>> joe scarborough had dinner with donald trump last week and met with president elect mar-a-lago as new year's eve party was getting underway. morning joe partied with trump, called him a liar and explained on the air that they didn't get dress up, it was just a 20-minute meeting seeking an interview. >> judging from the response that i get every time i meet with anybody associated with him, no journalist have ever done this before. 60 minutes has ever gone to a president or new york times. we know ben bradley ever did. i'm not going to let them lie because they have been lying for a year or so. you two meet the president elect when the staff says you can meet the president elect. howie: that's true. every president holds off the record chats, reagan, obama, this is only controversial because it's trump. i'm glad they patched things up. trump even went over on friday and met with vanity fair carter who has been mocking him since spying magazines in the 80's this after tweeting, no talent, will be out. that's it for this edition of mediabuss, i'm howard kurtz. let us know what you thi

. >> the joe scarborough memorial, swear to god he never comes back to washington and screws things up like he did the first time he was here, relief act. and they gut it. why? >> it's a surprise move, just a few hours before this new congress begins, house republicans decided to put an end to their own independent ethics oversight. last night they voted to put office of congressional ethics, a watchdog created by democrats in the wake of jack abramoff, not just scarboro, under the jurisdiction of the house ethics committee. so what that does is force investigators to report to the very members they are supposed to be monitoring. >> no, no, no. >> members spoke out in favor of the decision said it would restore accntability and due process for members accused of wrongdoing. the new rules prohibit the office from considering anonymous allegations. >> why? >> because the investigation must stop if members of the ethics committee orders it to. it prohibits investigations of activity before 2011 and says it can't share information with law enforcement without the committee's approval. demo

just some of the response from president trump supporters, the "new york times" has a piece out, joe scarboroughd quotes from individuals he said that are in his family that supported trump, and they see this as him following through on what he proposed. the interesting note here, what he proposed was a muslim ban. what he is saying now is a description of something that he calls a travel ban. >> right, and so what he's trying to do rhetorically and linguistically is to get around the constitutional problem that he would have with a muslim ban. it's unconstitutional to single people out based on their religion from entry into this country, and also it goes against -- that's the unconstitutional part. the immoral part is denying people entry to this country after they have put their lives on the line in service of this country, and also let's talk about the legality of all of this. you've got former mayor giuliani, rudy giuliani on television saying that then candidate trump went to him and said i want a muslim ban but we've got to do it in a way that's legal, so he put together a task force to t

december 18, 2015, during an interview on morning joe, host joe scarborough, ask mr. trump about putin's alleged killing of journalists and political opponents, trump answered, he's running his country. at least he's a leader unlike what we have in this country. mr. speaker, i have a list that i'm going to submit to the record of dozens of journalists in russia that have been murdered in cold blood because they were reporting on corruption, on growing repression in that society, on what russia has executing around the world. the interview with mr. scarborough took place the day after mr. putin praised and prop began diesed mr. trump as quote, bright and talented and the absolute leader of the presidential race. that was about a year before our election. months later the president-elect asked the russian federation to hack hillary clinton's email. how about that? our president-elect. september 8, 2016, nbc's commander in chief forum, mr. trump praised putin saying, if putin says great things about me, i'm going to say great things about him. i have already said he's ve

. >> one clue we got this morning was from joe scarborough who said that he had a private conversation with him over the weekend and that trump said to him, well, the last two administrations after putin -- after russia made -- and after they went into crimea under obama, the whole philosophy of the last two administrations was to put putin in a box and in the corner, and that didn't work. he is trying something else. to open arms and try this and if it doesn't work, he will adjust. that's all -- that's like the most thinking we've heard through a media host from a private conversation. we need to hear donald trump sort of ruminate and think aloud about how he envisions this. >> the tweet from donald trump about putin is there on the screen. great move on delay by v putin. i always knew he was very smart! that's a lot less than 140 characters, but go ahead. >> yeah. again, you go back to john mccain, you go back to lindsey graham. i'm sure their heads were exploding when they read this. they think of vladimir putin very differently. as a murderer, as a thug, as the former head of the k

. >> jason, you're nodding your head, as am i, but joe scarborough said this morning, he said, i am anpreter of the red states and he said people are sitting on their couches watching football on a friday night saying, yep, keep them out, those people in those countries, keep them out. so when donald trump says we're going to have a ban, they like it, and they're voters. so how do you get america to listen to this educated, sophisticated expert? >> besides watching this morning because we -- here's the thing. it makes perfect sense for donald trump and his voters. what concerns me as a patriot and american citizen is he's taking his eye off the ball. the vast majority of terrorism is domestic. you have local dangerous people who decided to attack police officers in dollars. you have lone wolves like dylann roof who decided to assassinate people in south carolina. if you look from 9/11 until today, more americans have died at the hands of white nationalists than jihadis in this country. if he wanted to focus on domestic terrorism, i'd be the first to shake his hands but this internation

. >> you know, keir, joe scarborough here. you say this a week oar so, an economist in the united states says as he goes across the world now, the only true capitalists he's finding are the chinese leaders. he'll go into a room with these western powers and all this populist talk about protectionism and scratch their heads. it does appear as you're saying today in davos, carrying the mantel of milton friedman, the leader of communist china. >> right. the leader of the free world is a chinese president that leads a country that's not free. let's be clear if donald trump might listen to this, hold on, china has been protecting its own economy for years. that's my problem. by the way, chinese lecturing how to deal with refugee process, not opposing globalization but bringing stability to the world. people would show china hasn't shown that kind of approach itself in its own region but it is pretty stunning. >> keir simmons, thank you. >> thank you. >> katty, it is fascinating that actually one area, they are talking about free tr

. >> ksaie hunt, off what joe scarborough just indicated his feelings in terms of replacement, there is no replacement right now, here is the killer quote and i would ask you about the timing of any replacement from paul ryan when asked about his replacement plan. ed, well, you'll see it as the weeks and months unfold. for those without health insurance that is a long, long time. who has a plan? >> look. i think the person you want to watch in this is mitch mcconnell and you heard mike pence talk about this yesterday in that picture you just showed. he stood with senate leadership and it's down in the weeds. he talked about budget reconciliation measures. the reality is that mitch mcconnell is a master of this process and if anybody can figure out how to craft something that both repeals but then sets up the right kind of opportunity for republicans to replace this law, it's going to be mitch mcconnell. so paul ryan sort of has it easy because he can push whatever he needs to through the house most likely. the challenge on the other side. mcconnell has to give republicans the right s

he still takes phone calls was joe scarborough when he's in high level meetings at any point in time. he watches fox and friends and morning joe. you have to keep in mind what the president cares about a lot is the media. that's why the media still matters. that's probably if anything it's almost a protection for the media we're still going to get access because he himself cares about it. >> ari, i want to make one other other point and then turn it to you and then to the question. it's also about what is sean and i were talking about before, when the white house puts out fact sheets and background information, it allows empty mainstream media, at least presumably to incorporate more information in their coverage so that the public can have a better understanding of what is going on. the end of the day, it's not just about "morning joe" or anybody else and opinions and charges and counter charges. we need to inform the publicing about where they're going to war, or what their taxes are going to do or how this latest executive order is going to translate out. isn't that a need for main

. >> joe scarborough. >> nobody remembers. but the guy who won it in '88 is here today.itt. >> i'm throwing the book at you. hugh hewitt will join the conversation -- >> it was a wonderful moment. touching. >> we just hugged each other for a while. >> seriously, you find a way to mess everything up. >> what's that? >> i'm supposed to say hugh hewitt joins the conversation in just a moment with his book but first -- >> this book, by the way, how many years will this add to somebody's life if they read it? >> about one week. >> one week? >> one week. >> i'll take a week, you can do a not a week. >> at this point you can use a week. here's a look at the ground we've covered so far on this busy tuesday morning. >> it was a pretty dramatic difference between saturday night's briefing and the briefing yesterdays. yesterday actually felt very traditional. >> for a first briefing he handled himself pretty well. >> what he did on saturday, though, doesn't go away. >> which sean is going to show up today? >> same one as yesterday. >> president trump spent much of his first monday

scarboroughed joe and one of the pundits who was always on there or it was tim kaine or howard dean?e was saying that right now, russia is moving into crimea. me personally, i think that is my business -- i think that is their business. we shouldn't have messed with them in the first place. and i think now they think that we messed with them they will mess with us. int: we want to go to david california. caller: a democrat. good morning. i just wanted to say that i think the republican argument for the travel ban is , at best.us it alienates just more countries against us, which, when you do that, you basically create an environment of radicalization. it doesn't target the main terrorist states that known terrorists came from. i think it is suspect and why the trotted it out in middle of the night to see what neck get away with. of the judicial system for challenging them because it fascism and where they are kicking out the most experienced military leaders. trump's it will be undoing. those are the comments i have. host: one story related to part of the comment bernie sanders of ca

>> joe scarborough. >> i told them to -- i wanted to play the mariah carey thing again. >> oh, that's >> sabotage. >> what's the historical impact of that? ask meacham? >> here it is. jon meacham, here's the cover of the "new york post," this morning's "new york post," "plot against mariah". what say you, sir? give me history's -- >> ah, historically, jon meacham, what great event in u.s. history was there a plot ever so diabolical that it actually tore away the very fabric of this great republic? >> you know, when i watched it, i was thinking about the newburgh conspiracy. >> yes, yes. >> which is, what i think you all were thinking about. they wanted to make george washington king and he played his role and stepped back. that was in the 1780. that was what came to me when i was watching dick clark's, what is it, "rocking eve"? >> it's funny, when mariah carey was on, my phone rang, and joe was on the phone and said cinninatus. and i said, joe, are you drunk? >> no, she wants to work on her form. and they won't leave her alone. they keep trying to make her a pop star. >> i was about

scarborough, no relation to joe, scored a touchdown. finally gets on the board midway through the arterback. the qb deshaun watson cutting the lead in half himself. scarborough would only be able to carry the crimson tide into the third quarter where he exited the game with a leg injury leaving the pressure to freshman quarterback jalen hertz who struggled through most of the game until finding o.j. howard wide open for a 68 yard score. but it doesn't deter clemson heading into what would be a wild, and i mean wild fourth quarter that saw four lead changes after watson connects with mike williams on a 4 yard touchdown. the qb matches the tigers' 88 yards and six plays to their first play of the game handing the ball off to wayne beauman. 30 yards to the end zone, regaining the bama lead, 31-28. unfortunately for alabama, the tigers get the final say. watson capped a 68 yard drive for his third touchdown pass to hunter redfeld. the tigers regain the on-sidekick. clemson dethrones alabama in a 34-31 score. their coach becomes the second p

scarborough's birthday today. >> oh. >> happy birthday to andrew. thank god for andrew. >> joining us now democratic senator joe back. >> joe, how are you? >> good. >> where are your grandkids? >> three of them are right there. i got three out of ten here, sophie, chloe and jack. 13, 17, 16. >> you married young. >> i did. >> we have been heartened, at least i have -- there they are. >> beauties. >> get the grandkids smiling at the camera. one, two, three, go. turn around. >> hi girls. hi. >> so i've been heartened at least by hearing from both chuck schumer and nancy pelosi that nobody is freaking out. they're saying let's just see what happens. let's relax. let's see where we can agree, and we'll fight where we disagree. that's how we're supposed to do it, right? >> they asked me yesterday in different groups we were talking to, i said the problem that you have right now, everybody is saying we're not going to do this, we're going to shut down, we're going to stone wall everything. i said two wrongs don't make a right. i said as a democrat we're upset about what happened the last six, eight years and it didn'