joining me now is the perfect guest, a president joyce jordan, jon meacham.or joining us on the sunday night special. >> thank, you already. >> history charges us so much. it is sometimes limited when there are a few precedents to look at. how do you see this from a historical perspective? >> i think that this is a human and moral question as much as a legal and political one. in all four of those things, of, course they are entwined. the question is, is our democracy mature enough to allow for this to process this? and to come out on the other end in a full, free, fair election? making a choice that will support and preserve the constitution, which for all of his imperfections, has in fact created a more perfect union. it is still a country, still a constitution that people have very, very strongly held opposing views believe in. it is really up to us, up to the voters. it's one of the main reasons the tomorrow is so interesting. finally voters in the presidential race for the first time since the insurrection will vote for a presidential candidate. i think

jon meacham, thank you so much.nian leader pitching a peace plan at the time where putin is quietly telling people around him he too would not mind moving toward peace. while he's not announcing it publicly, he too is ready for this war of attrition to come to an end. >> reporter: i think president putin is ready to talk. i think the issue is he's not ready to compromise. it's cold here in davos, joe. we're in a u.s. presidential election year. it is focusing minds here and steering some of the geopolitical conversations, except apparently for the ukrainians. there is a congressional delegation here, at least some of whom come with a message to ukraine, you will get the money, but we also need to talk about how we get to the end of this. that is not a message the ukrainians want to hear. there was a meeting on sunday of 80 national security advisors from around the world. the swiss were hosting that and trying to say we need to talk and probably need to talk to the russians. that isn't something ukrainians wanted to

we can go to jon meacham's club. we can all wear our smoking jackets.'s a good rivalry. >> i have seen jon in his natural habitat in the very setting you're describing. you really need to see it up close. when it comes to having won yet another match in his men's over 80 tennis league, he's triumphant. it's amazing. >> the constitution is at risk. can't we talk about something else? [ laughter ] >> exactly. >> yeah. all right. okay. yes, the constitution is at risk. >> we won't talk about the fact that at the bellevue country club meacham only plays people over 80. >> okay. that's his little secret. now we move on. okay. hours before nikki haley and ron desantis faced off last night on the debate stage in iowa, former new jersey governor chris christie suspended his campaign. all of this comes ahead of the critical iowa caucuses, now just four days away. nbc news senior capitol hill correspondent garrett haake is in des moines with the latest. >> reporter: overnight, a fiery face-off in frozen iowa, with the state's republican caucuses now just four day

yeah jon meacham, structurally inspirational and grown up, but do you think we have to do to bring that party back to the center? it even possible. and also, you talk fairness. do i look at like a governor's job, like bill haslam's in tennessee, like do think conservative thought has any role to in sort of this conversation of how to create a better economy? i mean, conservative thought is arguably the foundation of liberalism, of political liberalism. i mean what what what is thought of as classical conservative thought is missed is strangely discussed as the foundation of liberalism and because of the way that we americans use conservative liberal. that can be very confusing. but yes, thought has a role to play in the national debate and absolutely whether you are a democrat or a republican personally you should want to be a strong and respect respectable alternative opposing party because that's how we get good debates over ideas. we want democracy to be a contest of ideas, not a contest of identities. and it, you know, every democrat has an interest actually having a strong republic

that's jon meacham looking at the republican primary. he's become a thoughtful voice on what we face right now. republicans and democrats argue that the other side is more immoral than other americans. meacham says donald trump is a big part of why things are unusually bad. i want to share with you brand new, airing tonight here something he just told us. >> i think this is a human and moral question as much as a legal and political one. all four of those things are intwined. the question is, is our democracy mature enough to process this and to come out the other end in a full, free and fair election making a choice that will support and preserve the constitution, which for all of its imperfections has created a more perfect union. it's still a constitution that people believe in. voters in a presidential race for the first time since the insurrection will vote for a presidential candidate. i think the central question for american democracy at this hour is are you willing to vote for someone with whom you may differ on policy, but in w

. >> i think irrevocable, but the thing is a say in the 18th century we had people like jon meacham saidthat. the problem is are we learning? after two centuries we seem to be making the same mistakes again and again. and you know it's nice to see that you're hopeful. most of the people i speak to say you're a pessimist didn't get a life and all that kind of attitude. honestly we can't call ourselves united. we are not onene nation. what we need are common social values. my thinking on this is i think mr. biden when he took office one or two weeks -- >> it was on my birthday. >> saying this is not who we are and all this in the political talk he gave you should have appointed the best minds in the country and said okay if you want to stay united this is what you have to do. otherwise it's a very disparate e'task. nothing will be done. everyone is impeaching the other party. should we do something like that ice know nixon did something lie that when he took office. >> i don't have a lot of confidence in a blue ribbon commission being able to persuade people. i agree with the diagnosis tha

jon meacham has always said, we really haven't always said. but george says a of stuff that we really can't think of america as a openly and free society until 1965. do we have? the voting rights act where all african-american people who lived in the south who before could not vote and participated in the government. we're not part of it. so, you know, the past was good in lots of ways, but there were a lot of problems. and we a new set of problems now. but the question the question, you know, suggests we have to try to think of ways to to form that unity. but with the different voices that are now participating in the conversation and the way. well, i think, as annette said in an earlier answer, a lot of other nations, a shared ethnic background or a shared religion in the course of human history, a lot times people have organized states or what we think of as states along those lines. it's a lot. if you have homogeneity across society, if you only have one accepted religion, if you only have one accepted race, if you only have one accepted t

. >> jon meacham, thank you very much for coming on this morning. >>> so after nearly a decade, jon stewartrotating line-up of the show's team. stewart helmed the show from 1999 to 2015. he will make his return on february 12th. willie, what do you think? >> i think it's fascinating. remember, he left "the daily show" right before this trump era started. so he did have a show on apple tv and has been very active in causes on capitol hill. it's one night a week through the election. so i think a lot of fans are really excited to have his voice back in the conversation at this crucial moment. yesterday i was sitting down with the great john oliver to interview him for "sunday today." we were at a liverpool bar here in new york city. we were sitting at this bar. as the interview finished, the news came across that his old friend and colleague at "the daily show" jon stewart was returning. he didn't know anything about it. here's that exchange. >> so we've just got news that jon stewart is going to return to "the daily show" to do mondays through the election. >> that was just handed to us on t