Transcripts For MSNBCW Morning 20240703

Will prevail. For our sake, for your sake, for peace and security in our region and in the world. Mr. President , for the people of israel, theres only one thing better than having a true friend like you standing with us, and that is having you standing in this room. Your visit here is the first visit of an american president in israel at a time of war. It is deeply, deeply moving. It speaks to the depth of your personal commitment to israel. It speaks to the depth of your personal commitment to the future of the jewish people and jewish state. So i know i speak for all the people of israel when i say, thank you, mr. President. Thank you for standing with israel today, tomorrow, and always. That happened in the past hour and a lot has happened in the past 24 hours. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu showing appreciation for President Bidens visit amid the countrys war with hamas. That meeting happening just moments ago kicking off an extremely busy day for the president in Israel Navigating a lot of moving parts and questions this morning. Good morning, welcome to morning joe. It is wednesday, october 18th. With us we have the host of Way Too Early Jonathan Lemire and Special Correspondent katty kay. Two week was a Hamas Terror Attacks and israel into a new war, President Biden is in the country today to show support for americas Middle Eastern ally. The president is the meeting with israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu right now after arriving in tel aviv about two hours ago. In brief remarks to reporters before going Behind Closed Doors, Benjamin Netanyahu thanked Biden Profusely for his steadfast support for israel. Biden then reaffirmed his commitment to israels safety while also stressing the need to address the growing humanitarian crisis unfolding in gaza. The situation there worsened last night when a deadly blast of a gaza City Hospital killed more than 200 people. Israel and palestinian officials are both blaming each other for the violence, which spurred pro palestinian protests in parts of the west bank, lebanon and jordan last night. That blast also forced changes to bidens schedule. Just as he was departing for israel yesterday, the king of jordan cancelled a planned summit between himself, biden and the palestinian president and the president of egypt. In a statement, jordans Foreign Minister wrote, a summit would not be able to stop the war now. More now on the explosion out of Gaza Hospital that killed hundreds of people. It happened in gaza city in the northern part of the territory placed under an Evacuation Order by israel last week. Hamas, which launched Terrorist Attacks that set off the war immediately blamed israel for the attack. Israel says the explosion was caused by a misfired Rocket Launched by another tst group known as islamic jiha prior to departing for israel, President Biden directed his Security Team to continue gathering evidence about what exactly happened. Biden then addressed the deadly blast shortly after arriving this morning. Listen. I was deeply saddened and outraged by the explosion at the hospital in gaza yesterday. Based on what i have seen, it was appeared it was done by the other team, not you. But theres a lot of people out there who are not sure, so we have to cover a lot of things. Navigating a lot of things. Israels Defense Forces shared video on social media claiming it was proof that the explosion was caused by a failed Rocket Launch. Jonathan lemire, lets how the white house responded to Hospital Attack and impacted the trip. Was there a moment where they thought perhaps it wouldnt wheels up . And what do you make of how the president is navigating this right in front of Benjamin Netanyahu, not being completely sure exactly what happened. This explosion is now shadowing this entire trip, changed its trajectory. The president was in the motorcade just a few minutes from Joint Base Andrews about to go wheels up and word came from jordan that this summit was cancelled. The white house Summit The White House wanted to make a key part of this trip to talk about the need to help with the situation in gaza. Perhaps to accept refugees, create that corridor with egypt to let people get out. Suddenly, it was off. And white house aids i speak to say they never waivered ongoing with this trip, but certainly a trip that was fraught from the beginning. The president heading into the war zone, Real Security concerns there. One was already showed such support for israel. There was a sense that maybe he was being pushed into this visit by the Prime Minister, but we heard from him there that the president standing with israel, but cautioning, suggesting that israels response needed to be humanitarian. And they are relaying the latest from intelligence. The idea that they do believe a hospital was destroyed by a rocket fired from within gaza opposed to an israeli strike, but cautioning its still under investigation. We have seen a number of social media posts, video, some prove to not be true. The Israeli Government is proceeding with their investigation, but its complicated. They have no access to this site, which is in gaza itself. They are piecing it together with their team, and at least for now, u. S. President says they do believe this was not an israeli missile that landed on hospital. Were going to go to tel aviv in a moment,s but i want to focus on your contacts at the white house in the National Security community. Talk a little bit, explain to our viewers what exactly was the purpose of the trip beyond showing support for israel, which he could do from home . Secondly, is it to lead by example, as you see oh Arab Countries pulling back . No question here. This was to show support for israel. But it had a wider purpose. Its to prevent this war from escalating. Theres a sense that President Biden in israel would deliver these messages to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about the appropriateness of the israeli response. No doubt, Uz Real Needs to strike and will strike hard, but to do so in a way that wouldnt further inflame the region. He alsoed to deliver a message to the arab leaders to get them to step up with the situation in gaza. And there was a real hope here by trying to contain this now that it wouldnt require further american involvement either. We have seen aircraft groups going to the region. The last thing this administration wants as it focuses on china, ukraine, the last thing this administration wants is Foreign Policy be dominated by the middle east again. Thats part of the mission too. And everything is more complicated now because of that Hospital Explosion. Its hot, its dangerous,s its complicated. Morning Joe Joe Biden has tried to achieve the impossible before, but this might be truly ultimate. This is the middle east and this is in the middle of a hot war. His second trip to a war zone in his presidency. Joining us from tel aviv is Foreign Correspondent Josh Letterman and in washington, nbc News White House correspondent monica alba. Monica, just to build on lemires point, the purpose of the trip and has it changed since some countries are pulling away from having an actual summit . Reporter its been so fluid that even as the president was heading to tel aviv, the schedule was constantly changing. That just signals to you how volatile a trip like had this is, but because the situation on the ground is so tense and the events are unfolding in realtime, the white house has been very frank and wanted to be clear to say things could still continue to change. They havent wanted to share very many details about the schedule because they are trying to add some things. And again in these moments, they have to be nimble as they are continuing to assess intelligence, but i am told that in the early days after the october 7th massacre, white house officials were already planning to see what could be feasible in terms of a trip to the region, but it wasnt clear until the Prime Minister continued to extend that invitation more formally that the president would have been able to go. According to my reporting, there was a consensus in the white house that would have to be a window if the president s was going to do this before any kind of a fwround invasion by israel was going to take place. And that was important. They are not saying publicly that in any of those conversations they said this is what you should or should not do, but we know thats a critical piece and backdrop to all of this. So the president is going to be spending a couple hours. Right now, hes with the Prime Minister. They will be meeting with the israeli war cabinet to talk about What Happens Next, because thats the other important pieces of this. What happens the day after a potential Ground Invasion or where this goes from here. The u. S. Want wants some answers on that because they want to continue to protect civilian lives. They are also very invested in this group of hundreds of americans who are in gaza, who are trying to get out, who so far have not been successfully able to do so. One of the most important components of this trip would have been bidens chance to meet with the egyptian president in jordan. Thats been cancelled as well. The americans would really like the egyptians to allow aid in or even potentially allow refugees from Gaza Out Into Egypt and house them in egypt. If thats now a part of the trip that cant take place, what would constitute success for biden, given that hes only meeting with one side in this now increasingly broad conflict . Reporter i think success would look like if President Biden can return from this short War Zone Trip with israels conflict with gaza Still Limited to hamas and not additional fronts opening up with hezbollah, which has promised an unprecedented day of rage against israel. And whether hes able to really contain the fire that is raging across the arab world right now. This is creating a real splitscreen moment thats exactly the opposite of what the white house wanted to see. A at the same time that President Biden is hugging Benjamin Netanyahu on the tarmac, meeting with his National Security council, his war cabinet, and publicly siding with israels version of events of what happened at that hospital last night in the gaza strip, you have protests erupting. In jordan they are burning uz really flags. In iran they are chanting death to israel. Even in the west bank, not far from tel aviv where President Biden is today, you have Pal Stipyans Hurling Stones against both the u. S. And srael. One of the key problems for President Biden right now is the fact that within just a couple hours of that strike last night that explosion at that hospital, you had americas regional allies like jordan and egypt and turkey, come out and publicly side with the palestinian version of events. They said this was an israeli strike. In the hours that israel has come out with a military says is evidence indicating that it was not an israeli strike but a failed rocket by Islamic Jihad. And now you have President Biden backing that up saying that what hes seen, which is presumably u. S. Intelligence, the u. S. Currently believes that it was not israel. It was the palestinian side. Its going to be very difficult, maybe impossible for those arab leaders here in the broader region, to walk back what they said about the strike, given the fact the public is enraged by this and are seeing this public elm brace of israel by the president of the United States making the first wartime u. S. President ial visit to israel ever. President biden will continue doing what he can to try to tamp down tensions. He was able to speak by phone with the king of jordan, and he should connect with egypt on the way home. But have no doubt about it, this is a Precarious Mission for President Biden to try to keep this situation from spiraling even further. Letterman and monica alba, thank you both very much. Theres another pressing, intense layer to this escalating situation. Hamas says it is ready to release all civilian hostages, foreign and israeli, immediately if israel stops bombing gaza. Thats according to a senior hamas official who says the release could happen within the hour as long as israel meets its terms. In exchange for the Israeli Soldiers held captive, the hamas official said israel must release all palestinians held in israeli jails. They are believed to hold 199 people in gaza. Joining us now with new rt reporting on the Hostage Situation is justice and intelligence correspondent ken dilanian. I understand theres been some video of some of the hostages. Where are they . What are you learning . Good morning. We did see a Proof Of Life video of one hostage 24 hours or so ago. We were able to speak to a number of people briefed on these tense negotiations that have been happening between israel and hamas. Mediated by the government of qatar, which styles as a switch limit. What that official told Richard Ankle is confirmed by the u. S. And the israeli side. That hamas had come around to the idea that they were going to release at least women and children civilian hostages without getting anything in exchange because israel has been steadfast that they are not going to trade anything for those civilian hostages. But now were told this morning that this Hospital Bombing really has changed everything. Hamas could not release these hostages were told now even if they. Ed to, even if there was a deal for some time while passions are running so high over this Hospital Bombing. And i spoke to a couple veterans of the Hostage Recovery, Including A Retired fbi agent who was running the Hostage Recovery cell. He told me this was the most complicated Hostage Situation in modern history. And that the nature of this really makes a Military Rescue very remote here. These hostages are spread out in the war zone that is gaza, which is filled with tunnels and bunkers. And the other complicating factor is hamas doesnt hold all the hostages. Theres a group of others that were held by one official said was opportunistic citizens who grabbed them for their own reasons. Hamas is trying to get custody of the hostages, but they dont have that yet. Nbc news correspondent ken dilanian, thank you very much. We have a lot of other news to get to, including the fact that theres no speaker of the house. Theres going to be another vote today at 11 00 a. M. But first today is President Bidens second trip into an active war zone this year. In one minute, were going to bring in historian john meacham. Were back in 60 seconds. Meacha. Were back in 60 seconds were just standing by as we have a lot of moving parts this morning. We maybe jumping into a meeting between President Biden and the israeli war cabinet. If that happens, well jump in. But lets bring in the american presidency of Vanderbilt University john meacham. First of all, talk about overall, President Bidens trip into this hot war zone. I mean, truly, so soon after the war has broken out, its still raging and with many questions and mysteries as to who has done what. What do you make of the trip . How does it stand in history, but also what are some of the severe challenges he is facing . The president has done this twice. He went to kyiv. He went to ukraine. This is a remarkable moment in the history of the american presidency for a president to go this soon into this kind of climate. I think it suggests the tactile and intimate nature of bidens sense of how important this is. Of the president s personal diplomacy. Hes been doing this a very long time. There are Structural Forces that shape the world, but there are moments when a personal word, a tactile encounter can nudge the arc of events in a good direction. One of the things the president has, one of the most precious things in president ial cab tall, if you will, is his time. And the president is choosing to invest this time in what he understands to be, i shouldnt speak for him, but what i believe he thinks is a global struggle of, in fact, dececy, dignity and order against the elemental forces of chaos and terror. There are extraordinary complications. And yes, all of that is stipulated. He believes, as he has said in those powerful remarks last week, he believes that we have to stand with israel against terror. It doesnt mean we condone violence by any means. But it does mean that in a complicated and difficult time, when American Interests, when the broad historicals interests of liberalism in the pure sense of human rights, of selfdetermination, when those rights are under assault, you stand with those who most closely stand with you. Im just curious about the players and the dynamics involved. When President Biden went to kyiv, he was dealing with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Ukraine has its problems. Theres no question. But would you consider Volodymyr Zelenskyy to be a trusting partner . Let me add to that question. Hes going to israel. Hes there now. Were about to watch him meet with israels war cabinet. He met with Benjamin Netanyahu. Talk about the dynamics in that relationship. Is Benjamin Netanyahu a trusting partner given the fact hes facing a lot of criticism in israel right now for creating many distractions that may have led to this, and i just wonder how the president navigates that dynamic. Is it similar, is it a parallel, or are there some differences with Benjamin Netanyahu . I think there are differences. I think you laid it out quite clearly. And i dont think anyone should believe that this is like mary poppins, where an american president flies into something and brings a immediate order to it. I think we should be grown up about our expectations. I think that this is vitally important. That does not mean its simple. It means that this is a perennial issue of life and death, as were seeing again and again and again. And heres an american president , who has been doing this a very long time, both in the senate, as Vice President , as president , every once in awhile you end up with an american president who has extraordinary experience in these spheres. You know this. George walker bush, when it came time to put together a coalition, he knew everyone. President biden has a long time i think its been described as long time but not entirely war relationship with Benjamin Netanyahu. One of the things about history, one of the things about reality which is history as it unfolds is that you deal with the world as you find it. And President Biden clearly thinks that his being there has a better chance of producing a better result than if he stayed away. You have the leader of the members of the summit pulling out and canceling the most important part of the trip, one would argue, as it pertains to the lives of potentially thousands of people, and yet Arab Countries pull away, biden goes in. Very joe biden, obviously, but is the purpose to lead by example . I think so. This way, if he is there, hes showing a level of care and concern that as we just said is without precedent. And one of the Ways Politics Works is they have to believe that you, in fact, share their interests and that youre not simply in it for yourself. So one of the things that can happen. President biden will be able to look at the war cabinet. Will be able to look at Benjamin Netanyahu, and as President Biden probably would say, hey man, im here. Now lets work this out. I promise you the word man is going to be used. I dont mean to make light of it, but this happened with Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill. It mattered that they were in the room together. It matters to political beings that you pay the respect, that you signal that you are, in fact, understand james baker, one of the great Secretary Of State, his entire memoir was called the politics of diplomacy. His thesis was you cannot conduct diplomacy if you do not understand that the people on the other side are political beings. So you have this politician of more than a half century standing in the american context, who is going into the most fraught regions in the world at a time when there are clear issues to deal with, and hes there. And hes not sending in instructions from washington. Hes there. And as you say, its very biden. Its personal. Well see what happens. American interests, i believe and hope, will be served. I suspect youre right about the president ial vocabulary thats going to be used. We know that President Biden is going to deliver some messages here perhaps sternly Behind Closed Doors to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about What Happens Next in this war. But to your point about how hes there, hes showing up, that matters, hes in the room. Hes not now in the room with the other side because the arab world pulled down that summit. You just hinted at it. This is one of the most fraught regions in the world with a long history of sprawling conflicts, something that President Biden wants desperately to avoid. Whats the risk of the situation being inflamed now because of the back trop of that Hospital Explosion and because, fair or not, it looks like President Biden is picking sides. Yeah, all of this is risky. This isnt an afternoon at the foreign relation where is you run through a power point. This is a serious time. But you cant pick your reality. Thats really my fundamental point here. We have an american president who is serious about these issues. Hes trying his best to see if he can bend the arc of events towards a better result, and ill take that. I think that diplomcy is difficult. If it easy, we wouldnt call it diplomacy. So i think we have to watch and we have to hope and if youre unkleined, i think we have to pray for a kind of resolution to what is a mind numbingly complicated, historical, fraught, bloody, and in the purest sense of the word, tragic unfolding story. Historian john meacham, thank you. Well be watching President Bidens movements in israel. We have meetings taking place right now. Were going to bring you those updates and go live if they come to a podium and speak or let the cameras in. Also obviously, ongoing coverage of the plight of the hostages and the plight of civilians in harms way. Also back here at home, round two in the latest battle for the speakers gavel with another vote set for later today. We will examine congressman jim jordans Pressure Campaign to win the house speakers gavel. Thats just ahead on morning joe. Moderate to severe eczema still disrupts my skin. Despite treatment it disrupts my skin with itch. It disrupts my skin with rash. But now, i can disrupt eczema with rinvoq. Rinvoq is not a steroid, topical, or injection. Its one pill, once a day. Many taking rinvoq saw clear or almostclear skin while some saw up to 100 clear skin. And, they felt dramatic and fast itch relief some as early as 2 days. Thats rinvoq relief. Rinvoq can lower your ability to fight infections, including tb. 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Dont take breztri more than prescribed. Breztri may increase your risk of thrush, pneumonia, and osteoporosis. Call your doctor if worsened breathing, chest pain, mouth or tongue swelling, problems urinating, vision changes, or eye pain occur. Ask your doctor about breztri. It kabt be a deal with the democrats. Republicans a small majority, be but we have 200 votes on the first ballot. Maybe more than kevin got back in january. Good conversation. Cant be a deal with the democrats. The American People dont want bipartisanship, no, no, no. Congressman jordan vowing to continue his pursuit of the speakership, despite losing the first vote yesterday after 20 fellow republicans voted against him. But the next vote is scheduled for 11 00 a. M. This morning. Joining us now is the Senior Writer david drucker, cohost of the circus, john heilemann, and Special Correspondent at vanity fair molly bask, her latest piece is the gop is burning down the house. Lets read from your piece, molly. Jim jordan loses his first round as house speaker. In yours piece you write, the burn it all down caucus set itself on fire, a hazard of playing withmatches. Now area arsonist jim jordan is revving up the gop Media Outrage Machine to try to bull live his fellow House Republicans to vote for him. But the problem with being a pyromaniac is fire exceedingly hard to control. The election denying jordan unsurprisingly gothe enment of trump who questioned the health of Steve Scalise, the same day he beat jordan for the gop speaker nomination. Shortly before he withdrew from the race, republicans put up as potential challengers are immediately attacked by protrump accounts like elon musk. The thinking here is that jordan, his allies can do a French Revolution stitch to get him the gavel. Can jordan Steam Roll Republicans into becoming speaker . Could voting for a right wing bomb thrower like Jordan Square off potential voters in Swing Districts and risk the house in 2024 . Its hard to see a jordan speakership not leading to a more foxfriendly stunts and impeachment hearings, and my guess is republicans would be better off politically in 2024 by not get whag they want here, but then again, pyromaniacs like to watch the world burn. Ill just finish off your point by saying this is a really bad time not to have a speaker, not that theres ever a good time, its completely selfdestructive behavior. Ill go where joe goes, republicans seem to love loing in the long run. Yeah, i also think this Republican Party has been so burn it all down. The caucus is the burn it all down caucus. They were trying to prove that government doesnt work. The problem is you work in government. So we see jim jordan etc. Desperately trying to whip these votes. Its important to remember the job of speaker is to whip votes and also to raise money and help win more seats in 24. And jim jordan seeks unqualified to do both of these things. Lets say jordan were to get it. What would he have to do in order to keep it . Whats the payback . You would get it on rough rans. What would he have to give, and how would that affect the 18 republicans who have been elect ed in districts that joe biden won . For jim jordan, the concessions arent really concessions to the right. Hes sort of already with those people. So the the kinds of Things Mccarthy had to give up to placate the maga caucus are things jim jordan wants to give up willingly. Hes more in the business of trying to placate those in the center, because they are worried about having a speaker who comes into the job pledging to shut down the government. Its you should put a bunch of Question Marks behind could jim jordans Speakership Lead to republican losing control of the house. Saying Something Like jim jordans speakership would obviously jeopardize the seats of every republican who is any vulnerable seat, any republican who is one in a biden district, a bunch of them up here in New York State that gave control of the house to republicans in 2022, they are all for if ied of the notion of a jim jordan speakership. Theres a handful of people who are very conservative, but look at jordan as politically toxic and guarantee democrats taking back control of the chamber in 2022. Its a question now that gives you almost sympathy for Kevin Mccarthy and makes you realize how difficult his position was. The problem with the Republican Party is the Republican Party is the reality that to stitch together this coalition, to hold the gavel with this senator owe majority requires somehow a possible straddle and mccarthy was able to maintain it for a few months. Pit dont think jordan will be able to much long perrer. Im not sure anybody could. This is an internal conflict thats hard to do. It showed a very jim jordan sitting in the House Chamber with Kevin Mccarthy two rows behind him laughing his head off. You dont bring votes to the floor if you cant win. Jim jordan it that yesterday. 11 00 a. M. Is the next one. Whip counts suggest hes not there and not that close. Well see if he brings a vote to the floor well see if it he does a multiple votes. But the chatter among republicans, if he were to do that, he starts bleeding support. Give us a sense of who might step in and just your analysis of a Republican Party that continues to fight itself. My sources tell me that jim jordan is likely to lose members on the second ballot that he had on the first, even though some have announced they will be with him on the second ballot. I dont know hes in any better position this than he was yesterday. Its clear he called off the vote yesterday. He didnt have the votes. You lose a second ballot and this thing is all but dead. Hes been encouraged to push ahead and persevere and the thinking about the former speaker is that jim jordan can get there like he did. I dont think the conference is in a place like that any longer. So i think were already seeing discussions about empowering Patrick Mchenry, the congressman who is the speaker pro tem, to have all of the powers at least on the floor of the House Of Representatives that an actual speaker of the house has so the chamber can get back to work and do its job. Right now, i dont think this is a conference that knows where to turn for a speaker because they are so divided. Theres so much ill will. A key dynamic here is that normally its the pragmatic conservatives in the conference. There really arent that many moderates. Its a useless term. Its a pragmatic conservative who wants to govern and understand that a divided government, you have no choice but to cut deals with democrats that they also get to claim victory for in order to do your job, and normally, they would throw up their hands and say, even though its a minority of our conference than to head in this direction, it looks like we have no other choice but to do it. And i think after going through what they did with Kevin Mccarthy, after seeing members of their own conference ignore their own conference rules and ignore the results of a conference election last week when Steve Scalise was elevated, a lot of them we had enough. This is the viewpoint. So this goes deeper than jim jordan wouldnt be good for defending and growing our majority or jim jordan may want to shut the government down. I think this has become a cause of ooum toured of being pushed around. Im tired of a minority of our conference ignoring our own rules so im going to play the same game of hardball that they are. So what could be the outcome of that . What are you watching for because really looking like a crazy minority have total control over the party. It sounds very trumpy. At the same time, there koub political ramifications, which we discussed. Can can we talk about who jim jordan is . What he stands for. Hes an Election Denier. Everything pertaining to jan 6th, does it benefit the republicans to elect him as speaker, or is there another way forward . Isnt congress about making deals . Isnt that what they do . What a quaint notion, compromise, golf nance, what generation last adhere to those views . I cant really recall. As david just said, there are now these primal forces in play. Its not about rational calculation. We can talk about jim jordan, but hes increasingly look yesterdays news. If he bring this is vote to the floor, it does go down, i dont think he has the mccarthy first of all, i dont think he has Kevin Mccarthys desire to be speaker. Its probably unwilling to make any deal to get himself the speakership. But we can be done with jim jordan as a prospect of speaker within a few hours here. And then theres this mchen ri possibility. Heres one of the things i wonder about. One of the things that among the many currents of pressures on republicans is the situation in israel, where the inability to have a functional House Of Representatives means that theres some discussion of Reporting Biden is going to give a 100 billion aid package. Theres going to be, among other forces here, theres the republican donor class, which desperately wants to be able to be on board, at least for israel aid, and in many cases for ukraine aid. That cant happen. And i cant help but think part of whats going on here is not about the politics or about governance, but merely about being able to make sure the donor base doesnt throw up its hands and say were done with you people if you cant help israel. The republican donor base is a huge concern. I also think its Worth Remembering that jim jordan is not the right person to make a case that the Republican Party is no longer electable in Swing Districts. Youre going to have that guy shopping that were electable . It seems very unlikely. So i think thats right. Ialso think its really worth thinking about how alienated the republican donor base is. The money they are giving to trump. They are worried its going to legal bills. I think nikki haley has become a hail mary, but they are pretty alienated at this point. Lets talk about israel in 2024. Obviously, donald trump received a lot of criticism for his rebuke of Benjamin Netanyahu and his praise of hezbollah, which remains a stunning sentence to say. You have noticed, you have been following this that this is a rare moment where some republican rivals are taking the opportunity to take a swipe at trump and criticize how hes handled this. Give us your sense. Does this matter now or is it something that could take a toll that will pay off next year in the general election . Its hard to say. Trump has a history of we need to look at this in two frames. In a republican primary, i dont think this hurts him. Trump has a long history of saying things that are Heteroing Tos to most republicans he has a history of lashing out and criticizing policy or individuals that republicans hold dear. But he doesnt really pay for it. I think it was smart for his primary opponents to jump on him for his petty comments and israel as it relates to the crisis that they are in. Its not the kind of thing you say to a friend about a friend at a moment like this. Even if you have concerns, them privately. But voters have given donald trump to do these things and they tepid not to punish him. One thing he has in his back pocket is that he was president for four years. And it was good for iz really. And people that are concerned about israel in the United States even people that didnt vote acknowledge often that he was a rather pro israel president and was good for israel and good for the region having negotiated the accords and had israels back through a number of issues. So i dont think this ends up hurting him. A general election, especially against joe biden, who is steadfastly with israel, even in the face of the expected criticism from our arab allies in the region, who have stuck with the jewish state so far, who was about to propose a massive military aid package, he understands that Israel Needs Decapitate Hamas and needs to be there with him. Its not a bad contrast for him as a matter of domestic political foreign the policy. Well just have to see how it plays out. David drucker and molly, thank you both. Molly, what will you be looking for today . Im going to watch this. I think we could see this compromised speakership, which would be a real win for democracy and bipartisanship. Lets hope. Still ahead, we continue to monitor the president s busy schedule in israel. Well bring you new updates as they happen. Well get a live report in a moment. Plus republican president ial candidate Chris Christie is our guest next hour. Morning joe is coming right back. R guest next hour. Morning joe is coming right back i work at the end of the Production Line with metal that weighs 600 tons. I never thought id be a welder but i cannot think of a better job. Were currently working on ships to train our merchant marines. And ships to transport cargo and supplies. Joe biden is bringing manufacturing back. Creating good jobs and standing up for workers. Pretty much everyone who i work with got their job because of joe biden. Every day im out here working with the team, i know hes out there working for us. Im joe biden and i approve this message. vo in three seconds, pam will decide. I know hes out pam e working for us. Im moving closer to the grandkids wait. I got to sell the house vo dont wait, just sell directly to opendoor. Easy as pie. pam piece of cake. vo whichever. Get your Competitve Offer at opendoor. Com. Somedays, i cover up because of my moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. Now i feel free to bare my skin, thanks to skyrizi. uplifting music nothing is everything im celebrating my clearer skin. My way. With skyrizi, 3 out of 4 people achieved 90 clearer skin at 4 months. In another study, most people had 90 clearer skin, even at 5 years. And skyrizi is just 4 doses a year, after 2 starter doses. Serious allergic reactions and an increased risk of infections or a lower ability to fight them may occur. Tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms, had a vaccine, or plan to. Thanks to clearer skin with skyrizi this is my moment. Theres nothing on my skin and that means everything nothing is everything nows the time. Ask your doctor about skyrizi, the 1 dermatologistprescribed biologic in psoriasis. Learn how abbvie could help you save. More news to report from Around The World. Russia is reportedly suffering heavy losses on the battlefield. Were learning Russian Troops launched a largescale assault last week on a small eastern city in ukraine and it didnt go well. Ukraines military said it destroyed dozens of russian tanks and other Armored Vehicles and killed hundreds of Russian Troops, while losing little territory. A ukrainian spokesman said the russian assault was every bit as disastrous as the one in february. Meanwhile, ukraine also claimed a major strike on russian airfields, thanks to the United States, which supplied the longerrange missiles used, secretly. The secret delivery now provided keeps forces with the ability to strike russian targets far behind the front lines. So far, the missiles were able to hit nine Russian Helicopters , an air defense system, and Ammunition Warehouses in eastern ukraine. Lets go live to israel where President Biden is meeting with the israeli war cabinet right now. Mr. President , you are meeting with our united war cabinet, united and resolved to lead israel to victory. This will be a different kind of war, because hamas is a different kind of enemy. While israel seeks to minimize civilian casualties, hamas seeks to maximize civilian casualties. Hamas wants to kill as many israelis as possible, and has no regard whatsoever to palestinian lives. Every day, they perpetrate a double war crime, targeting our civilians, while hiding behind their civilians. Embedding themselves in the civilian population and using them as human shields. We have seen the cost of these terrible double war crimes against humanity that hamas is perpetrating in the last 11 days, as israel legitimately targets terrorists, civilians are unfortunately harmed. Hamas is responsible and should be held accountable, for all civilian casualties. We saw the cost of this terrible war crime yesterday when a rocket fired by palestinian terrorists misfired and landed on a palestinian hospital. The entire world was rightfully outraged, but this outrage should be directed not at israel, but at the terrorists. As we proceed in this war, israel will do everything it can to keep civilians out of harms way. We have asked them and we will continue to ask them to move to safer areas. Well continue to work with you, mr. President , to assure that the minimal requirements are met, and well continue to Work Together to get our hostages out. Mr. President , the road to victory will be long and hard, but united in purpose, and with a deep sense of justice and the unbreakable spirit of our soldiers and our people, israel will prevail. Thank you, mr. President. Thank you, mr. Prime minister. In the wake of hamas terrible terrorist assault, brutal and inhumane, almost beyond belief, what they did, this cabinet came together. And standing strong, standing united. And i want you to know, you are not alone. You are not alone. As i emphasized earlier, we will continue to have israels back as you work to defend your people. Well continue to work with you and partners across the region to prevent more tragedy to innocent civilians. 75 years ago, your founders declared that this nation would be one, quote, based on freedom, justice, and peace. Based on freedom, justice, and peace. The United States stands with you in defense of that freedom and in pursuit of that justice, and in support of that peace. Today, tomorrow, and always, we promise you. All right, we are watching what was two short statements by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Joe Biden in front of the israeli war cabinet, which is meeting right now. Live cameras are allowed in. I am not sure if reporters are giving questions, but if they start to answer anything, well go back. Very interesting. Netanyahu made very, very strong statements about the rocket fired by a palestinian terrorist, which misfired, hitting the hospital. That was the recent event of the past 24 hours, where the hospital in gaza, where up to 300, possibly more are dead. He talked about hamas, netanyahu did, wanting to kill israelis with no record to any lives and committing a double war crime, because he says that they go after anybody and everybody, with no regard to life, and again, use civilians as human shields. And then President Biden spoke, basically said that the United States stands with israel in its pursuit for freedom, justice, and peace. And it was a very quick statement, katty kay. What do you make of it . It was a quick statement right now, but also a quick statement earlier. This is Tightrope Diplomacy for joe biden. Trying to thread a lot of needles here. And when he made his comment about the attack on the hospital yesterday, he said, you know, it sounded like The Americans tend to agree with the israeli position, that this was not caused by israel, but was caused by the other team, as joe biden described it. But then he went on to say, but a lot of other people have questions about it. And i think that is the key comment, really, in joe bidens assessment, because whatever is the truth, and there will have to be some kind of investigation about what happened in that hospital, its a Turning Point in this conflict and has incited violence in arab capitals right around the middle east that makes this an even more precarious situation and joe biden is there seeing one side. Those images of joe biden hupg hugging Benjamin Netanyahu will be played in arab capitals. It is so unfortunate that he was not able to meet with cici from egypt, with the jordanian king, with mahmoud abbas, because that would have put america in a much easier position to try to play some sort of negotiating role. So i dont know if we can show those pictures, but all of these pictures are from overnight, where President Biden came to israel, not just to meet with Benjamin Netanyahu and show support for israelis, but also to meet with other nations, and that summit after the Hospital Bombing was called off, so now you have President Biden, and again, meeting with netanyahu and his war cabinet, but standing alone in the middle of this fire that is possibly raging across the middle east, with the other arab nations literally pulling out of all plans that were set for today and tomorrow, late yesterday. Joining us from tel aviv is nbc news Foreign Correspondent, Josh Letterman. Josh, what more can you add to this . Well, as you mentioned, mika, we saw this strong show of support from President Biden, for israel. As he is doing a fairly extraordinary thing in the middle of this conflict, which is to sit down with the israeli war cabinet. Its not that often that you see a foreign Head Of State meeting with another countrys war cabinet, but that really speaks to the united front that the u. S. Is trying to show with israel today, despite the fact that we are less than 24 hours from this explosion at this hospital, that has really thrown this region into disarray. And while we heard netanyahu in these comments talking very strongly about this explosion at this hospital, israels military has been putting out information that they say backs up their version of events, this was not an israeli strike, but was a failed Rocket Launch from palestinian militants. The most closely watched comments, probably for the entire trip that President Biden is currently undertaking are not the once that he just made in that war cabinet, but the ones he made just a couple of hours ago as President Biden was having a bilateral meeting with the israeli leader, president Benjamin Netanyahu, where the president of the u. S. , offered his first take on what intelligence, presumably u. S. Intelligence believes may have been the cause of this explosion. And i want you to hear about those comments from President Biden about that Hospital Attack. Take a look. I was deeply saddened and outraged by the explosion at the hospital in gaza yesterday. And based on what ive seen, it appears as though it was done by the other team, not you. But theres a lot of people out there who are not sure, so weve got weve got to overcome a lot of things. So you can see there, mika, that President Biden was reading very carefully from notes. He was clearly not ad libbing, and it stuck out to me that he used the same phrasing in part as the written at the same time that he had issued from air force one, where he talked about being deeply saddened and outraged, and then he went on to add this new information about, we think it was the other team. This was not any kind of offhand remark. This was something that the white house clearly put the president out there to say following whatever intelligence the u. S. Was able to analyze overnight. The big question right now is will anyone in the arab world believe either israel or now this vote of confidence from the United States. Already, these arab nations have canceled that. We have seen people chanting death to iran, Throwing Stones in jordan, burning israeli fans. So President Biden trying to calm down those tensions, hoping that by backing up israels version of events, people will take a step back, lower the temperature a little bit, and try to get to the bottom of what actually happened here. But as he alluded to in the end of those comments, there are a lot of people who have a lot of questions about this and who are not necessarily taking what israel says at face value, whether or not there is an agreed upon version of events here that somehow does not complicate israel is going to be really key in determining just how much this crisis continues to mushroom in the hours ahead. Josh, its jonathan. Youre absolutely right that the president s remarks here are going to be the takeaway from this trip. And he couched it. He said, it appeared that it was not an israeli strike. Clearly, theyre still work and an investigation to be done. Lets go a little further as to what you were just saying there. We dont know this narrative will be believed in the rest of the region. There were a lot of protests, the american embassies there last night. Talk to us about people, the diplomats youre speaking to were expressing concern that this looks like, with the president s comments about the missile strike, and the fact that that summit was canceled, not by him, but the fact that that summit was canceled, this looks like the president is picking sides here, and that could just enflame the region more. Thats exactly right, jonathan. In fact, the language he used seemed to suggest picking sides. He didnt say, we believe it was palestinian militants, he said, we think so it was the other team, using a Sports Analogy to describe israel versus the palestinians and there are a lot of u. S. Diplomats and officials right now who have been theyve been wrestling with how exactly to approach this moment. They are fully aware that this is being viewed particularly in the arab world as a split screen moment. On the onehalf of the screen, you see the u. S. Embracing both figuratively and literally on the tarmac the israeli leadership, voicing support for their version of events, making this wartime visit to show support, militarily and diplomatically for israel. And on the other side of the screen, you see exactly what were looking at right now. The Arab World On Fire over the deaths of these palestinians at that hospital. And there are concerns that as the u. S. Tries to play a calming role in this particular moment of the crisis, that having this display of unity between the u. S. And israel could make the u. S. Seem like it has more of a dog in this fight. But on the other hand, the u. S. Clearly designed this entire visit to lend support to their closest middle east ally, israel, at their time of greatest need, so theyre conflicting u. S. Priorities right now theyre trying to sort out literally on the fly, as they carry out this extraordinary wartime visit with the itinerary changing, the jordan stop canceled, unclear what biden is going to do minute to minute, and thats creating a real sense of uncertainty and concern as President Biden spends these few minutes on the ground here in israel, jonathan. Josh letterman live in tel aviv, thank you very much. And joining us now, professor of history at Hebrew University of jerusalem, yuval noah herari. Thank you very much for joining us. Thank you. So, first of all, i want to ask you about the president s trip in the context of what you have written in some of your latest pieces. You say what hamas has done is a crime against humanity in the deepest sense of the term. A crime against humanity isnt just about killing humans, its about destroying our trust in humanity. When you witness things like parents being tortured and executed in front of their children or toddlers brutally murdered, you lose all trust in human beings and you thereby risk losing your own humanity, too. Hamas crimes cannot be justified by blaming them on past israeli conduct. Two wrongs dont make a right. Theres much to criticize israel for Holding Millions of palestinians for decades under occupation or for abandoning recent years any serious attempt to make peace. At the same time, this is an atrocity thats beyond description. So what is the challenge for President Biden as he stands with israel, given the problems Benjamin Netanyahu is facing in his current government and how he has handled the Current Situation with some very concerned about, perhaps he was distracted, how this could happen also the way forward, as President Biden stands with israel, but other Arab Countries have decided to retreat, to not be involved. There is this mantra that war is the continuation of politics by other means. Everybody recites it, but few people take it seriously, especially in the midst of war, and we need to go back to it and ask, what are the political aims of this war . In terms of hamas, its very, very clear. The aim of hamas is to destroy any chance for peace. The immediate vic ram to the hamas attack that israel was very close to an historical peace treat with saudi arabia, which was supposed to normalize relations with israel and much of the arab world, and to potentially restart the Israeli Palestinian conflict and evaluate the palestinians. And this threatened hamas and hamas launched this attack to first of all disrupt the immediate peace deal and sow seeds of hatred in the minds of millions so there would not be peace for generations. This is the war aim of hamas and hamas is now winning the war, partly, perhaps, with the help of israel which is not clear about its own war ames. It has every right, israel, to defend itself and to disarm hamas, which is an enemy not just of israel, its an enemy of piece and of humanity, of human values, but we must save the possibility for peace in the long run. Otherwise, hamas wins this war. And what President Biden is doing, i think, very bravely, very wisely, hes risking a lot, but i think hes doing the right thing, but hes using Military Power to deescalate the conflict. Hes hugging netanyahu, but partly in order to restrain netanyahu. Interesting. I dont think The Americans, much like of the israeli people, trust the netanyahu government to do the right thing. So The Americans are stepping in very praifly, not just to back up israel, but also to make sure that we do everything in our power not to escalate this terrible conflict further. How do we go beyond not escalating . I noticed as you pointed out, President Biden is choosing his words very carefully, and you know, he is standing with israel, but leaving, you know, questions open about the Hospital Attack, and other questions open. And youre right, it is a relationship that has spanned many decades, but netanyahu clearly has problems within his own country, within his own government when it comes to trust so beyond prompting more escalation, what is the way forward if other arab nations dont seem to want to help, especially when it comes to civilians, who are potentially in extreme danger . Israel has a commitment to protect the lives of innocent people. We are not a terrorist organization like hamas. We need to take into account the lives and basic human rights of Palestinian Civilians. Israel is not trying, unlike hamas, that tried to kill as many israeli civilians as it could, israel is not trying to deliberately kill as many palestinians as it can. But there is enormous damage to palestinian lives in the gaza strip. Ideally we would see egypt, the nearby arab country that shares a border with the gaza strip allowing civilians into safe zones,uthis is not happening. Perhaps israel could even consider opening its own border to palestinian women and children and providing them with temporary safe havens on israeli territory. Im not sure if this is feasible, but even this possibility needs to be explored to prevent a humanitarian crisis. And i hope that President Biden will be able, not just to talk with friends like jordan and egypt, in a very important place also like saudi arabia. Again, this whole round of conflict started with the with the hamas attempt successful attempt so far, to disrupt a potential israeli saudi peace treaty. And i think we feed to get the saudis also involved in this very deeply. So far, or, again, egypt, jordan, theyre not coming to the table, which is frustrating, because theres nowhere for these civilians to go. I want to pull back and ask you about the challenges that President Biden has in this partnership, standing with israel. I look at ukraine and his standing with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. If there was an attack on a hospital in ukraine, i dont think there would be all of these questions and mystery surrounding who did it. Yet, we have this again, i dont have the answers, i cant say, but with regard to the russian invasion of ukraine, we know it is a longstanding russian practices, also in places like syria, to deliberately bomb hospitals. In the case of the hospital in gaza, again, i dont know who did it, but i do know that israel, this is not its policy and it has nothing to gain from it. You see the result of the terrible event in the hospital is very bad for israel. So israel has no rationale to do such a thing. It might have been an accident. I dont know who is to blame for it, the palestinians Firing Rockets or israel, but its very, very clear that israel has no reason to do such a thing, on purpose. I completely understand that. Im just talking about the relationship between biden and netanyahu and the questions and strerss on that relationship. Now that he stands alone, so far, with Benjamin Netanyahu. Professor of history at hebrew history. Thank you so much for your insight this morning. Lets bring in the host of the podcast on brand with donny deutsch, donny deutsch. John heilemann is still with us as well and, donny, i heard your conversation with joe last night. And i thought you put it perfectly. So i want to hear your insights, as we are talking about now 24 hours of what we thought could not get worse turning into beyond devastating with this Hospital Attack, and President Biden in the middle of all of this, putting himself in the middle of what would be awkward would be an understatement, standing with israel as their neighbors pull away. Im feeling such sadness more than anything else when im seeing innocent palestinians being killed. The same sadness from last week. I feel that way as a father, as a human being, i feel that way as a jew. I hear israel emphatically saying theyre not responsible for it. I hear the president saying it appears to be the other team. My concern is even if thats proven, there is another fear, theres another sadness that i feel, and that is this rise of antisemitism. Youre seeing it as a spike here, as a result it was happening before this, and now its going to accelerate. You know, this generation of jews today, theyre less than a generation away from the slaughter of 6 million, of the attempted annihilation of an entire group of people. And i think for the first time, jews Around The World, certainly in this country, and you see it on College Campuses as youre seeing the open support of hamas, are feel a fear for the first time of simply being jewish. And this hatred of jews Around The World. So i feel incredible, incredible sadness for what happened. And i feel a different kind of sadness, as i see this antisemitism going to a new level Around The World thats going to spike even further now. So donny, lets talk a little bit more about what were seeing, no doubt important sign of solidarity from President Biden making the trip to tel aviv, but as weve been discussing, hes being greeted in the region, the cancellation of the summit in jordan. I know u. S. Officials told me on the heave of this trip before the bombing, their mission was to try to prevent this conflict from escalating, from widening. The president s job just gotta much harder now. Give us your sense to what you see there, what fears you might have for the days ahead . Look, this started off 24 hours ago, the whole world shifted. He was supposed to be meet with jordan, supposed to meet with egypt, and that would have been moving things forward towards a deescalation. Now were in the escalation mode. And you can only imagine where this can go. I cant come up with a scenario now where things calm. Biden is doing what he has to do at this point. Hes staying with israel. But there is, unfortunately, i believe, more pain to come before theres any light at the end of the tunnel. Im curious from your Point Of View, mika asked you about this earlier, it is the case that biden it was not wheels up yet when the Hospital Bombing happened and the thing Josh Letterman was saying, you were having a little dialogue about, does it look like america is picking sides here . America picked sides a long time ago in this. In the end, its not that america doesnt have allies in the region, but in the end, israel is americas ally. And given what happened, do we go it was always, first and foremost, this trip was express solidarity with isra secondarily, not distancing secondarily was the summit that was supposed to happen with the other leaders in the region. Was there any thought given on the part of the white house that maybe like if the only thing was going to happen, him with bibi netanyahu, that maybe he shouldnt go . There wasnt. The president was nearly at Joint Base Andrews when the jordan leader canceled the summit. The president made clear and ive reported this, that even though he frankly has no personal love for bibi netanyahu, he told aides in recent days, its important for me to go, we need to show that were standing side by side with israel. But there were other pieces of this trip. It was to talk to the arab leaders to try to get them to help, but to deliver the message to netanyahu to show some restraint here for what comes next. Thats the other reason why they didnt delay the trip, because they knew they needed the president. If he was going to go to israel, he had to go before the israelis went into gaza. And mika, that shadows this. That there already is now this real anger. We know about this day of rage that hezbollah and hamas have called for in the wake of this Hospital Bombing, and it does seem like the narrative is out of control, even though now, you know, President Biden suggests not saying definitively, but suggests that it wasnt an Israeli Military strike. That anger is only going to grow when Boots On The Ground Go Into Gaza and who knows What Happens Next . Lebanons militant Group Hezbollah has called for, quote, a day of unprecedented anger after that explosion at a gaza hezbollahs statement follows days of rising tensions between the group and israel, since the war began. Fights have broken out along the lebanese Israeli Border that have left soldiers and operatives dead on both sides. Joining the conversation, the United Kingdoms Secretary Of State for defense, grant chaps. And we appreciate your coming on the show this morning. I know youre in the states and want to talk a little bit about how the uk is approaching this problem and what you see as a way forward so far, especially given the precarious situation that the u. S. President is in right now in israel. Good morning and thank you for having me on. Its a pleasure to be here look, i think not for the first time, the United Kingdom and the United States stand in a very similar situation when it comes to whats happened in israel, in gaza. And were looking to try to make sure that the situation doesnt expand, that it doesnt become a larger regional conflict. So. Ive sent a Royal Navy Task group to the mediterranean including some ships and aircraft that are carrying out surveillance and personnel to really say to the rest of the region, do not think that this is an opportunity to jump in and get involved. Do not imagine that this is your chance to create further destabilization in the middle east. And it is only the uk and the u. S. Who have military assets as a result of whats happened in the region. So were very much on the same page, and ive come here today to speak to u. S. Defense secretary, lloyd austin about all of that. There are conversations happening at the moment in Israeli Government circles about whether actually to leave hamas contained in gaza, with the thought that hamas cant escape anywhere, but really focus on hezbollah, which is partly where those two u. S. Carrier strike groups are there. Theres reporting in axios in the u. S. This morning that there are conversations in the white house that were hezbollah to get involved in the war thats currently taking place in gaza militarily, then the u. S. Would be prepared to respond. Is there any circumstance do you think, in which uk Military Forces could get involved in this conflict, if hezbollah was involved, if this looked like this was about to become a fight for the very existence of israel, could you ever see Uk Military Assets getting involved . I think its always dangerous to get into areas of speculation, but i can say one thing, which is we have no plans at all to send sort of boots on the ground, as it were. But our presence, our Military Presence in the area is there absolutely to deter others. Hezbollah would be a very good example of getting involved. And yesterday i spoke to my lebanese counterpart, the defense secretary there. And we were actually in quite clear agreement. It is no ones better interest to see this development into a wider regional conflict, whether its hezbollah or iran getting involved, or anybody else. And that is why that we stand in huge sympathy with israel. Theyve experienced horrendous Terrorist Attacks weeks ago, the likes of which weve never seen before. And they have an absolute right to defend themselves. We also made the point to israel that that needs to be done within International Humanitarian law as well. And ive said that to our israeli, my israeli counterpart, both publicly and privately, same message on both accounts. But i think the big message is, to others, dont get involved in this. I want to ask you about your assessment of natos support of ukraine, given all of this. There cant be anyone more pleased about this distraction, to say the least, than Vladimir Putin. Do you think this will have any impact now that we have two major hot wars in the world . I think the world has to show that it can do the west the United States, the United Kingdom has to show, we can do two things at the same time. We can both continue to fight back or help with our ukrainian friends fight back against putin in europe, but at the same time, also keep a very close eye on what is happening in the middle east and just last week, i saw president zelenskyy, because id invited him actually to come to the nato meeting, the lloyd austin, and many others were at in brussels, and we said to president zelenskyy, faceface. The picture you just saw there when i was with him last month or so in kyiv, weve said to him face to face, we will not forget what is going on in ukraine. We will not allow our eyes to be diverted elsewhere and forget. Because thats the kind of thing that putin is looking for. Hes waiting for the world to get distracted, perhaps into the middle east in this case. That will not happen. And again, the United States actually, very similar story. The United States and the United Kingdom have been probably the two leading countries when it comes to supporting ukraine. The United States through a tremendous amount of effort, a lot of investment in helping ukraine, the United Kingdom, by being first to support ukraine, and again, thats our partnership, but that partnership is helping ukraine. And we will not be distracted from that cause. The secretary of defense for the United Kingdom, grant chaps. Thank you very much for coming on the show this morning. And its interesting, we are watching just for our viewers to know that President Biden right now is in israel, meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus war cabinet on his own. Other arab cubs that were supposed to join him pulled out of the strike, the missile strike, might have been an errant missile, to a gaza City Hospital. It is nothing less than a nightmare in israel and gaza right now, Given The Savage attacks by hamas on israelis that started all of this. So donny, my question to you, skpempb knows my world view, but joe biden has on the word stage been able to pull together nato and the world in support of ukraine. Legislative accomplishments, whether you agree with them or not, he has had many. And now hes putting himself out there in an incredibly risky trip to israel to try to work with a partner who doesnt have complete support at home, given the way he has run his government. Im paralleling that to republicans in congress right now who cant figure out who the speaker of the house is going to be when the United States is dealing with two extremely hot wars. You know, ive been very critical of joe biden, saying that, you know, he hasnt been a good messenger, he seems too old. Were watching a leader lead in realtime, contrasting with whats going on the other side. The competence, the sure hand, the steady hand. I am very proud that joe biden is our president right now and i think the contrast between the two parties is stunning. And joe biden, you know, interestingly enough, maybe his age is working for him in this instance. Years and years and years on the world stage. I feel very comfortable with his hands on the wheel. Donny, thank you. Our coverage of President Bidens wartime trip to israel continues. Illinois governor j. B. Pritzker will join the conversation. Hes one of four jewish governors in the United States. Well get his thoughts on the unfolding crisis in the middle east and the rise of antisemitism. Plus, republican president ial candidate Chris Christie will join us live in studio. Youre watching morning joe. 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Joining us now, republican president ial candidate, formerly new jersey governor, Chris Christie. I saw you call him a fool. I think we can agree on that. Thats good. Good place for us to start. Yeah, well start there. Good. Do you support joe bidens effort to stand with israel in israel right now, even as other Arab Countries have decided to pull away from the situation and a hospital was just bombed . Sure. Look, i think it was the right thing for the president to do to go over there and show physical solidarity with the israelis. I think thats a really Important Message to send. I know he wanted the trip to be more than that, but in the end, the most important thing for him to do right now is to show the rest of the world that we substantiate solidly with israel. I think his physical presence helps to convey that better than anything else would. And now, you know, were going to have to get to work to see how we bring this to a successful resolution. And thats the hard part. Yeah, and his comments on the Hospital Bombing, i thought, were very careful, given the situation still unfolding and questions, but, you know, he talked about what he believes, and the questions out there. Do you agree with that, that he cant jump to one side . Well, i think he should make a decision based on the facts as he sees them, not with any predisposition. And you know, i would have preferred if he hadnt called hamas the other team, you know, i think sometimes, his choice of language is kind of interesting, but in the end, if were going to be credible in making sure that we play the role weve always played in the middle east, which is to try to make sure that wile protecting israels security and its existence, first and foremost, to be a constructive force for peace and sty itabithe region, weve got to make sure we do this that we do sonnet facts. I dont know facts on this one yet. Ive heard what the idf has said, and you know, it seems like President Biden is at least preliminarily convinced that theyre right. So lets see what the facts come out. I hope that it turns out to be true that israel was not the one behind that, because that would escalate things, as we see already, even on the rumor, just to a level that would make it a lot more difficult to maneuver this to a successful conclusion. It doesnt make a lot of sense. Political questions, im curious, were moving troops. The fear here, of course, is a wider war. There is obviously talking about irans involvement. Weve been moving troops. Weve been dealing with Military Support for ukraine, just reporting this morning about a secret delivery of missiles. Our military, obviously, needs to be at its strongest in every possible effort, of course, always made for our military to be ready with all the ranks filled and functioning. Thats obvious. Should senator Tommy Tubberville end his blockade of Military Promotions . He should have ended it months ago. Yeah, he should have ended it months ago. The important thing is to prioritize what hes doing as a government and as a country. And i think in the end, given all of the crises Around The World, we need to have our military as well prepared as possible. These promotions and putting folks in authority to be able to make decisions on everything that were doing here and advise the civilian portion of the Defense Department and the white house on what to do is extraordinarily important. And i think that what senator tubberville is doing has been ineffective. Its been ineffective on the goal hes setting for changing policy. And at some point, you need to say to yourself, i need to try another message. This ones not working and its not good for our country, its not good for our military. Why do you think your republican counterparts in the senate and his republican counterparts why why is nobody doing nothing about that . Well, look, i think they all, mika, like it or not, like having that power, of being able to do it. And so they get reluctant about calling someone else about when theyre using it, because they think, maybe six months from now, nine months from now, im going to want to do it and i dont want people to call me out. This is a very parochial kind of thing inside the arcane rules of the United States senate. What they count on is for people to act responsibly and i dont think senator tubberville has acted responsibly in this regard. Speaking of the congress, the administration has let it be known that they want 100 billion thats their proposal, 100 billion aid package thats going to connect a lot of things, israel, but also taiwan, ukraine, border security. Two questions about that. First, would you support that message . I would have to see the details. I would increase support to ukraine. Ive said that publicly. I think its absolutely necessary to continue to degrade the Russian Military and send a very strong message to their allies, the chinese, who are paying for that war that were not backing away and nor are any of our allies. Two, i think its time to arm taiwan now, more aggressively. We saw with ukraine that the delay that barack obama started, donald trump continued, has put ukraine further behind the eight ball. In the same spot with taiwan to also send a message to chinese. Obviously, the israeli support is necessary. We dont know how broad that war is going to be, as mika just mentioned, so we need to make sure that theyre prepared. And the crisis at our southern border is significant. And, you know, the fact is, its a complicated issue, as you know, because, you know, in the last 11 months, customs and Border Patrol has averaged 200,000 apprehensions a month. You know how many beds we have to detain people at the border . 38,000. So this is a complicated issue that Needs Resources in a number of different areas to be able to fix the border problem. But congress cant do anything about any of those four things because they dont have a speaker of the house. Yeah. And thats the republican speaker of the house. Does jim jordan have your support . I just want them to pick somebody. You know, what i learned wait jim jordan denies come on President Bidens election. He was part of january 6th. Im aware of all of that. But heres one of the things that i learned as governor in the hard way, people who want to be the executive dont get involved in legislative leadership races, because you always lose. The legislative folks want to make their own call, their own judgment, they dont want someone who is president or wants to be president telling them what to do. Ive been saying for the last two weeks, one, i didnt support the removal of mccarthy and i think it was a mistake and i dont think theres anything that Kevin Mccarthy did that should have necessitated his removal from office. I think it was a mistake and this whole crisis starts there. Those eight folks who decided to remove him, really for personal reasons to support matt gaetz, who doesnt like him because he wouldnt rig the Ethics Investigation for matt gaetz, lets be honest, thats what it was, its nothing more than that, that was the first mistake. I said that, you know, i know Steve Scalise and i would have been fine with him. I dont know jim jordan. Ive never met him. So its hard for me to make any comments on that and getting involved, i didnt support Steve Scalise. Im not going to get involved in this race. Okay. Chris they cant decide and i dont have a vote chris yeah . You cant say, i dont know ive never met him i can say i dont know him, because ive never met him chris, do you like winning . I mean you know me, mika. I like winning i like winning i like winning every argument with you. Okay, well, good luck. I like winning everything. So my point is, if the Republican Party wants to stop losing, and youve pointed out how selfdefeating this whole trump thing has been. Yes. Again and again and again in elections of recent past. Yep. Jim jordans going to help the Republican Party into the future . An Election Denier . You know what hes done heres what im more concerned about, mika. Im concerned about the things that john just asked me about. It to get things done and the politics of it is something that were all going to have to contend with later on. But we need to vote a package for israel, we need to vote a package for ukraine. We need to deal with the southern border. And the fact of the matter is, right now we cant do anything of it without a speaker. So im not supporting jim jordan, because i dont know him. But what ill tell you is, i want them just to get it over with. And i quite frankly at this point, after two weeks, dont care who it is. Pick somebody and lets go. Lets get to work. The American People are tired of sitting and watching these folks navel gaze and snipe at each other and accomplish nothing. And im talking about our caucus. Thats what theyre doing. Its enough already. I think were too much into the personalities and not enough into the work. The work needs to be done. We know what needs to be done. Lets get to it. Just as a matter orb just to make a point here without dwelling on this too much, im not going to compare jim jordan to Vladimir Putin, but im pretty sure you dont know Vladimir Putin if youre trying to the standard of, i cant have an opinion about someone i havent met personally i didnt say i cant have an opinion, im not getting involved. And part of the background is, i dont know jordan, ive never met him. I know scalise, i know mccarthy. So i can have opinions about their character and who they are. And so the fact is, im not getting involved in the race i. And they dont like it when you try to get involved in this. And its not constructive. Let me ask this question at the broader level, right . Youre running in the republican nomination contest right now. Youve got this picture, republicans basically take this Point Of View of joe biden, which is, the world is a dangerous place, we have chaos around the globe and joe biden is too old and infirm to handle it. Weve got to get rid of that guy because hes just out to pasture. Right now, most americans look up and see joe biden is over there in israel right now in the middle of all of this chaos, standing strong, standing tall next to israel, not deterred by the danger, the literal danger on the ground, standing with its strongest ally in the region. Youve got the frontrunner in your party is beclowning himself on a regular basis, as we showed earlier, praising he has hezbollah thats why im running. A republican frontrunner whos doing what hes doing, an american president of the democratic party, doing what hes doing, and a Republican House that cant seem to do an internal caucus election. You know, speaker in there. How do you hope to, as you approach 2024, when that is the big picture, republican chaos, democratic competence, at least, at the level that biden is handling this. How do you possibly win a general election when thats the image of your party right now for most americans . First off, because the image of your Party Changes immediately when you have a new nominee. So what we know in our country is that and you understand this, having written the books youve written, that everything is chaotic, until you have someone competent, whos running the show. And so, once we get a competent nominee for president of the United States, a lot of things will change, john. And look, as to joe biden, i think i was very direct and clear this morning. I think what hes doing over there is the right thing to do. And i think im glad hes there. Now, let us not take this one moment and then try to extrapolate that into a broad sense of his ability to continue to do the job from the ages of 82 to 86. And thats what the future is about. And so, im not going to be unnecessarily critical of the president when i actually happen to agree with what hes doing at the moment. I think part of what weve missed in our country in leadership is that no one ever takes the jersey off. No one ever is willing to compliment the other side, even when theyre doing something that they agree with, and theyre doing something well. Im not that kind of person. I, you know, i politically grew up in new jersey in a blue state where you had to work with the other side as a republican or you werent going to get anything done. That doesnt mean, as you remember, that im not willing to fight and stand up and believe in things, and fight for those things. But when someones doing something well, you compliment them. But lets not go crazy here, okay . Lets not call, you know, joe biden the font of energy, competence, articulation, and leadership. Hes not. And really . Yes. And i think the contrast, if we have a competent nominee, not donald trump, with joe biden, will be stark. So, lets end where we began, then. And i just have to ask you, with four indictments, multiple civil suits, bellowing about gag orders and a list of a track record of losing, why is donald trump still the frontrunner . I think predominantly, mika, because you have a situation where the guys had the nomination twice. And you look in the early states, in iowa and New Hampshire in particular, and his numbers arent nearly as good as they are in his national polls. We dont have a national primary, were not going to have a national primary. Were going to work hard in iowa and New Hampshire. Im working hard in New Hampshire, to try to make sure that hes defeated there. And those folks are starting to focus. And look, this is the problem with the approach the rnc is taking mika in my view. Vivek ramaswamy and i were supposed to have a joint conversation on another network for 45 minutes during primetime. The rnc stopped it, saying that if we did it, they would exclude us from any future debates. We need and thats only to help donald trump. Because you dont want people out there having these kind of arguments, which call into question his policies, his personality, his performance, his character. They want to narrow all of these things. They increased the debate criteria from debate 2 by 40 i month. These are the kinds of things that are meant to exclude conversation and not broaden it, and thats why your viewers need to go to Chris Christie. Com and donate a dollar. The last person you want standing there on that stage waiting for donald trump is me. Thank you for coming on this morning. We appreciate it. Thanks for having me, mika. Appreciate it. Thanks, guys. Take care. Joining us, governor j. B. Pritzker. The origins of whatever missile or rocket that hit the hospital in question, which is why the summit was canceled and why the president is there alone. I guess your thoughts on the ground as a governor about the concerns of antisemitism and also the situation roiling in the middle east . Well, upper most in my mind this morning is the loss of the murder of the 6yearold palestinian boy in plainfield, illinois, and his mom fighting for her life in the hospital, and his father and grandfather who i was with at the funeral two days ago. Of course, also on my mind are the captives, the kidnapped illinoisans, and after we have seen the terrible violence that was committed by hamas, innocent israelis, and one can imagine what is happening to them in captivity, and we pray for them as well. Here on the ground in illinois, its important to me that we keep security, peace, and that people can have differences of political opinion, and we dont carry out violence against one another in the United States for having different political views. Let me add one more thing, and the murderer in custody right now is somebody who, you know, nobody knew would act this way but somebody that carried extremist rightwing views. Hes somebody that was known to be, you know, to carry ideas that are quite out of the mainstream and committed murder in the name of those ideas. We just need to bring an end to this kind of activity, violence, that comes to the fore in the politics of the United States. Thank you for that. This morning you are rolling out a new Organization Called think big america,hi aims to champion abortion rights nationwide and counter farright extremism on all fronts. The organation already started to work to target pro choice measures in ohio, nevada and arizona, and tell us more about this, especially in light of president ial politics and the fight for womens rights longterm . Well, over the last four years here in illinois we secured womens preproductive rights over and over again, and we have become an oasis for women across the midwest and, indeed, across the country who seek to exercise those rights. Now we are simply taking this national and making sure we are helping people in states across the United States. You mentioned ohio, for example, where there will be a vote this november on a constitutional amendment. We will have to do this state by state because of the overturning of dobbs. This issue has really gone all the way down to the school board and Library Board level in states across the country where people are trying to ban books, people are trying to take away peoples rights and work from the ground up. So we have got to work on the ground against those forces are extremism as well. Governor, you have been critical of the white house, about its handling of the migrant situation throughout illinois and chicago, and how has the administration let you down . What more should they be doing . We have been clear for well, almost a year now, since the beginning of the crisis here in illinois, you know, we are going to address the humanitarian crisis when the Asylum Seekers come to illinois, and there needs to be reform, and in talking about those things with the white house for nine months, i felt there was not being enough done to find other places in the country remember, these folks are here legally, these Asylum Seekers, and they are here to get a hearing and have a decision made about whether or not they can stay in the United States. In that time period they shouldnt all be sent to new york and chicago. We really do need the rest of the country to step up. Only the federal government can do that, and we asked them to take charge at the border to make sure they are not just dropping people off at Catholic Charities where they are sending people to chicago and new york, and make it clear to the people at the border getting on a bus to chicago or new york in midoctober heading into winter where it will be 20 degrees, 10 degrees, and we do not have enough shelter for everybody, that can be dangerous. We want to make sure we are getting help from the rest of the country. Democratic governor, j. B. Pritzker of illinois. Thank you for coming on the show this morning. We appreciate it. Thank you, mika. Still ahead, we will get a live report from israel has President Biden meets with officials in tel aviv right now amid the countrys war with hamas. Morning joe is coming right back. Joe is coming right back pain and symptoms . With ubrelvy, theres another option. One dose works fast to eliminate migraine pain treat it anytime, anywhere. Without worrying where you are or if its too late. Do not take with strong cyp3a4 inhibitors. Allergic reactions to ubrelvy can happen. Most common side effects were nausea and sleepiness. Migraine pain relief starts with u. Ask about ubrelvy. Learn how abbvie could help you save. Conquer financial reports. Conquer 2000word essays. Conquer a 6 course menu. Rule over what you write with the smooth writing, longest lasting gel ink pen in america. Do you g2 . Hour of morning joe. 8 00 on the east coast. Welcome back to morning joe. We have been following the fastmoving developments overnight in israel where President Biden is right now. He met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. We brought some of that live to you earlier in the show. The president being very, very careful with his comments. He kept them short. He says we will continue to have israels back and they were working with partners across the region to prevent more tragedy for civilians, and thats the big issue because arab nations in the region were also supposed to meet with President Biden for the summit and they pulled out after a bombing of a hospital in gaza city, and President Biden was careful with his comments about that attack on the hospital saying theres still a lot of questions about it and also standing with israel. Its important to say it doesnt make a lot of sense for israel to attack 300 civilians in a hospital in gaza city, and it wouldnt help their cause but there are questions as to what happened, and was it an errant rocket and from who . The arab nations are not coming to the table to address the situation of the civilians that could be caught in the line of fire in response to the savage attack on israel by hamas, and that response could end up killing civilians if they dont have somewhere to go. Thats why it was so important for egypt and jordan to come to the table and they have decided not to. What are the other options . Perhaps a safe zone in israel, but theres so much going on right now. President biden has decided to continue with the trip and stand with israel, perhaps leading by example. Lets go live to nbc news Foreign Correspondent who is in israel this morning. You are covering the explosion in gaza city yesterday. What more can you tell us . Reporter well, mika, it has been nearly 20 hours since that explosion but the fog of war is still hanging very heavily over the hospital in gaza city. Heres what we know. The Palestinian Health Ministry Said it was a direct hit by an israeli air strike, and several hundred people lost their lives. Many were in the courtyard at the front of the hospital. These were families who believed fatally they might be safe if they stayed on the hospital grounds. Over the course of the morning, the Israeli Military is releasing what it says is evidence that shows it was a misfired palestinian rocket. A drone video over the hospital where the Israeli Military says you cannot see what would be a tell tell sign. They have released what is a phone conversation between two hamas officials intercepted by israeli officials where they seem to acknowledge this was a rocket fired by jihad that fell on the hospital. We should be clear. Nbc news has not been able to independently verify either of those israeli claims. We are not able to get to the hospital ourselves, the gazaisrael border is sealed. Hamas does not acknowledge their rockets misfire and they fall inside of gaza. We should also say, mika, this death toll being provided by the palestinian ministry, it does not tally from what you would expect from a rocket, and these rockets are deadly and dangerous. They do not tend to kill hundreds of people, whereas an israeli heavy bunker buster bomb, the kind we know israel is using inside of gaza trying to target the hamas tunnels, and those do have the potential to kill hundreds of people. We are not at this moment seeing signs of the crater you would expect to see from a bomb like that. President biden today saying it appears the other team, as he phrased it, ie, the palestinian fighters in gaza, but he acknowledges the United States does not have enough information at this point, mika. Yeah, the unknowns President Biden is placing himself in, and the king of jordan is not allowing in refugees as israel is planning an attack in response to the terrorists attack. The jordanian leader made comments in berlin following a meeting with the german chancellor, and the only way palestinians can leave gaza is through a single Border Crossing with egypt. No refugees in jordan, no refugees in egypt. This is a situation that has to be dealt with inside of gaza and the west bank and not to try and push the palestinian challenge and their future on to other peoples shoulders. The Egyptian Government is reluctant to accept refugees in fear of there being no way for them to return to their homes, and then egypt still not allowing humanitarian aid into gaza, and israel is searching all deliveries and making sure that aid wont benefit hamas. So different than what we saw in ukraine, by the way. Neighboring countries immediately embraced all refugees escaping the war. Explain the dynamics here. Why egypt and jordan dont want any refugees, Palestinian Civilians who are in the line of fire, and what are the options . Reporter so mika, for both egypt and jordan, they see an influx of Palestinian Refugees as highly destabilizing, and the jordanians already accepted millions, literally, of Syrian Refugees over the course of the syrian war, and for the palestinians and for a lot of Arab Countries, the story of the israelipalestinian conflict is a story of palestinians being displaced during wartime and not being able to come back afterwards, and so for those inside gaza who dont want to leave their homes as well as the neighboring states and their cynical calculations is that if the palestinians go in large numbers out of gaza they will not be allowed to go home, they will be one step away from their historic home lands. Theres a lot of politics here, and in egypt the economy is really struggling. They do not want to take the burden of hundreds of thousands and millions of palestinians from gaza, and israel has not offered to allow any of the civilians to come out through either of the Border Crossings in gaza, because frankly, at this point, nobody wants the Palestinian Refugees, which, as you say, is such a different picture from what we saw in ukraine. Mika . Thank you very much for your coverage. We appreciate it. The pentagon is putting additional u. S. Troops on alert in support of israel. Defense secretary lloyd austin ordered more troops to prepare to go towards the middle east. The specific units have not been identified yet and adding if deployed the troops would not likely serve in combat roles. Israeli Officials Say they do not expect u. S. Troops to be involved in any fighting. Defense Department Officials said the order to increase readiness helps the pentagons ability to respond quickly to the evolving security involvement in the middle east and prevent the war from growing into a larger conflict. Secretary austin also extended the deployment of the uss ford Aircraft Carrier and its accompanying warships in the Eastern Mediterranean sea, and a second Carrier Strike group, the uss eisenhower is expected to arrive in the region in the next few days. President biden reportedly plans to ask congress for roughly 100 billion in aid for ukraine and israel. Two people familiar with the matter tell nbc news that although the details are still being worked out the funding would cover an entire fiscal year, for comparison, the white houses most recent request for ukraine aid covered just months, and any spending bill would have to be taken up by the house, which currently doesnt have a new speaker. When a new speaker is elected its not a given they would support a package that combines aid for ukraine and israel. Caddy kay, how does this look . I just got to london, and i would say its pretty bleak all the assessments that have gone on. Theres real speculation here about the possibility that hezbollah takes the opportunity to launch some kind of strike and get involved in the war, would that then draw in regional powers . Would other countries where we are already seeing protests on the streets be able with those leaders, if they wanted to, resist the calls of their populations not to get involved . Would it draw in iran . If it got to the stage where it was really about the very existence of the state of israel, and its hard according to the people i spoke to here in london, not for the United States to be involved. Lets see, you know, lets see what happens. This is a very dicey situation. This Hospital Bombing, the impact of the Hospital Bombing, whoever caused it, because the narrative is out there in the middle east that it was one way, and its hard to overestimate how important that is, and the political dysfunction in the u. S. Does not help at all and is widely watched. Putin is meeting xi in china. No matter what the evidence ends up being about who is responsible for the Hospital Explosion, and we heard from the president of the United States say that preliminary it appears, it appears, it was from gaza. The death toll reported at the hospital, and that would not seemingly jive with a rocket fired from gaza but would be an israeli mission, and its also possible hamas is lying about the death toll and its not as high as they are leading us to believe. And President Biden went to the middle east to try and cool things off and prevent the floor from widening, and prevent the hate from growing. Through no fault of his own, seems like the opposite is happening, at least for now. What are your concerns, where if we plunge into the conflict, and this administration will be stuck in it . Well, the possible of a wider war is rapidly expanding and metastasizing as we speak. This is, first of all, on the hospital, total fog of war situation. You have what joe biden called the other team, and having various implications he was reading from a card, but i am not sure the other team is what he would have wanted to say, right . And then you have pathological liars, and then as you will recall, in warfare that involves bombs, there are instances where hospitals have been hit, and they were not targeted. It would be counter productive in addition to inhumane to target a hospital. Sometimes hospital gets blown up in urban warfare and that could have come from either side. We will find out more about that presumably in the hours and days ahead, and its premature for anybody to come out and declare without any certainty on the basis of what anybody outside Intelligent Services can say. And then the fact that the outcome of this bombing would ever whoever perpetrated it or did it by mistake or on purpose, the outcome is hamas pulled out and the summit unravelled, and the only reasonable path is for all parties in the region to be around the table in some form, and you will not be able to tamp this thing down if the various stakeholders in the region have under the pressure from their streets, under the pressure from the worries of battle of war, retreat into their bunkers and decide not to engage, and there has to be a multiparty to tamp this down, and this morning it looks further away than 24 hours ago. Anybody not concerned about that in an acute way is not paying attention to what is going on right now. Coming up, jon meacham joins us with the historical significance with President Bidens trip to israel. Thats straight ahead on morning joe. Tech when you have auto glass damage, trust safelite. My customer really relies on his cars advanced safety system. [alarm] instructor veer right. [ringing] instructor and slow down. Tech so when he got a cracked windshield, he turned to safelite. Were the experts at replacing glass and recalibrating your vehicles camera, so automatic Emergency Braking and lane Departure Warning work properly to get you Back On The Road safely. Instructor and that means a lot tech schedule now. Singers safelite repair, safelite replace. Lets bring in our guest, historian jon meacham. First of all, just talk about overall President Bidens trip into this hot war zone. I mean, truly, so soon after the war has broken out, its still raging and with many questions and mysteries as to who has done what. What do you make of the trip . How does it stand in history, but also what are some of the severe challenges he is facing . Well, the president has now done this twice. He went to kyiv, remember, and he went to ukraine. This is a remarkable moment in the mystery of the american presidency for a president to go this soon into this kind of climate. I think it suggests the tactile and intimate nature of bidens sense of how important this is of the president s personal diplomacy. He has been doing this a long time. He knows the players and he understands that, yes, there are broad Structural Forces that shape the world, but there are moments when a personal word, a tactile encounter can nudge the arc of events in a good direction. One of the things a president has, one of the most precious things in president ial capital, if you will, is his time. The president is choosing to invest what he understands to be i shouldnt speak for him, but what i believe he thinks is a global struggle of, in fact, decency, and dignity, and order against these elemental forces of chaos and terror. Yes, there are extraordinary complications. Yes, all of that is stipulated. He believes, as he has said and said in those powerful remarks last week, he believes that we have to stand with israel against terror. It doesnt mean we condone indiscriminate violence by any means, and it means when the broad historical interest of liberalism in the pure sense of human rights and self determination, when those rights are under assault you stand with those who closely stand with you. Uhhuh. I am just curious about the players and the dynamics involved. When President Biden went to kyiv he was dealing with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Ukraine has its problems. Theres no question. Would you consider zelenskyy to be a trusting partner . Let me add to that question. Hes going to israel and hes there now and he met with Benjamin Netanyahu, and talk about the dynamics in that relationship, and is Benjamin Netanyahu a trusted partner and hes being accused of creating many distractions that may have led to this, and i just wonder how the president navigates that dynamic . Is it similar . It is a parallel . Are there differences with Benjamin Netanyahu . There are differences and i think you laid it out quite clearly, and i dont think anybody should believe its like marry popins where an american president flies into it, and i think this is vitally important and that does not mean its simple. Right. It means that this is a paw reupb annual issue of life and death, as we are seeing again and again and again. Heres an american president who has been doing this, again, a very long time, both in the senate and Vice President and president. Every once in a while you end up with an american president that has extraordinary president in these spheres. President bush, he knew everybody. And President Biden has known him for a long time but has not always had a warm relationship with Benjamin Netanyahu. As history unfolds, you deal with the world as you find it and President Biden clearly thinks that his being there has a better chance of producing a better result than if he stayed away. We will find out. Yeah, i mean, you have the leader of jordan the members of the summit pulling out and canceling the most important part of the trip, one would argue, as it pertains to the lives of potentially thousands of people, and yet Arab Countries pull away and biden goes in, very joe biden, obviously. Is the purpose to lead by example . I think so. I think its to say let me put it this way. I dont know, and i am not in the room, but seems to me that if he is there, he is showing a level of care and concern that, as we have just said, is without precedent. One of the Ways Politics Works is your interlocker has to believe you share their interests and you are not in it for yourself. One of the things that could happen, President Biden will be able to look at the war cabinet and Prime Minister netanyahu, and has President Biden would probably say, hey, man, im here, and lets work this out. I promise you the word man is going to be used. I dont mean to make light of it, but this happened with Franklin Roosevelt and churchill, it matters that they were in the room together. It matters to political beings that you pay the respect that you signal that you are, in fact, you understand where they are. James baker, one of the great secretaries of state in american history, his entire memoir was called the politics of diplomacy, and his thesis was you cannot conduct diplomacy if you do not understand the people on the other side of political beings. You have this politician of more than half a century standing in the american context who is going into one of the most fraught regions in the world at a time when there are clear issues to deal with, and hes there. Hes not in a lordly way sending in instructions, but hes there. Like you say, its very bidenesque. A president s capital, the president cares about it and thinks its important, and American Interest i believe and hope will be served. We will have a preview of this mornings vote for a new house speaker. Can jim jordan win enough support to get the gavel . Thats straight ahead on morning joe. Om dinosaur, colo. Start an easy to build, powerful website for free with a partner that always puts you first. Start for free at godaddy. Com before i started playing basketball, i was kind of quiet. I wasnt really that confident or outgoing. But now, with basketball, i feel like a leader. Yo, cayden sport for good means to me that ill be able to give back to my family and my community. Goals can be accomplished, dreams can be accomplished, but dreams are just dreams if you dont go out and try to achieve them. Learn more about sport for good at laureususa. Com. Democrats. The American People dont want bipartisanship. No, no, no. Jim jordan vowing to continue trying to get the leadership. The next vote is scheduled for 11 00 a. M. This morning. Joining us now, Senior Writer for the dispatch, and john heilman, and Special Correspondent and host of the fast politics podcast, molly. We have your piece here, molly. Can we put mollys piece up . In your piece you write, the burn it all down caucus set itself on fire. A hazard of playing with matches. Now area arsonist, jim jordan, is revving up the gop Media Outrage Machine to try and bully his fellow republicans to vote for him. The electiondenning jordan unsurprisingly got the endorsement of trump who questioned the health of Steve Scalise the same day he beat jordan for the gop speaker nomination. And shortly before he withdrew from the race republicans who are put up as potential challengers are immediately attacked by pro trump accounts like elon musk favorite endwokeness. The thinking here is the jordan and his allies and supporters can do a schtick. Its hard to see a jordan speakership not leading to a more foxfriendly stunts and impeachment hearings. Molly, i will just finish off your point by saying this is a bad time not to have a speaker, not that there is ever a good time, but its completely selfdestructive behavior. I will go where joe always goes. Republicans seem to love losing in the long run . Yeah, and i think this Republican Party has been it so burn it all down, and they were trying to prove government doesnt work but the problem is you work in government. We see jim jordan desperately trying to whip these votes. I think its important to remember the job of the speaker is to whip votes and raise money and help win more seats in 2024, and jim jordan seems uniquely unqualified to do both of these things. Lets say jordan were to get it, what would he have to do in order to keep it . What is the pay back, right . He would have to give something. What specifically would he have to give . How would that affect the, what, 18 republicans who have been elected in districts that joe biden won . Well, jim jordan, hes with those to the right, and the kinds of thing Kevin Mccarthy had to give up are things that jim jordan wants to give up willingly. Hes more in the business of having the need to try and placate those in the center because they are worried about having a speaker that comes into the job pledging to shutdown the government. As molly suggests, i think she put Question Marks could a jordan leadership you dont put a question mark, you would say Something Like a jordan leadership would obviously jeopardize the republicans seats, and there were a bunch here in New York State that gave the house to republicans in 2022, they are terrified of a jim jordan speakership. You know, its the question it gives you almost sympathy for pity for Kevin Mccarthy. It makes you realize how difficult mccarthys position was. The problem with the Republican Party is the Republican Party. The reality is they will stitch together the coalition to hold the gavel with this narrow majority requires somehow an almost impossible straddle, and mccarthy was able to maintain it for a few months and i am not sure anybody could straddle that, and its hard to figure out what they want with this narrow majority. Yeah, and there was a jim jordan sitting in the house with Kevin Mccarthy laughing his head off behind him. Jim jordan lost yesterday, and 11 00 a. M. Is the next one, and we will see if he does a mccarthystyle multiple votes. The chatter among republicans, if he were to do that, he would start to bleed support. Just your analysis of the Republican Party that continues to fight and eat itself. Right. So you know, my sources tell me that jim jordan is likely to lose members on the second ballot that he had on the first, even though some that voted on the first ballot announced hes on the second ballot, and its weird that he called off the 6 00 p. M. Vote because you didnt have the votes, and you lose the second ballot and this all but dead, and Kevin Mccarthy is urging him to push ahead, and jim jordan can get there just like he did. I dont think the conference is in a place like that any longer, so i think we are already seeing discussions about empowering Patrick Mchenry, the speaker pro tem, and so i dont think its a conference that knows where to turn for a speaker because they are so divided, theres so much ill will. And one of the key dynamics here, guys, is normally its the pragmatic conservatives in the conference. There are not that many moderates. A useless term. Its the pragmatic conservatives that want a divided government and you have to cut deals with democrats in order to do your job. Normally they would throw up their hands and say even though its a minority of the conference that wants to head in that direction, and i think after going through what they did with Kevin Mccarthy, and after seeing members of their own conference ignore their own conference rules and ignore the rules of the election when Steve Scalise was elevated, and they finally had enough and said we are not going to be patsys anymore. And jim jordan may want to shut the government down and i have policy disagreements with him. I think its a case of im tired of being pushed around and i am tired the minority of our conference ignoring our own rules and i am going to pay ball like they are. Coming up, we will break down how the risky operation could unfold in gaza straight ahead on morning joe. I suffer with Psoriatic Arthritis and psoriasis. I was on a journey for a really long time to find some relief. Cosentyx works for me. 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I am being told President Biden has just emerged and is speaking now with some of the First Responders. Lets see if we can listen in, if you dont mind. She was alive, and she figured that out somebody broke into the house, and she fight and saved herself, and its a story i would like to personally tell you that, thank you for your support, and you are a friend of israel and i appreciate it. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. President , if i may, this was the young woman that i was telling you about. Shes embarrassed. They were saved because of her, thanks to her. Yeah. I am very excited and very honored to meet you. So proud of you. If i may we have 7,000 First Responders, and our response is usually 90 seconds. We were there in the first moments seeing the atrocities that happened, the women that were raped and then murdered, and little babies that were taken away from their parents, and murdered in front of their parents, and heads chopped off. Our volunteers were brave, and we have two volunteers that were murdered, and one was arab and one was jewish. We had two volunteers that were captured by the terrorists. We are very proud to serve the people in israel. Lot of us are americans. We are front lines of every emergency, so proud that you the president of the United States came here to israel to support this country. You uplifted the whole spirit in this country and all the jewish people in the world want to thank, mr. President. Thank you. That. Moved here from new york eight years ago. In the position of pediatric emergency medicine. On the very day i received calls from the hospital to prepare for a mass casualty events. The likes of which i never could have prepared for in my life. I treated wounded people, soldier, mostly the children. Babies burned in their mothers arms. Some with stories that i dont think theyll ever recover from. I treat palestinian children, i treat jewish children, i treat arab israeli children and when my resident calls me at home at night that somebody is not doing well, i dont ask where theyre from. In the hospital i work with over 50 palestinian families and treat them the same as ours. Were asking for some medical assistance and attention to our children. I got a phone call date my wife and daughter were dead [ inaudible ] i got a phone call of my son in killed. I understand. Guess what a physician makes a gigantic difference. Know who else does, nurses. Nurses. Thank you for what you do. God love you. Thank you. First of all, i would like to thank you for the support in israel. I appreciate it. Started a company, a former fulbright m. I. T. At harvard and both arab and jews but since october 7th, hundreds of soldiers, me and my brothers and sisters from all the country and we just grabbed a small bag, took our stuff and just volunteered. Two things i would like from you, please keep supporting us in eliminating hamas once and for all, not just for us the israeli themselves but the children and grandchildren. The second thing were fighting a frontier against evil and antisemitism. Please keep doing the same in the u. S. Thank you. Thank you. [ inaudible ] very important. Im Second Generation of the holocaust. [ inaudible ] evil. Its clear together to send delivers this is the first priority. Whatever you can help, theres hundreds and hundreds that need teenagers people. Kaez kind of its more humanitarian. Please do the best. Thank you. Obviously, going to do the best. My name is [ inaudible ]. P paramedic that was at the party. Continue to jewish colleagues and jewish party. Our purpose pain and sorrow and also pride. Humanity. Didnt distinguish between jewish or muslim or christian. [ inaudible ] our family. My great job i work to bring jewish teachers to Work Together and jewish youth to meet each other, usually for the first meeting, but legacy. My father thank you. We will do it again. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. President. Thanks for coming here. The first is that i lost two of my brothers in war. One of them is a citizen of the u. S. As well. Great warrior. One died in the first day of the war. The other one is the son of a woman, my motherinlaw, who has lost her husband 50 years ago on the same day, war, both of them were heros who were fighting on israeli land in the citizen villages to save civilians. The other thing is im part of a political scholars and activist. Were here to make sure that atrocities against civilians, children, and men and the elderly, and particularly women, will be acknowledged by institutions. We thank you for your support in this. The last one is that im president of an Academic College and that academia in israel is now having 200,000 of our students fighting for our safety to be able to get back to Higher Education as a whole for jews and arabs alike. I have 35 of my students this is our hope through Higher Education to bring us back together with the hope that we this moment. Im married to a college pros iffer too. I know. Its an Education College as well that we have mr. President , were going to go this way. Yes. In the in the minutes and in the hours and days that followed the october 7th Terrorist Attacks, there were images and stories that emerged of horror and, as you said, mr. President , that were unimaginable. But what also emerged were stories of heroism and of survival and of incredible hope and people coming together in community and National Service and, mr. President , mr. Secretary, the folks that we have gathered with us here today are representative of all of that and representative of the unity and the resilience of the israeli people and the light that is shining through this incredible darkness. Mr. Secretary. Ive had the opportunity to meet so many israeli over the last few days that ive been in and out of israel. Ive heard the stories. Ive heard about the lives lost and changed forever. We know that virtually every israeli has been touched by the bloody hand of hamas. But what i found is a nation thats united, yes, in grief, but also united in resolve. And we know the pride that israel takes in the ability to defend itself by itself, but as we want to make very clear, you dont have to do that because were here. Were here to make sure that youre able to defend yourself and to deal with something that is, i think, on a basic human level almost unimaginable. So hard for me a of us to process. Its so important to meet and talk to so many of you because thats what makes it real. And no one understand that better no one feels that more than the president of the United States. Mr. President. Folks, theres an irish poet named [ inaudible ], and he wrote a line and said too long suffering makes the stone of the heart. Too long of suffering makes the stone. The thing that i found with all of you is none of your hearts have turned to stone yet. Every one has talked about what you have to do. Every one has talked about having to reach out. Talked about whether or not theyre a jew or a muslim, reach out. You know, ive often said how i remember the first time that i was in israel just before the sixday war and she was telling me how terrible everything was and she was he she kept flipping the maps up and down behind her and all of a sudden looks at me and says, would you like a photograph . And i thought, thats unusual. She just got up and walked out. We were outside her office. Standing there having a photograph taken like you and i. She, without looking at me, she turned, she looked and said, you look worried, senator. I said i am. She said, dont worry. We jews have a secret weapon in our fight. We have no place else to go. Well, truth of the matter is, if there werent an israel, we would have to invent one. The truth of the matter is, i believe that went home and got in trouble at the time, but its true, you dont have to be a jew to be a zionist. And i think the security and safety of jews will world is anchored in the continued vibrance of the state of israel. Thats what i think its about. At its core. So ive admired you all in this country for so long, and im convinced that more people know your responses to whats happening, as opposed to just what war and peace is about. Kind embrace, embrace israel. A lot more to say, but i would like to talk to you in private if i can. Thanks, everybody. [ applause ] i was shown by my defense shown by your defense thank you. All right. We have been watching some remarkable moments of humanity in the face of severe ongoing trauma top an entire region in the middle east. This is President Biden along with Secretary Of State Antony Blinken in israel, a president who does not shy away from an active, very hot war zone, who does not shy away from facing victims of trauma and savage terrorism and First Responders who had to deal with it, to show with hess words and actual presence that he stands with them, that his heart is open, and his support is there. One First Responder almost in tears saying to the president , youve uplifted the entire spirit of this whole country. Thank you for being here. This, of course, while everything is still very much unfolding and there are a lot of questions hanging in the balance, the president met with Benjamin Netanyahu and his war cabinet. Theres the issue of the 200 or so hostages and their lives hanging in the balance. Theres still the smoldering hospital in gaza city and the question of where the rocket fire came from that blew up the hospital, and, of course, the civilians, the Palestinian Civilians in the line of fire, as israel prepares for a grounds invasion in response to the savage terrorist attack by hamas. Lets bring in nbc news chief foreign the concern richard engel, live in the west bank. Whats the latest . I know the other issue is okay. Whats going on right behind you. The summit that was canceled. So yes, arab anger is growing all across the middle east and you can see here in the west bank city of ramallah, run by palestinians, there are already some clashes. Theyre expected to grow over the next coming hours. There were clashes here and protests overnight and theyve been held in multiple arab capitals today. Whats happening here, i can give you a sense, is some palestinian, mostly young people, young men, are gathering used sling shots to throw stones at israeli. If you peek around the corner you can see the israeli jeep that they are trying to hit with their stones. The israelis quite soon could start firing in tear gas, potentially rubber bullets, live ammunition as the situation escalates. All of this outrage was triggered by the rocket attack on the hospital in gaza city. Palestinian medical officials said 500 people were killed. Israel disputes that figure and says it was not responsible. Rage is erupting across the arab world. Thousands of protesters converge on the u. S. Embassy in beirut. Were here to let the arab people wake up. Reporter in turkey, demonstrators rushed the israeli consulate in istanbul. Theyre all reacting to what palestinians call a massacre, the explosion at the Al Ahli Hospital in gaza city. I heard the all mighty streak followed by a large explosion. Part of the ceiling of the operating room fell. Reporter bodies can be seen laying on the ground. Children among the victims. Hamas says it was an israeli air strike. Israel emphatically denies that. The military saying the deadly explosion was called by a palestinian rocket that misfired, launched not by hamas but another Palestinian Militant Group called Islamic Jihad which says the accusation is false. Israel shared footage which claimed the rocket heading towards israel and changing direction and crashing into gaza. We confirm there was no idf fire by land, sea, or air, that hit the hospital. Reporter the Israeli Military says communication it intercepted prove hamas knows israel isnt responsible and using the blast to stoke anger. If thats true or not, seems to make little difference. This could be a tipping point, spreading the war across the middle east. In gaza, hamas continues to hold hundreds of hostages, including americans, and other foreign nationals. We spoke to a senior hamas official who says the group is willing to free civilians. Im sorry. Are you could i clarify this, you say youre willing to release all of the civilians, including the israeli nationals if there is a stopping including the israeli civilians and all the foreigners. And what are you asking for in order to do that . Do you want the air strikes to stop . Is that the condition . Stop the aggression. So our viewers might hear that and say that this offer doesnt mean anything. That if youre not willing to carry it out, it doesnt mean anything. How . Well if you stop the aggression, it can be implemented in the next hour. Reporter hamas is also holding Israeli Soldiers. For their release, hamas told me, they are asking for the release of all palestinian prisoners held in israeli jails. Richard, i have so many questions for you, especially since these different Arab Countries pulled out of the summit with President Biden, and i want to know what your instincts are on the ground, no matter what is proved ultimately about whose errant rocket blew up the hospital how does this not start royaling in a worse direction . What is your get . This is going to escalate. This is one of those incidents getting attention all around the arab world. People have heard what israelis are saying. They can believe it or not believe it. But in places like this, it makes no difference. This is a moment of anger, a moment that palestinian and arabs in general using to rally, to come out on the streets and express their outrage, if they support hamas or dont support hamas doesnt matter. There are people here who are hamas supporters and people here who support other palestinian groups but theyre coming together to denounce what they say was this massacre which, of course, israel is denying. Israel denial means very little here. This has the potential to escalate. In lebanon today, there are already demonstrations and hezbollah is calling for rage and for anger to be expressed all across the country. There have been exchanges of fire between israel be and israeli troops and hezbollah over the last several days. Theyre quite serious, almost any one of these clashes that we are seeing now, if they had happened a month ago in different circumstances they could have started a war. We are really on thin ice, and incidents like what happened in gaza city do have the risk of breaking through that ice. And then theres the issue, richard, of civilians, Palestinian Civilians as israel launches a Ground Invasion, where do they go and with all this chaos, do you think that invasion will happen without moving the civilians . So the civilians in gaza have been told to leave. Israel is advising them to move south, move south as soon as possible, but its not exactly clear how this israeli anticipated israeli Ground Invasion might unfold. As time passes its not entirely clear that all those hundreds of thousands of troops and their tanks and Armored Vehicles near the border are going to push in and drive through the streets of gaza. We might see more special operation raids, we might see more targeted air strikes and they potentially a partial mobilization. Im to the sure that were going to see just a massive blitz rolling through gaza. That could happen, but as time goes on, i think we might see more tactical moves, perhaps some of the israeli troops could move in to isolate northern and southern gaza. The u. S. Military is also coordinating with the Israeli Military, the commander of centcom, it was announced is on the ground. This is an operation that israel is clearly Getting International advice about, taking it very seriously. There are reports that theyre studying what russia did in ukraine to see what mistakes were made by Russian Troops as Russian Troops try to take over kyiv and ended up getting trapped and losing convoys. So israel was emotional right after this attack, was angry, still is angry, but it might be spending more time to figure out how troops could operate in a densely populated boobytrapped place like the gaza strip where hamas is prepared to fight and has tunnels. Okay. All right. Richard, be careful. Nbc news chief Foreign Correspondent richard engel, thank you very much. Jonathan lemire, wow. President biden is walking a fine line here, and there were some incredible moments there when he was meeting with the First Responders, but there is also the issue of the hospital in gaza city and the israeli war cabinet, perhaps, might have shared with him some intelligence . We just showed the images of the president meeting with those families, he emotional to be sure. Right at the end it was hard to hear, but at the end he was asked took a question from a reporter about how he could be confident that israel was not behind the Hospital Explosion that killed potentially a few hundred people yesterday. He simply said, quote, the data i was shown by my Defense Department which sort of backs up this theory that we had earlier he was shown intelligence on the plane while flying to israel, that would suggest that it was a rocket fired from within gaza. Hamas immediately blamed israel. Israel has pushed back and supplied some evidence which nbc has not been able to independently verify to support that claim that indeed they say it was hamas was responsible for this other group, the Islamic Jihad terror group was responsible for the strike at the hospital and we have the president of the United States saying how he has come to that conclusion. This is a major, major story line here, mika. Part of this visit. What we saw from richard, the conclusion may not matter. Part of the region is not going to believe anything the United States says. Were seeing the anger and uptick in violence and now, of course, we all wait and wonder about a growing conflict, a growing war, and more arab anger even before israel launches what is expected its imminent Ground Invasion of gaza. Lets bring in National Security analyst for nbc news and msnbc clint watts. Youre looking at a map of the region and a lot of moving parts. The one that im sort of fascinated with is the Arab Countries that actually have access to these civilians dont want them, and if you could talk about that. Its like the major difference from, for example, ukraine. Yeah. So the big issue today, mika, you saw richard engel, hes in ramallah north of jerusalem here. The key point about that, thats the old headquarters of the plo. You might remember yasser arafat. The question has been will this turn into a threefront war. The one front that has opened up is in the north. Over the last 48 to 72 hours, is several crossborder attacks. The israeli are said to have moved back and created another Demilitarized Zone of 2 kilometers and they have pulled back the civilian in the area and there was rocket exchange and hezbollah claims there were missiles launched against israeli tanks along the border yesterday and said that they lost five personnel themselves. I think a lot of tension here on the border add to that the larger landscape of all of the countries around this region. Just overnight, you saw protests break out in several different countries. Iran, major protest in front of the british embassy, throughout this region weve seen several protests go ahead and rise up, and if you remember back to kind of the era of isis and al qaeda, you might remember a place called benghazi and an uprising that showed up at the u. S. Embassy in cairo. Those are trigger points that feel similar this morning when looking at the situation. I think across the board, everyone is focused on this Al Ahli Hospital attack or was it instead some sort of palestinian Islamic Jihad Missile Launch that went awry. No one knows and we cant confirm. I think what everyone is trying to figure out, and youll see this in the images today, theres a large crater that is right here in this area, the parking lot and sort of common area between all those buildings and the hospital there. Everyone is look at those images and trying to diagnose it. Ive gone through a lot of sources and i can tell you that no one really knows whats happened at this point. Theres a lot of Digital Forensics going on. This will be the focus of everyone today trying to get to the bottom of it. To jonathans point who will know and even if we do know, how long does it take. Many of these protests Around The World have made their decisions. These uprising will be a major issue and this is the spark i think that hamas was looking for to see if others would join in on their side. National security analyst clint watts, thank you very much. Joining us now nbc news president ial historian Michael Beschloss. Michael, talk a little bit about what President Biden is doing right now. Historic on many levels. Historic on many levels, and one of them is we just saw, mika, i bet you were your ear to hear what he was saying to the israeli First Responders and i heard him talking to the grieving israeli about his painful Life Experiences of losing his wife and daughter in a car crash in 1972, losing his son beau to cancer in 2015 and connecting. There is no great leader in history that i know of that does not have this kind of empathy. Both because empathy is a quality that we all admire in a human being, but the other thing is that leaders ask other leaders to take risks that they may not want to take, for instance. Franklin roosevelt in 1940, before world war ii when Great Britain was trying to stand up to the nazis and looking as if they were losing roosevelt met with Winston Churchill on a ship and said i know what youre going through, i know what england is going through. Hang on a little while longer. We will do everything we can to help. If roosevelt had not been there to say that in person to churchhill, churchhill might have said the u. S. May not help us, maybe we should throw in the towel. Coming back to joe biden, when i was listening to him talking, it reminded me of something that i heard from an esteemed late congressman, you probably knew, tom lantos of san mateo, california. Lantos about the only member of congress that had been in world war ii, jewish hungarian, put in a camp, lost almost all the immediate members of his family and i happened to be talking about his friend joe biden, this was decades ago, and he said, i love joe biden, most of all because ive talked to him about my experience in the holocaust, and he understood what i was going through and had been through more than anyone else i knew who was not jewish. All right. Michael, thank you for that insight. John heilemann, i would like to bring you into this conversation. I also want to show you some video out of lebanon. There are protests in beirut. These are live pictures. This is happening right now. Protests outside the u. S. Embassy in lebanon. Of course, tension spreading across the region, a region that is right now in such disarray and under such stress and trauma, so much so, that a meeting, a summit of arab nations with President Biden was canceled as the president was poised to make his way to the region. President biden, as everybody knows, decided to take the trip anyway. Standing alone with israel and meeting with war cabinet and talking with First Responders and victims and looking at intelligence information about what exactly happened to the hospital in gaza city, but again, as you can see, the unrest is spreading. Yeah. Mika, its this is, as soon as the hospital was hit yesterday, it was inevitable that there was going to be first dispewtation over what happened, second, a lot of profound lack of clarity for a period of time given who was responsible for the nature of the attack of the explosion and the fog of war. Third you were going to have eruption in the arab street. The question was how far reaching that would be. Were seeing all of those things kind of play out now. Makes me want to talk to Michael Beschloss about history here a little bit. Michael, you have people already looking at the reality of a war in the heart of europe with russia and ukraine thats now two years old nearly, and now we have the prospect of a metastasizing wider war, we seem to be on the brink of that in the middle east. Two theaters in our geopolitics that could be consumed in warfare. I ask you whether that looks to you joe biden alluded to this on 60 minutes in an optimistic way, feels like a history moment that were looking at here, number one, and number two, think about this just from the president s perspective, lets set aside for a moment his opponent or his likely opponent in donald trump. Just thinking about the scale of the challenge for an incumbent president , every incumbent wants peace and prosperity, hes looking at a circumstance from 30,000 feet, furthest thing in the world from peace in two global theaters and prosperity in an American Economy doing pretty well but not being felt at all felt being doing well by a lot of the american electorate. Talk about that big picture, the context for this and the precedence for it and just the scale of the headwinds that joe biden is facing here . Thanks, john. You said it beautifully. All i can say is amen. Heres a case where you were talking about these two theaters of war. Ukraine and israel. What else do they have in common . Joe biden went to both places in the middle of a war, risked his life, to try to bring some order to the chaos, and try to find some solution, and i think ultimately will have been able to ask zelenskyy and netanyahu and the israeli war cabinet to make sacrifices that perhaps they would not have made if the president of the United States had not risked his life to be there in the room with them saying, a, i know [ inaudible ], b, were behind you, look he me in the eye, take that to the bank. Thats something you cant do just sitting in washington. I dont want to commit, and i dont know this, but i would bet you that there were advisors, some of them around biden, who said dont do this. Physically risky. This is a year before a reelection year. Too many things are unpredictable. Biden in the tradition of great leaders said theres something more important at stake, the future of the world. Okay. Michael beschloss, historian, thank you very much. As we look at these live pictures in beirut, lebanon, the crowd is growing, and they are throwing flairs and rocks and whatever they can. Apparently in the direction of the u. S. Embassy or around the u. S. Embassy in lebanon. As you can see they just broke down a barrier and are charging oh, boy. This escalation is what were potentially going to be seeing across the region. Were going to keep an eye on this live video out of beirut. We have continuing coverage of the israel hamas war. A spokesman for the Israel Defense force is going to join us and an update on the speaker race, the speaker of the house in a moment like this, republican jim jordan is not giving up on his bid for power, despite receiving fewer votes than the top democrat in the house yesterday. Well get a live report from capitol hill. Were less than two hours away from the next round of voting on that. Thats all straight ahead on morning joe. Thats all straight ahead on morning joe. 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A vote today to make the architect of the nationwide abortion ban, a vocal Election Denier and insurrection denier to the speaker of this house would be a terrible message to the country and our allies. Democratic caucus chair pete aguilar yesterday on the house floor talking about republican congressman jo jim jordans bid to become speaker but jordan isnt speaker yet. He lost his first vote for the position yesterday after 20 of his fellow republicans voted against him. Lets bring in Senior National political reporter sahill kapur. They vote again at 11 00. What if he loses . What happens . Thats right. Mika, what weve seen in the last 24 hours is the revenge of the republican centrists, that includes swing district republicans who say jim jordan is a bridge too far for them that includes institutionalists in the party rebuking some of the scorched earth tactics that some jordan allies have used to try in their view intimidate and bully members to come aboard. Show the quote by steve womack, an appropriator i think is instructive about this. He says his voteor Steve Scalise yesterday was a matter of principle thatcalise devoted jordan in the conference and was probably kneecaped before he could win over his opponents. He said scalise took a bullet for us. Now yes, we expect a vote at 11 00 a. M. Today, a second ballot, as jordan tries to move some of his holdouts. This could go through different ways, mika. Door number one is jim jordan shows some progress and moves some of those 20 members and convinces people he has a path to getting the 21 votes he needs to become speaker. The second he doesnt improve his support, the bottom falls out and more defections according to some members weve spoken to and withdrawing. That puts republicans back to the drawing board. Door number three a temporary solution, maybe a bipartisan solution, some republicans like the centrist dave joyce what called for Patrick Mchenry and Hakeem Jeffries opened the door to some sort of bipartisan arrangement and could be temporary, it could be permanent. We asked him about some of the names that democrats could stomach. Lets play ha what he had to say. I have respect for Patrick Mchenry. I think hes respected on our side of the aisle. There are a host of republicans that are respected on our side of the aisle. Jim jordan is not one of them. Thats a maybe on mchenry. No for democrats on jim jordan if theyre going to engage. I have to stress it would be unusual to seat two parties come together to elect a speaker, but the more desperate the situation gets the more, mika, well be seeing some of the creative options out there. A paralyzed house has very real consequences for this country with a Government Shutdown looming less than a month away and for the world with the conflict in the middle east. Senior National Political reporter sahill kapur thank you very much. Sahill brought up, john, the war raging in the middle east. I mean, are these republicans kidding us . Are you serious . We have two hot wars, our president is in israel right now standing with israel as like a hospital is smoldering, decisions need to be made, and Congress Needs to function. Do they think the American People arent going to notice how chaotic and ridiculous they seem . I think that, mika, if im trying to be generous, i think that all of them realize that theres that this is d this exercise in which theyve undertaken and unable to resolve, they recognize its bad for their party. There are different points view of within the caucus about what the proper solution is, and, you know, as is the case often in political parties, that is the issue, is in this party in particular, you have dramatically some amount of personal agendas and conflicts and theyre relatively ideologically united but what each of them each part of the party thinks is the right answer, is dramatically different from what other part thinks. So its not like they dont agree with you on the macro point. They have disagreement how to get there. They think if they give in to the other part of the party and go along with them, like on jim jordan, for instance, that that makes the situation worse. They will have a speaker of the house, but that speaker will probably shut down the government which will lead to a different form of chaos that will hurt them and the country. Again, this is a party demonstrating abject total system failure. Its completely dysfunctional at this moment. Sahill laid out a couple scenarios, but its possible this could go on for a while longer. We use the phrase split screen too often, but we have a split screen of the democratic president of the United States attempting to conduct global diplomacy, attempting to be a peace maker in the middle east, show support for our strongest ally, and that this the president s trip discussing all morning is fraught and may not be met with total success, but he is out there, out there representing the United States of america, and you come back home and you have the republicans pointing fingers at each other in complete chaos and limiting what this country can do to support its allies both israel and ukraine because there is no speaker of the house. Certainly there doesnt seem to be votes there for jim jordan later today. Well see if theres a compromised candidate or slightly more mainstream figure steps forward, but mika, in the interim this tumult will continue and limit what United States can do. This is the kind of thing that certainly is going to hurt republicans, one would assume, next fall. All right. What were looking at as we go to break our live pictures from beirut, lebanon. This is outside the embassy where protesters have been throwing rocks and lighting fires and breaking down barriers. You can hear explosions. This appears to be escalating before our eyes from the pictures that we saw earlier. We will be monitoring this and coming up after the break, were going to speak with a spokesman for the idf about the Hospital Attack in gaza city and the looming Ground Invasion, as israels response to the attack from hamas. We will be right back with much more breaking news right here on morning joe. Breaking news rin morning joe. Moderate to severe eczema still disrupts my skin. Despite treatment it disrupts my skin with itch. It disrupts my skin with rash. But now, i can disrupt eczema with rinvoq. Rinvoq is not a steroid, topical, or injection. Its one pill, once a day. 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Vehicles with overdue, unpaid tolls may not be able to renew their registration until outstanding balances are paid. Payment assistance is available. Visit bayareafastrak. Org ase so go pay your unpaid tolls y and keep your wheels on the . All right. Welcome back. We are following breaking news out of the middle east. These are live pictures outside the u. S. Embassy in beirut, lebanon. Protesters have been setting fires and setting off explosions, and as you can see, rampaging through the streets. They broke down barriers. This is all outside the embassy in lebanon. Another side that this another sign that this situation in the middle east is only getting worse. What youre seeing right now specifically is Security Forces trying to get control back over the area and what we were showing earlier were protesting wreaking havoc outside the embassy. Large response happening right here in beirut. Joining us now as we monitor the live pictures out of beirut, spokesman for the israeli Defense Forces Lieutenant Colonel peter learner. My question is, where do we begin on israel . You have the american president standing side by side with israel and with the war cabinet there and with the First Responders and with the victims. What can israel do to respond, but also contain this from becoming a wider war . Indeed, weve been trying to do so for a week, at least a week, over the last week or so, weve seen a constant escalation of hezbollah attacks against the idf and against israeli civilians on the border with gaza. We have evacuated 28 communities along the border in order to keep them out of harms way. Indeed well, do see an increasing effort on behalf of iran to try and escalate the border between israel and lebanon specifically israel and hezbollah, and it is of concern. We have recruited some 300,000 reservists to be prepared for what could happen as a twofront war both on the border with gaza, the potential of a ground operation, but also to defend our northern border, the northern frontier. The fate of civilians hangs in the balance unless they have a place to go. Is there going to be place for them to go . What do you make of your arab neighbors and the summit talk that broke down with President Biden . Will there be any assistance from your neighbors to keep civilians safe . You know, we are operating our operations in gaza specifically, targeting hamas, the terrorist organization, that butchered over 1300 people. Right. Indeed the population of gaza, they are not our enemy. Hamas is our enemy. What weve been trying to do in the last six days now is to try and evacuate people from the areas where hamas is operating from and in order to keep them out of harms way. Hamas, on the other hand, are trying to keep them in harms way and exasperate their humanitarian situation. It is a very, very challenging task. Weve designated overnight a humanitarian zone in the southwestern part of the gaza trip and indeed there is humanitarian operations of the International Organizations that are operating within the gaza trip that are indeed operating in order to give humanitarian aid. If there will be a humanitarian hiatus and corridor, thats a possibility that diplomats are negotiating for. You know, the idf is the warrior force, its the fighting force. We are fighting against hamas, the terrorist organization and well leave the diplomacy for the diplomats. Lieutenant colonel, a lot of questions in the last 24 hours or so about the explosion at that hospital in gaza. We heard from the president of the United States saying that he saw intelligence that suggested that israel was not behind that explosion, but youre seeing here the images that doesnt seem to dissuade protesters in a lot of areas right now. What is your degree of concern as this violence picks up about the fate of the hostages who are still being held in gaza . So there are two parts of that question that are important. First of all, the images that were seeing and showing out of lebanon is something that hamas are interested in. That needs to be a point of concern to us. If it Interest Rates butchers of babies in their bedrooms we need to be concerned. Sorry. The second part is the concern fort 199 israeli being hostage, held hostage, so thats like 200 israelis held hostage and i would add probably around 2 million palestinian in gaza being held hostage. Our concern for the people of the people that have been abducted, men, women, children, holocaust survivors, elderly, is of is at the top of our priority. They need to be released and they need to be they need to come home and we need to make that happen as soon as possible. Of course their presence in gaza influences our operational planning, but i wont go into that because out of respect for their families and dont want to jeopardize any efforts with the diplomatic or operational. Lieutenant colonel, im going back to the Hospital Bombing and ask this question, jonathan just alluded to, earlier in the show which is that theres a lot of, obviously, contested claims about responsibility there, those will be litigated in the court of Public Opinion to some extent in the course of the days and weeks to come, but the arab street seems to have made up its mind. I wonder what idf and others might be able to do to put forward a public case, this Hospital Bombing becomes a central spark for a larger flame, what can you do in terms of presenting evidence that might help douse that flame . Do you think thats reasonable . Are there plans afoot to kind of build that case in public as we go forwarded . Weve been presenting our case, obviously, to President Biden but also to the public, we have distributed extensive information. We know that the idf did not conduct this strike. We know because we checked it on utilizing intelligence Operational Data and also aerial footage. We have been able to establish that the idf did not operate in that area, we had no aerial, ground, or Naval Operations conducted against the hospital. I would say at the outset we dont attack hospitals and that is why from our perspective it was important to understand exactly what happened. We were able to determine that trajectory of the rockets came out of gaza, across, above the hospital, and one of them hit the hospital in its parking lot while others headed to israel with an attempt to kill more israelis. On the final component we were able to intercept our intelligence able to intercept a conversation between two Hamas Terrorists talking about the palestinian Islamic Jihad Rocket Launch that one hit and mentioning by name the Al Ahli Hospital. There was one other thing that even if we never said anything and never exposed and potentially put ourselves at risk by exposing operational capabilities, al jazeera broadcasting this story live at 7 00 p. M. And they have the launch of the rockets and the rocket that actually didnt make its target into israel and dropped into Al Ahli Hospital. So we know that the situation. We are 100 determined this is the reality on the ground. Unfortunately, indeed, we need to do a lot in order to convince the people hamas is interested in aggravating the situation worldwide. I would say iran is interested in aggravating the situation worldwide, and specially here in the region, we are communicating across platform in multiple languages and engaging with the diplomacy of President Biden said it himself, you know, im sure if President Biden came to a different conclusion he would have said so. Can you explain what you were just showing, demonstrating to us . It looked like a photograph . Yeah. This is what this is a screen caption from the broadcast of al jazeera, you see the emblem from last night. But they videoed the launch of all of the rockets at that time, so its at 7 00 p. M. As they were launching and this is exactly this is the rocket that launched and failed and malfunctioned and dropped into the hospital or into the hospitals parking lot, creating that huge ball of flame. Because of the propellent that was already in the rocket but wasnt used to propel the rocket to its destination, so it was still full of fuel, and therefore, when it hit the ground, it made this huge ball of fire that weve seen in the footage that came out overnight. You know, unfortunately, the people of gaza are paying a terrible price for the failed leadership, this terrorist organization that has no regard for human life, israeli or palestinian. But i would add they are very quick to blame israel. Yeah. Spokesman for the israeli Defense Forces Lieutenant Colonel peter learner, thank you very much. We appreciate your time with us this morning. We are now awaiting new remarks from President Biden live in israel. Well continue to follow the developing protests in beirut. Morning joe will be right back with much more breaking news. Ngs that go better. Together. Burger and fries. Soup and salad. Thank you like your Workplace Benefits and retirement savings. With voya, considering all your financial choices together. Can help you make smarter decisions. For a more confident financial future. Hey, a tandem bicycle. You cant do that by yourself. Voya. Well planned. Well invested. Well protected. I want to be here today for the simple reason, i wanted the people of israel, the people of the world to know where the United States stands. Lets go live to nbc news Foreign Correspondent raf sanchez. Hes in ashdod, israel, near the gaza border, and raf, you have new information about who holds the responsibility for the explosion at the hospital in gaza city. What do you know . Reporter mika, thats right. This is coming from our pentagon correspondent, courtney kube. Two u. S. Officials tell her that the United States has now independently assessed that it was a rocket from palestinian Islamic Jihad, one of the smaller terror groups inside gaza that caused this explosion at the hospital in gaza city. Now, this is the u. S. Weighing in in this disputed narrative about who is responsible for this explosion that seems to have cost so many lives in gaza city, two u. S. Officials now saying they have independently verified israels claim, which is that this was an palestinian Islamic Jihad rocket, which went wrong. And President Biden early this morning when he first arrived in israel said that he said to israeli officials it appears that the explosion at the hospital was caused by what he called the other team. He meant the palestinians. He then was asked a little bit later how do you know, and he said data that was shown to me by the department of defense, and we are now hearing from these u. S. Officials that the pentagon does believe that it was a palestinian rocket that caused this massive loss of life at this hospital in gaza city. Mika, as you said as you were showing viewers earlier, people are on the streets outside u. S. Embassies all across the region right now. Anger across the middle east is absolutely boiling, and it is very unlikely that this counternarrative that it was, in fact, a palestinian rocket that caused the attack is going to cut through. Governments all across the region have blamed israel already, and people across the region have internalized that this was an israeli strike regardless of what the truth ends up being. So this is a very, very tense moment across the middle east, and it is a reflection of this truncated trip that President Biden is making. He was supposed to be in jordan right now meeting with the president of egypt, the king of jordan, and the palestinian authority. Instead that trip canceled. Mika. Nbc news Foreign Correspondent raf sanchez, thank you very much for your reporting this morning. We just have a few moments left here as we cover all the breaking news here on morning joe. Jonathan lemire, what are you looking for today . What are you hearing from the white house . Were going to be hearing directly from the president himself soon. Weve been advised like within the half hour, well hear from him again on the ground there in israel. To rafs point, this was originally going to be fought with a stop in jordan that. Is no longer happening. Even though theres a pentagon assessment that it was a rocket from gaza, the narrative may sadly already be set in parts of the arab world as were seeing these protests. This feels like a situation thats only going to escalate further. John heilemann. Well, this is the moment right here, mika, were going to get to see joe biden give these remarks. This is what from these remarks that were about to see, is what will be cut and played across cable news over the course of the next 24 hours. This is a moment for him to project the strength and the determination and support for israel he wants to project. We will see what america and the world make of it. And shaky politics here at home, a big vote on capitol hill today for speaker of the house. Well see what happens there. We kind of need one, ana cabrera and jose diazbalart pick up the coverage in two minutes. Cargurus. Shop. Buy. Sell. Online. Hi. My name is kim and i am 41 years old. Ive been given the opportunity to work from home, so that means lots of video calls. I see myself more and i definitely see those deeper lines. Im still kim and i got botox® cosmetic. I wanted to keep the expressions that i would normally have, you know, youre on camera and the only person they can look at is you. I was really happy that i would normally have, you with the results. Amera i look like me just with fewer lines. Botox® cosmetic is fda approved to temporarily make frown lines, crows feet, and forehead lines look better. The effects of botox® cosmetic may spread hours to weeks after injection, causing serious symptoms. 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