richard haass, let me start with you. has u.s.bout whether it would defend taiwan from chinese invasion run its course? >> well, it's worked well for about four decades. chinese, i've not been able to dismiss the possibility we would come to taiwan's defense. taiwan could not be assured we would, and that's kept everybody essentially on their heels a bit. the problem now is china has built up its military significantly. it's got real capabilities to overwhelm taiwan if left alone. and there's real doubts in china's mind about america's willingness to come to taiwan's aid. they look at what's happened in afghanistan. they look earlier what we did with the kurds. the red line and syria. how we didn't respond to hong kong. how we didn't respond to crimea. so there's a lot of people in china who think there's a major opportunity. so i would essentially say we need to be much more explicit about our willingness to come to taiwan's defense. our allies in the region, japan, australia and others are expecting that one ought to see that. a

and richard haass, president of the council on foreign relations.lk about the white house. the readout says they were very clear with putin, if you invade ukraine again, we're not going to sit aside and watch this happen, we'll take action. what exactly does that mean? >> that's the big question, isn't it, katy? vladimir putin didn't get into this situation without calculating in advance what he thinks the west would do in response to whatever action he plans to take. he has seen this up close now for two decades. he understands the limits and the capacities that the west has in terms of geopolitical politics and the back and forth gamesmanship we've seen under his tenure. he's already decided he can either take whatever punishment he thinks we're going to inflict anyway or he's going to use this moment to try to negotiate some better deal as he sees it without the use of military force. the problem is we don't know which it is. listen to what he says yesterday, what the kremlin says he said yesterday. the rupture would be if the united states and t

richard haass, we appreciate it. we'll have you back soon. >> why are you awake?ela writes this. i slammed my hand in a car door last evening and took a trip to the ar and the pain is so bad, it woke me up. >> angela, i am sorry about your hand. >> dan, what you got back there? anymore injuries? >> no injuries. tom's e-mail, living in florida is my only chance top see the greatest christmas tree on earth as you go on break. >> as joe scarborough puts it, the commerce street. valerie watches every morning. today she's up this reason to help her son and his girlfriend with their brand new son. congratulations. >>> bill belichick is being sustained by the tears of the nation. coming up on "morning joe," new message for democrats. you need to get out of a city more. max rose, we'll hear from the former congressman about his new announcement to reclaim his new york city congressional district. "morning joe" has all that and just minutes away. l that and just minutes away. armers auto my discount, the more policies you have with us, the more you could save on your auto

council of foreign relations' richard haass.8-year-old, being praised, glorified as he walked out onto the stage. you know, over the past five years or so, we've seen a lot of people asking if certain wings of the republican party are fascist. this ethno-nationalism, this extremism, this attack of the others. usually, the one thing that was missing before january 6th was the use of violence or the elevation of violence as a means to achieve your goals, your political goals. the glorification of violence, something that mussolini and other fascist leaders did. we actually did see at that conference. they used an 18-year-old boy, recently acquitted, as a tool to do just that. i mean, that's the glorification of violence. and this wing of the republican party is fitting the definition of fascism more tightly by the day. and i just wonder if either republicans will run as fast away from it as they can. >> i'm not sure republicans, joe, run away from extremism of any sort nowadays. but you're right, you're seeing -- >> what about mit

. >> richard haass, thank you very much for joining us on this issue. >>> coming up, number of peopleest a secret. >> that's next. >> and, spewing it all over. >> and the fact that he never reported. >> he's extraordinary reckless because he had a positive test and he was sick and we still don't know the complete story behind it but we'll talk about it when we return on "morning joe." when we return on "mornin joe. ongoing struggle. that's why president biden and democrats in congress have a plan to lower costs for america's working families. lower costs of healthcare premiums and the price of prescription drugs. pay less for electric bills by moving to clean energy. and do it all by making the ultra-wealthy pay their fair share of taxes. it'd be a win for the everyday american family. right when they could really use one. congress, let's get this done. ♪ ♪ ♪ hey google. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ "how bizarre" by omc ♪ no annual fee on any discover card. ♪ ♪ real cowboys get customized car insurance with liberty mutual, so we only pay for what we need. -hey tex, -wooo. can someone else get a

. >> council on foreign relations, richard haass is here. >> willie, we have the "daily news." condemn this stuff. by the way, don jr. texted, i guess, repeatedly, meadows, saying, "come on, come on, do something in there." >> yeah. that was one of the texts that liz cheney read two days ago. again, the dissidents between what he is saying privately to people, pleading, knowing how bad it is, and what he has been saying since is different. members of the media, his family, texting one thing in a panic and saying something else after, downplaying what was happening. >> i said bryce young was one of the athletes who caught mika's imagination a long time. she has another now. steph. >> i like how he celebrated himself. >> he deserves it. last night, steph curry at madison square garden became the all-time leader in three-point shots made, on this right there. look at the release. >> okay. >> the rainbow, it fell in. if he couldn't do it at home, there's no better place than at madison square garden. he talked about that after the game. what a stage, this iconic arena. it was one o

. >> but richard haass suggests that this is about him putting back together the dream of the old soviet empire, which is -- >> he wants -- >> -- what is driving him. he called the disillusion of the soviet union the greatest geopolitical tragedy of the 20th century. he wants his legacy with the reconstruction of the old soviet empire. >> absolutely. he doesn't like the fact the nato is right on his doorstep. he doesn't like military exercises in the black sea. he doesn't like the americans stationing nato troops in the eastern -- formerly eastern block countries. >> is that a rational fear coming from the russians? >> i can't speak to, you know, rational or not. it is on their doorstep. >> i was going to say, would we want that happening in mexico? >> exactly. nato has expanded into former soviet territory, so that is -- you can sort of see why he would be positioned, but are we going to go back to the cold war before? that's a hard one to see. so a lot of this is about this fine bit of diplomacy. is biden going to promise we're not going to conduct military exercises closer to russia?

richard haass is here, president on the council of foreign relations.this country for some time. it is one of the challenges. we're talking about the recklessness of words of republican congress people who are using anti-muslim bigotry, attacking women of color who are in congress, and those words having consequences. death threats starting up. talking about what happened when the president called me a murderer, like, 12, 13 times. all the death threats that start up. we see all of these people who listen to what the former president said about, come to washington, d.c., and you have to tough. all this other stuff. we hear one federal judge after another federal judge, you know, drawing from these people, these sad, pathetic people. you know, that they came to washington, d.c., because they believed they were doing the duty of the commander in chief, who was calling them and telling them to come up and raise hell. >> you have two things going on. one, you have the normalization of behaviors that never should be normalized. the kind of almost legit maiza