.m. eastern, right here on msnbc and cnbc's andrew ross sorkin. thank you as well. coming up, i think you saw in the corner of our screen the confirmation hearing for pam bondi is scheduled to begin just moments from now. msnbc's ari melber joins us next. we'll have full live coverage from capitol full live coverage from capitol hill back in two minutes. it all started with a small business idea. it's a pillow with a speaker in it! that's right craig.

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>> welcome back to our live coverage of the senate confirmation hearings of pam bondi, president elect trump's pick for attorney general. we'll get a live look at the room right now on capitol hill. let's bring in msnbc chief legal correspondent and the host of msnbc's the beat, ari melber. ari, thank you for joining us. what will you be looking for today? >> yeah, we're watching pam bondi walk into the room. >> this is one of the most significant confirmation hearings we're going to be watching for questions about things she said out of office. >> i think it is fair to say factually, pam bondi is qualified for this job as a former big state attorney general. >> she has the kind of experience you've seen at doj in both parties for senior positions. >> so the question isn't, can she do the job based on her paper resume, the question on the minds of many democrats and possibly some republicans is whether she will do it fairly and with impartiality out of that job in her political role, for example, trying to help donald trump in the 2020 race, she made statements that were false. she falsely claimed they won a state they did not in pennsylvania. and so i expect to

see those kind of questions about the political activities and the rhetoric. will she bring that to the job? >> and they have just gaveled in. here's chairman chuck grassley of iowa opening the proceedings. let's take a listen. >> she's serving as the 87th attorney general of the united states. >> after her approval. >> congratulations to your nomination, miss bondi. >> and thank you for your willingness to serve. i thank senator durbin for his leadership as chairman of the committee over the last four years. although he and i have differences of policies, i think the public could say we worked well together on many issues over the years. as he steps into his role as ranking member, i will work closely with senator durbin to serve the american people. i also would like to welcome four, three brand new

members of the committee, and a person that's repeating his service here. after a stint off, i welcome to the committee, senator. brit, senator schmidt, senator crapo and senator schiff, welcome. before we get started, i'd like to set out a couple ground rules. i want to handle this hearing using a similar structure to how senator durbin handled the nomination hearing of attorney general garland. i want everyone here to be able to watch the hearing without obstruction. if people stand up and block the view of those behind them or speak out of turn, it's not fair or considerate to others. so offers officers will immediately remove those individuals. now, before i

turn to my opening statement, let me explain how we're going to proceed today. i'll give my opening remarks, and then i'll invite ranking member durbin to give his opening remarks. then i'll call on senator scott and schmidt to introduce this nominee. and following those instructions, introductions and miss bondi's statement will begin the first round of questioning. each senator will have an initial seven minute round for question. after the first round, we'll do a second four minute round of questioning. members should do their very best to adhere to these time limits, so that we can pursue, proceed efficiently with the hearing. we're here

today to considering. pam bondi's nomination to serve as attorney general of the united states. miss bondi, for a second time, i thank you for your nomination. willingness to serve, but more importantly, serve the important role of senate's advise and consent process. your nominated to one of the most important offices in our country. it took. it took. let's see a lot of work on your part just to get here today. the more than 14,000 pages of records, hundreds of hours of media files, and more than 3400 responsive entries you disclosed to this committee are a testament to your long career in

public eye, and your cooperation with this committee. i'd like to also thank your family for being here today. i know that many of them have traveled some distance to celebrate with you. i'd like to explain and expect that miss bondi be treated fairly during attorney general garland's confirmation hearing. republicans treated him with respect. we asked tough but fair questions, and we ultimately voted him out of committee on a bipartisan basis. although attorney general garland wasn't who we on this side of the aisle would have chosen to lead the department of justice. we recognize that president biden

won that election and that he was entitled to choose his attorney general. we were ultimately disappointed with some of the things that general garland and his department did. but at the time of his nomination, we gave him the benefit of the doubt. as the recent terrorist attacks in new orleans and around the world have shown, our national security must be a high priority. the american people deserve a secure homeland, and borders, safe streets, orderly markets, civil rights and a protected environment. so delivering on these promises required the swift confirmation of an attorney general. this

committee should give miss bondi the same benefit of the doubt that this committee gave to attorney general garland. president trump has selected a nominee whose qualifications speak for themselves. miss bondi made history in 2010 as the first woman to be elected florida attorney general. she held that role for eight years and was comfortably reelected by the people of florida to a second term. eight years of service as attorney general of the third largest state in the nation is excellent preparation for the role of u.s. attorney general. as florida attorney general, miss bondi was a member of the florida cabinet, chief legal officer of the state, and led a large agency that tangibly

impacted people's lives and by all accounts, miss bondi handled her responsibilities well. as the florida attorney general. miss bondi achieved numerous successes. she engaged in key initiatives to fight human trafficking, counter the opioid epidemic and protect consumers, and protect the citizens of florida from violence. she didn't shy away from hard work or complicated problems. she engaged in aggressive campaign to eliminate pill mills, took a leading role in securing $3.25 billion settlement following the deepwater horizon oil spill, and eliminated the backlog of rape

test kits, kits that had accumulated in that state's laboratories. miss bondi. experience isn't limited to her service as florida attorney general. she also served as a prosecutor in hillsborough county for 18 years and prosecuted terrible crimes. she sought tough penalties and justice for victims of violent criminals, domestic abusers and sexual predators. she prosecuted drug traffickers and thus protected her community. she was also active outside of her professional role, serving in the junior league of tampa on the board of special olympics florida, and is well known for her animal rescue efforts. her

experience and performance as attorney general, prosecutor, and community leader speaks volumes about her character and her dedication to the rule of law. she's received multiple letters in support of her nomination, including from the fraternal order of police, the republican state attorneys general, more than 100 former senior doj officials, and a bipartisan group of former state attorneys general. in short, miss bondi is highly qualified. and of course, as we all know, a change is desperately needed. when confirmed, miss bondi will take the helm of a at a very turbulent time for this country and for that department. the

justice department's infected is infected with political decision making, while its leaders refuse to acknowledge that reality. crossfire hurricane was a textbook example of government weaponization. the fbi's investigation was built on the fake steele dossier, which was funded by the democratic national committee and clinton campaign, who worked with foreign operatives. my investigative work expose that the fbi actually knew the dossier was false information and was likely a part of a russian disinformation campaign, even with the knowledge of such dossier defects and political infections, the justice department sought fisa warrant

renewals and took other actions. after directing my oversight staff to investigate justice department's mishandling of the matter, the justice department retaliated in issuing a subpoena for my own staff's phone records. that's right. challenging my constitutional rights of doing my oversight duties. what's next then? a few democratic colleagues pressured the fbi. foreign influence task force to supposedly brief me and senator johnson related to our biden family investigation. on august the 20th, senator johnson and i had that infamous briefing from the fbi. later, this fbi's briefing contents were leaked to the media, even though the fbi

promised. confidentiality. that leak falsely labeled our oversight work. as you guessed it, russian disinformation. to this day, over four years later, the intelligence community and the fbi refuse to provide us the intelligence basis for that briefing. the title of this wall street journal's article sums it up, quote, the fbi's dubious briefing. did the bureau set two u.s. gop senators up at the behest of democrats? question mark, end quote. so i know, as other people on this committee and in and out of congress, know what government weaponization is, and then we get to special

counsel jack smith and his lawfare operation. it involved an unprecedented fbi raid on trump's house, including agents that even searched the former first lady's clothing drawers. hillary clinton and joe biden certainly did not receive the same treatment by government regarding their records. indeed, is my oversight exposed? the fbi amazingly agreed to destroy laptop records a and records associated with clinton's staff. this orwellian conduct should have no quarter on top of it all. the fbi special agent tebow, the anti-trump agent that violated the hatch act for

political activities on the job, started one of jack smith's cases. but jack smith wasn't the only department official who tried to influence this past election, the washington post reported just last august about a previously undisclosed mueller investigation into trump that was closed for lack of evidence and it being, quote unquote, fishing expedition that news reporting was based on sealed court records, government records and potentially classified information roughly 90 days before the last presidential election, the justice department leaked that information to the press to impact the election against president trump. and they did it

while stiff arming congressional requests for information that would prove embarrassing to the biden-harris administration. so let us not forget some of the more and other flagrant abuses of power that we've seen from the doj and the fbi over the last four years, and i don't have the time to spend on these that i spent on a 2 or 3 others, but just to list them, the department of justice used the might of the federal government to prosecute individuals peacefully praying outside of an abortion clinic. the fbi suggested that traditional catholics could be domestic terrorism threats, claiming that these individuals adhere to, quote, anti-semitic, anti-immigration. anti-lgbt and

white supremacy ideology. end quote. the fbi opened dozens of investigations into parents who voiced their concerns at school board meetings regarding curriculum choices and covid 19 mandates. the undue pressure to social media platforms to censor so-called misinformation, downgrading or removing flagged social media posts and removing users. these are only a few particularly egregious examples of rot infesting the department of justice. the impact of this political infection in our once storied law enforcement institutions is catastrophic by every metric, the biden-harris justice department conduct has failed to live up to our country's ideals. so, miss

bondy, should you be confirmed, the actions you take to change the department's course must be for accountability, so that the conduct i just described never happens again. the only way to accomplish this is through transparency for the congress and the american people. now to my friend, ranking member durbin. >> thank you. senator grassley, i appreciate your commitment to the judiciary committee's long standing bipartisan practices for vetting presidential nominees. that was in doubt several weeks ago. but i spoke to senator grassley, and he assured me that he is still personally committed, as i am, to maintaining these practices, which we've established over the years. our process is rigorous, and it shows how seriously members on both sides of the aisle take our constitutional responsibility of advice and consent. miss biondi, thanks for

coming to my office last week to discuss your nomination. the importance of the attorney general to our justice system cannot be overstated. as our nation's chief law enforcement officer, the attorney general oversees the department of justice, which is responsible for protecting the civil rights of americans, economic freedom and opportunity, public safety, and, of course, national security. in short, the attorney general has real impact on america's everyday life. it is critical that any nominee for this position be committed first and foremost to the constitution and the american people, not any president or political agenda. but president trump claims he has, quote, an absolute, absolute right to do what he wants with the justice department. and that's how he conducted his first term. he interfered with the criminal cases of his friends and allies and successfully pressured doj to investigate his rivals. he

even tried to use the justice department to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. the president elect made it clear that he values one thing above all else, and he said it over and over again loyalty. speaking about attorney general sessions, donald trump said, quote, the only reason i gave him the job is because i felt loyalty. he was an original supporter. but when then attorney general sessions did the right thing and recused himself from the mueller investigation, trump said he should never have nominated him and he fired him. trump then nominated bill barr to succeed sessions. barr successfully auditioned for the job, and an unsolicited memo to doj that sharply criticized the mueller investigation. once confirmed, barr misrepresented and blocked the release of the report, intervened in multiple criminal cases of trump's political allies, and spread falsehoods about election fraud. but in december of 2020, when bill barr finally announced there was no

evidence of widespread voter fraud that would change the outcome of the election, trump dismissed him, fired his second attorney general. this time around, president elect trump has vowed not just to use the justice department to advance his political interests, but also to seek, quote, retribution against, quote, the enemy within. he has repeatedly threatened to arrest, prosecute, jail and otherwise punish those he considers his enemies. this includes reporters, prosecutors, judges, poll workers, military officials, and even his own former political appointees. even before taking office, trump has forced out his own fbi director that he appointed chris wray, and he's trying to replace wray with kash patel, whose main qualification to be fbi director seems to be his loyalty to donald trump. patel has even compiled an enemies list of, quote, government gangsters to

target that includes former trump appointees like director wray. attorney general barr and defense secretary esper. trump's approach is a stark contrast with the bipartisan view born out of the post nixon era, that the justice department should serve the interests of the american people, not any one president. for those who need a reminder, richard nixon ordered department officials to fire archibald cox, the special prosecutor investigating watergate. two of those officials, elliot richardson and william ruckelshaus, resigned rather than carry out richard nixon's orders. when this committee considered the appointment of loretta lynch to be president obama's attorney general, a republican member of the committee emphasized, and i quote, what we need from our next attorney general more than anything else is independence. that same member who now still serves on the committee said, and i quote, the job is not to be the president's wingman. the

job is to represent all americans. the attorney general must be willing to stand up to the president and say no when the office demands it. when attorney general nominee merrick garland came before this committee, another one of my republican colleagues still serving told garland, and i quote, my sole criterion for voting for your confirmation is your pledge to make sure that politics does not affect your job as attorney general. so the view that the justice department must be insulated from political influence should and should not be weaponized against political rivals has historically been bipartisan, certainly on this committee, at this crucial moment in history. that view, not mr. trump's view, must prevail. miss bond, you made many years. you have many years of experience in law enforcement, including nearly a decade of service as attorney general and one of the largest states in the nation. but i need to know that you would tell the president, no. if you're asked to do something that is wrong,

illegal or unconstitutional. miss bondi, you are one of four trump personal lawyers that he has already selected for top positions in the department of justice. you joined mr. trump in working to overturn the 2020 election. you've repeatedly described investigations and prosecutions of mr. trump as witch hunts, and you have echoed his calls for investigating and prosecuting his political opponents. this flies in the face of evidence, like mr. trump's call to georgia secretary of state brad raffensperger. we've all heard that audio recording. these are the kinds of anti-democratic efforts that in the past you have defended. and it's critical that we understand whether you remain supportive of mr. trump's actions. i also have questions whether you will focus on the needs of the american people rather than the wealthy special interests. i'm concerned that you failed to identify your extensive lobbying for foreign governments and big corporations as potential conflicts of

interest. there will be questions in this hearing on that issue. that's why i've asked the justice department and the national archives for information on your lobbying of the trump white house and your foreign lobbying disclosures. i'm particularly concerned about your work on behalf of the government of qatar, which reportedly paid you $115,000 a month to launder their image on human trafficking, an issue of bipartisan concern on this committee. we need an attorney general who will enforce our antitrust laws to prevent price fixing and monopolies that lead to higher prices for american consumers, not favor corporate giants that you've lobbied for in the past, like amazon and uber. i also have questions about some of your actions as florida attorney general. i'm concerned that your office failed to investigate more than two dozen complaints about the for profit trump university after mr. trump donated to your reelection campaign and held a fundraiser for you at mar-a-lago. in addition, you have a long track record on the issue of civil rights,

reproductive rights, voting rights and lgbtq rights that needs to be discussed in. contrast, miss bondi merrick garland didn't campaign for president. biden never served as his personal attorney, never lobbied on behalf of foreign governments and corporate giants. after years of relentless criticism on attorney general garland. for many of my republican colleagues, i hope they are prepared to hold you to the same standard. thank you, mr. chairman. >> okay, it's now time for senators to introduce the nominee. the first one will be senator scott at the table, as you see. and senator schmidt is a member of this committee at his place on the dais. senator scott, please proceed. >> mr. chairman, ranking member and committee members, it is an absolute honor to sit before you today to introduce my good friend pam bondi for her nomination hearing. i'd also like to recognize some important people appearing in support of her today. her husband john, as

well as her mother and father in law, sister, brother, sister in law and nephews, friends and family members of john. many more would surely be here if space allowed. i can tell you wholeheartedly that president trump could not have a better leader than pam bondi. for attorney general, she is undoubtedly qualified, brilliant and committed to defending and protecting the laws of this nation and has the track record to prove. it is no secret that the doj is facing a public trust crisis after democrats spent years weaponizing the justice system and the entire federal government, they become an agency that tax the american people instead of defending and protecting them. that will change under pam bondi. under her leadership, the doj will actually fairly enforce the laws,tion safe and crack down on violent crimes and dangerous drugs. and the american people will trust her to do so. i know that well because i worked alongside pam bondi for eight

years when i was governor of florida, and she was florida's elected attorney general, working to improve the lives of floridians, to make florida the best state in the nation, to live, work, and raise a family. pam was an incredible partner, working to keep florida safe and uphold the laws of our state, and ensuring crime is aggressively pursued by law enforcement and prosecutors. president trump has made clear that one of his top priorities is to reverse the rising rates of crime, and specifically violent crime, that have plagued our communities over the past four years. pam bondi is uniquely equipped to advance his priority as u.s. attorney general because she has a she has a proven track record of success in achieving dramatic reductions in crime and violent crime. during her time as florida's attorney general from 2010, the year before she took office, to 2018, the last year she was in office together, florida experienced a remarkable 26% drop in overall crime, including a