after hamas. the security system continues to flow. that's not going to change. we're also going to do everything we can to make sure that they are properly accounting for the civilian population and minimizing the damage and casualties as much as possible. the other thing we're not going to take our foot off the gas on is seeing if we can get nood another pause and get more hostages out and more security aid in. >> that's john kirby laying out the top priorities. we'll show you what else he had to say about the failed negotiations for another humanitarian pause in gaza. also ahead, the latest on a string of attacks on an american warship and multiple commercial vessels in the middle east. plus, speaker mike johnson gives a timeline for a vote to launch an impeachment inquiry in the house of representatives and to president biden. good morning and welcome to "way too early" on this monday, december 4th. i'm jonathan lemire. thanks for starting your day and week with us. and we'll begin this morning in the middle east. israel is now expanding its war operation into southern gaza. before their military campaign was focused on the northern part of the strip. now israeli defense forces are pounding targets in the south and ordering more neighborhoods to evacuate. over the weekend officials announced that they've hit more than 400 hamas targets while the health ministry in gaza claims that hundreds of people were killed in the new israeli strikes. the united states is urging israel to protect civilians in the territory. now, israel's expanded military operation comes just days after a temporary truce with hamas collapsed. international leaders, however, were still meeting in the hopes that a breakthrough could be reached. that was until saturday when israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu pulled his negotiators out of qatar and called the talks, saying they had reached an impasse with hamas. in a statement, netanyahu explained the terrorist group did not fulfill its part of the truce agreement to release all of the women and children it is holding hostage. now the white house is pressuring israel to return to the negotiating table. national security council spokesperson john kirby gave an update on the discussions during an appearance on "meet the press" yesterday. >> well, there are no official negotiations going on right now, kristen, and that's bass hamas. hamas failed to come up with another list of women and children that could be released. we know they're holding additional women and children. not combatants or idf soldiers, but innocent civilians, women and children that they have that they couldn't put on a list and turn that in, so unfortunately negotiations have stopped. that said, what hasn't stopped is our own involvement trying to get those back on track and trying to discuss with those partners and all of those interlock lars and see if we can't get that back in place. >> vice president kamala harris spoke with the leaders at the climate summit. she spoke about what the future will look like in gaza following the war. on the sidelines, the vice president shared more details. >> i've had a number of in-depth conversations with i rehab leaders here in dubai. specifically i focused three areas of focus. one, reconstruction. the international community must dedicate significant resources to support short- and long-term recovery in gaza. second, security. the palestinian authority security forces must be strengthened to eventually assume security responsibilities in gaza. until then, there must be security arrangements that are acceptable to israel, the people of gaza, the palestinian authority, and the international partners. the palestinian authority must be revitalized, driven by the will of the palestinian people, which will allow them to benefit from the rule of law and a transparent response of government. >> joining us now here on set, senior fellow for for the institute of global affairs, mark hannah. good to see you. you have a piece in "the new york times" about the biden administration's handling of the war, the israel/hamas conflict. explain what you mean. >> let me establish right out of the gate, most americans don't think about foreign policy during election time. the 2024 campaign might give us that rare phenomenon where americans care deeply about foreign policy. they're seeing the suffering coming in from gaza as well as the ukraine war, so we might be more focused on foreign policy. given his track record and deep experience in foreign policy, joe biden should theoretic will i do really well, but what we're seeing is because of his administration's handling of the war in israel, he's losing a lot of progressives when it comes to -- imperilling his election prospects in the way he's handling the war. the minority wants him to be as full-throated as he is. we're seeing a lot of progressives that -- you know, israel didn't used to be that kind of controversial thing. he said his job was basically pushing upon an open door. we're seeing that change. so he's getting hit from the left on the israel war, and according to our survey at the institute of global affairs, we're starting to see independence really align with republicans when it comes to the war on ukraine. so he's getting hit in the middle as well. >> so certainly the israel issue is impacting the standard pul v color. the issue is they would stay home. >> right. the motivation factor matters a lot, especially with this president, right? anecdotally, living around brooklyn, people are out protesting against this president's policies. they've said, and i believe them, they're not going to go vote when it comes to that. i will say, you know, being seen as insufficient lent pro-israel has been an issue for democrats before this. harry truman was afraid of losing the american jewish voter to thomas dewey, but what harry truman didn't face is the norms about human rights and this sort of mass media around the clock, social media images of the suffering coming out of gaza, and it's really changing the equation politically for democrats in 2024. >> lastly if you had advice for the bind campaign and the white house, how would you handle this? >> i saw john kirby say what he said about minimizing casualties of civilians. i don't think that goes far enough. i think the president's concerns doesn't resonate so far when you're supporting governments like bibi netanyahu, which has made a sort of rightward thrust and is alienating not just american jewish voters and center left voters in the united states that are turned off by the support, sort of unqualified support of israel, but people in israel, too, who are really annoyed and fed up with netanyahu's autocratic term. >> and, again, mark hannah, great to see you again. staying in the middle east, the pentagon says an american warship was threatened and multiple commercial vessels were attacked yesterday in the red sea by arranian-backed houthi rebels. they detected a missile launched from a houthi territory targeting a commercial ship shortly after 9:00 a.m. local time. the missile did not make contact, but as the warship came toward the commercial ship, they were forced to shoot and they shot down two incoming drones. "the new york times" claim this latest episode in international waters lasted for multiple hours. two out of the three attacked commercial ships have told media outlets no one was hurt, but it was clear escalation and one the pentagon is watching closely. still ahead on "way too early," donald trump appears to have a new campaign strategy against president biden. we'll explain that. plus the former president tied to the january 6th insurrection. those stories and a look at weather and sports when we come right back. t weather and sports when we come right back if your moderate to severe crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis symptoms are stopping you in your tracks... choose stelara® from the start... and move toward relief after the first dose... with injections every two months. stelara® may increase your risk of infections, some serious, and cancer. before treatment, get tested for tb. tell your doctor if you have an infection, flu-like symptoms, sores, new skin growths, have had cancer, or if you need a vaccine. pres, a rare, potentially fatal brain condition, may be possible. some serious allergic reactions and lung inflammation can occur. feel unstoppable. ask your doctor how lasting remission can start with stelara®. janssen can help you explore cost support options. with the freestyle libre 2 system, know your glucose level and where it's headed. no fingersticks needed. manage your diabetes with more confidence. freestyle libre 2. try it for free at freestylelibre.us there's something going around the gordon home. good thing gertrude found delsym. now what's going around is 12-hour cough relief. and the giggles. the family that takes delsym together, feels better together. a mystery! jessie loves playing detective. but the real mystery was her irritated skin. so, we switched to tide pods free & gentle. it cleans better, and doesn't leave behind irritating residues. and it's gentle on her skin. tide free & gentle is epa safer choice certified. it's got to be tide. the power goes out and we still have wifi tide free & gentle is epa safer choice certified. to do our homework. and that's a good thing? great in my book! who are you? no power? no problem. introducing storm-ready wifi. now you can stay reliably connected through power outages with unlimited cellular data and up to 4 hours of battery back-up to keep you online. only from xfinity. home of the xfinity 10g network. welcome back as we turn to some of the morning's other top headlines. with just 42 days to go until the iowa caucuses, florida governor ron desantis is addressing whether iowa is do or die for his struggling campaign. this comes as recent poll numbers show him more than 20 points behind former president donald trump in the hawkeye state. here's what he had to say on yesterday's "meet the press." >> we're going to win the caucus. we're doing everything we need to. >> what if you don't, governor? what if you don't? >> i said from the beginning, we're going to win the caucus. >> bottom line, is iowa do or die for you, governor? >> we're going to win iowa. i think it's going to help propel us to the nomination, but i think we'll have a lot of work we'll have to do beyond that. i don't think you take anything for granted. and ultimately republican voters are going to have the choice of donald trump, which i think would make for a referendum on him and a lot of the issues he's dealing with or me, and that will be a referendum on biden's failures, on all the issues in the country that are affecting people, and i'll be able to stand for possible vision going forward. meanwhile trump also hit the campaign trail in iowa over the weekend in cedar rapids and in the des moines suburbs on sunday. he called on his supporters to, quote, guard the vote next november in cities that voted blue last time. he also touched on what he described as a newer subject, obamacare. >> we're also going to fight to give much better health care than what you have right now. this is a newer subject, but obamacare is a disaster, and i said, we're going to do something about it. i saved obamacare when we got john mccain ice negative vote. you know, he voted against it after campaigning for many, many years. he said, ugh, thumbs-down. it was an amazing night, but we're going to fix it. >> the most important part is you should guard the vote. you should go into detroit, philadelphia, some of these places, atlanta, and go into some of these places, and we've got to watch those votes when they come in. joe biden is not the defender of american democracy. joe biden is the destroyer of american democracy. it's him and his people. they can do whatever they want, break any law, tell any lie, ruin any life, trash any norm, and get away with anything they want. >> trump's comments about obamacare are nonsensical and his suggestion that supporters guard the vote in deep blue cities sure sounds like voter intimidation, and his claim that president biden is a threat to to democracy appears to be part of the larger campaign strategy for the 2024 gop front-runner. according to "the new york times" on saturday, trump left placardsach seat that read, quote, biden attacks democracy. that same sentence was broadcast on the screen. the "times" wrote this, mr. trump has a history of accusing his opponents of behavior that he himself is guilty of, the political equivalent of a, no, you are, playground retort. dung the midterm elections, kaejtss who embraced mr. trump's lie that the 2020 election was stolen from him were defeated. even voters who did not rank democracy as a top concern. mr. trump and his campaign have sought to dismiss such concerns as a concoction to scare voters, but on saturday they tried to turn the candidate's campaign back against him. this is dangerous rhetoric, and we need not look away. still ahead, we'll turn to sports and a look at the reaction around the nfl. plus the college football playoffs are set and a lot of fans are upset with the final rankings. all of that and a check on the workweek weather forecast when "way too early" comes right back. t when "way too early" comes right back arexvy does not protect everyone and is not for those with severe allergic reactions to its ingredients. those with weakened immune systems may have a lower response to the vaccine. the most common side effects are injection site pain, fatigue, muscle pain, headache, and joint pain. i chose arexvy. rsv? make it arexvy. a few years ago, i came to saona, they told me there's no electricity on the island. we always thought that whatever we did here would be an emblem of what small communities can achieve. trying to give a better life to people that don't have the means to do it. si mi papá estuviera vivo, sé que él tuviera orgulloso también de vivir de esta viviendo una vida como la que estamos viviendo ahora. es electricidad aquí es salud. 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(vo) for a limited time, turn any iphone in any condition into a new iphone 15 pro with titanium and ipad and apple watch se - all on us. that's up to $1700 in value. only on verizon. second and one, stafford over accuroy. on the one. turns on the afterburners. touchdown. has evans into the open field, and evans has one man to beat. inside the ten, div towards inside the ten, div toward the pylon. >> williams, intercepted. >> and around, and a reverse. here comes jamison williams. explodes to the end zone. touchdown, detroit! >> minchew to the air. taking a deep shot to the end zone. he's got it. touchdown. >> here comes a blitz from washington, trying to get to tua. one-on-one. hill, he found it. he's gone. another lone touchdown for tyreek hill. >> racing toward the end zone, he does and he's in. >> those were some of the biggt plays across the nhl incling a championship preview between the 49ers and the philadelphia eagles. they crushed the eagles for the second time. let's go to the packers hosting the kansas city chiefs. jordan love of the packers tossed three tds and they found three in the end zone. they never trailed and they upset the chiefs, 27-19. kansas city lost in front of pop star taylor swift for the first time. the packers lost their 13th in a row. to college now, michigan, washington, texas, and alabama will vie for the national championship. michigan will face alabama in the rose bowl and washington will play texas in the sugar bowl. both of those semifinal games will be played on new year's day. the selections by the college football playoff committee leaves out florida state, marking the first time in cfb history that an undefeated power five champion has failed to finish in the top four. i think most people would agree alabama would be favored to beat florida state in the game, but florida state had the better season, hence, the controversy. we'll have more on "morning joe." on a side note, my son's team won in flag football and he scored the touchdown. let's turn to michelle grossman and the weather. >> he'll never forget that. >> neither will i. we're looking at this weather event that's been going on for weeks and weeks. a parade of storms. we're going to see that all week long once again. a high flood threat. we're looking at nearly a foot of rain in some spots. we're going to be mild and sunny in the south central states, gusty winds throughout the rockies, northern and central rockies, and snow in portions of northern new england. this is a big weather story. 9 million people are at risk for some flooding. we have a flood watch for seattle, spokane and elsewhere. . we could see stream flooding and urban flooding. we're going to see these storms all week long. we have winter storm warnings for jackson, steamboat springs, aspen, heavy snow there as well. winds could gust up to 60 miles an hour. that's going to be going all week long. take a look at some of these totals. up to 7 inches in the olympics and along the coast, 2 to 6 inches. they cannot catch a break there. still ahead here on "way too early," a court rules on whether former president trump can be held liable in lawsuits related to the january 6th capitol insurrection. we'll break down that decision and the lawsuits already filed against the former president. that's when we come right back. t that's when we come right back 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 can't do that by yourself. voya. well planned. well invested. well protected. ♪♪ remember the things you loved doing... before your asthma got in the way? get back to the things you love... with fasenra. fasenra is an add-on treatment for eosinophilic asthma. having too many eosinophils, a type of white blood cell, can cause inflammation and asthma symptoms. fasenra is designed to target and remove eosinophils and helps prevent asthma attacks. fasenra is 1 dose every 8 weeks. fasenra can help patients to breathe better. most patients did not have an asthma attack in the first year. and fasenra helps lower the use of oral steroids. fasenra is not for sudden breathing problems or other eosinophilic conditions. allergic reactions may occur. don't stop your asthma treatments without talking with your doctor. tell your doctor if your asthma worsens. headache and sore throat may occur. tell your doctor if you have a parasitic infection. get back to better breathing. and get back to your life. ask your doctor about fasenra. if you can't afford your medication, astrazeneca may be able to help. [group laughing] admit it. you use my old spice body wash. i'm not letting hotel soap. near my skin. it's the lavender and mint for me. let me get that, savannah, if you don't get your moisturized hands off my body wash. first time i connected with kim, she told me that if you don't get yher husband had passed.ff and that he took care of all of the internet connected devices in the home. i told her, “i'm here to take care of you.” connecting with kim... made me reconnect with my mom. it's very important to keep loved ones close. we know that creating memories with loved ones brings so much joy to your life. a family trip to the team usa training facility. i don't know how to thank you. i'm here to thank you. welcome back to "way too early." it's a little before 5:30 a.m. on the east coast, 2:30 out west on this monday morning. i'm jonathan lemire. thanks for being with us. former president donald trump is not immune from civil lawsuits looking to blame him for the january 6th insurrection. in a unanimous ruling that came down on friday, a three-judge appellate court found the former president is not entitled to immunity as an elected official because he was speaking as a candidate on january 6th, not in his official capacity as the then president. multiple police officers and members of ndamukong suhhed trump nearly two years ago, saying he incited the riot at the capitol. the ruling does not say trump is liable in those suits. it only allows the cases to move forward. in a separate court on friday, judge tanya chutkan ruled that the former president also does not have protection from criminal prosecution. in her decision, judge chutkan wrote this. whatever immunities a subtle president may enjoy, the united states has only one chief executive at a time, and that position does not confer a lifelong get-out-of-jail-free pass. former president trump's lawyer has indicated they plan to appeal both of those decisions. >> joining us now, msnbc legal analyst danny cevallos. first let's take them one at a time. the lawsuits where he can be sued do. you agree with the decision and will we see a wave of new suits? >> the former decision held essentially donald trump is not immune from civil lawsuit, but he may be immune from civil lawsuit. what i mean by that is this. because at this stage this is just a motion basically to dismiss, the court was deciding whether or not trump can make his cases out just given the plaintiff all the benefit of the doubt, which is what courts do at this early stage of the proceeding. and what that means is that just based on the four corners of to complaint, trump can't get the case thrown out on immunity, but he may develop the immunity issue as trial goes on and he could actually raise it later on in a motion after all the discovery's in, and the court doesn't rule out the possibility that he may prevail on that motion, which is really interesting because now we're starting to see different courts, in this case, the d.c. court of appeals and the district court in the same circuit deciding issues, the same similar issues of immunity, and other courts will soon be deciding it as well. you might see a motion, say, in florida, where some say the judge there is more -- the federal judge is more favorable to trump. what happens if there's a different decision on immunity in another court. >> so this came as no surprise to you? >> it came as no surprise to me. in fact, i thought it was a very well reasoned opinion. she delved into the history of immunity and she dealt with a very interesting argument that the trump lawyers made, which is this. it was a kind of double jeopardy argument, first of its kind as far as i was aware, and the idea is if trump was impeached and then acquitted, he could not be personally prosecuted. first they said, wait, that's wrong. their argument is the constitution only says convicted, so, in other words, only someone convicted. if they're acquitted at the impeachment trial, they're somehow immune. double jeopardy kind of attaches. creative. i found it fascinating. i didn't find it likely to win, and judge chutkan took it apart in a well-reasoned logical opinion. >> it's so easy to lose track. what should we be looking for next and is it about scheduling, about what happens next? >> we're starting to see scheduling rear its ugly head. trump's lawyers are saying if he's elected, he cannot be tried until four years afterward. they may have a point there. the bottom line, nobody really knows the answer. it may be the case that as to the state prosecutions if trump is inaugurated, even if he's already been convicted and even sentenced, imagine trump in a jail cell. it may be the case if he's in a state prison -- unlikely, but let's say he is when he's inaugurated. then the prison cell doors may have to open under the constitution, but these are such crazy hypotheticals, we can't possibly get to them. i know some constitutional lawyer's out there pounding his fist saying, you've got it wrong. maybe we do. right now it's unprecedented. we're talking about the college football playoffs. you've got your michigan tie on. >> florida state was robbed, but as a michigan fan, i want muskegon college in, i want everybody easy that michigan can beat in the playoffs, that's what i want. >> i'll say it was telling, the video footage of the michigan team learning they play alabama. a lot of groans. not the matchup they wanted clearly. >> not the matchup i want. >> msnbc legal analyst danny cevallos. go blue, i suppose. a look at what's driving the markets this morning after the s&p 500 set a new high for the year back on friday. plus a $3 billion takeovered by reportedly rejected after negotiations fell through between neiman marcus and sax. we'll go live to our friends at cnbc for the details when we come right back. or the details e come right back. 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"wall street journal" are now reporting that niemann market have rebuffed sak's $3 billion offer, questions over the valuation, but also allegedly because they're seeking a higher cash portion. but bear in mind, neiman marcus filed for bankruptcy back in 2020. there were huge changing in shopping around the pan dimmick. and saks itself had to shore up some of the assets they owned by selling off real estate. so there's a financial imperative for both of them. one is the valuation and intricacies of the deal. >> cbc's joumanna bercetche live from london. thank you as always. still ahead on "way too early," we'll turn back to the israel/hamas war and the new explosive reporting on the intelligence failures that led up to the terror attacks on october 7th. that's straight ahead. n october 7th. that's straight ahead. super thi. all of the things that you're looking for in a pad, that is always discreet. - this is thin. - my pad is thick. let's put it to the test. let's do it! look how it's absorbing! and locking it right on in! - look at that! - no liquid, no nothing. totally absorbed! - you feel no wetness. - oh my gosh! are you a believer now? i'm a believer! i got to get some always discreet! ah, these bills are crazy. she has no idea she's sitting on a goldmine. well she doesn't know that if she owns a life insurance policy of $100,000 or more she can sell all or part of it to coventry for cash. even a term policy. even a term policy? even a term policy! find out if you're sitting on a goldmine. call coventry direct today at the number on your screen, or visit coventrydirect.com. the power goes out and we still have wifi to do our homework. and that's a good thing? great in my book! who are you? no power? no problem. introducing storm-ready wifi. now you can stay reliably connected through power outages with unlimited cellular data and up to 4 hours of battery back-up to keep you online. only from xfinity. home of the xfinity 10g network. welcome back. new emails and other documents suggest that the israeli government ignored a key warning about hamas' plan to attack their country. a cnbc official confirmed that they sent an email back in july. the email detailed a hamas training session which included jeeps and motorcycles and a scenario of shooting down an aircraft. the subject line read death kibbutz at any cost six days later the command nt decided it was a an imaginary scenario and not an actual concrete battle plan. the warning was this is designed to start a war, ain they are training with large forces for a big event. this is preparation for the real thing. nbc news asked the idf about the emails. the spokesperson said the country is currently focused on fighting hamas but will conduct an in-depth investigation after the war. last week at the ended of the week, a bombshell "new york times" report found israeli officials obtained documents and blueprints of hamas' plan a year before it happened. now, nbc news has not independently confirmed that report, but u.s. officials are saying that it appears that american intelligence agencies did not receive those documents. joining us now to talk about it, retired cia officer mark who is an nbc security and intelligence nachlt good to see you. there's been a wave of reporting in the last several days citing how catastrophic things were. give us your reactions. >> well, the reporting is extraordinary, and i think, you know, ultimately whenever israel does conduct this inquiry, it's going to be brutal. i think it's going to lead to the resignations of top israeli intelligence officials. in this case almost certainly an israeli military intelligence as they have seemed to have discounted these warnings as simply hamas being aspirational. the fact of the matter is israel had actually obtained the plans, the 40-page battle plan that hamas used. now, apparently it was about a year old, but it doesn't get any worse than this, and it's just going to call for, you know, obviously heading to roll when the war is over. >> and there are certain questions as to whether it will affect beebe bee netanyahu's standing as well. what role did the u.s. play? they say they did not pick up any intelligence. but how does this impact the view? >> that's the biggest surprise here. one of the first offices i ever held at cia, i worked at a branch in 1996 that was dedicated to hamas. so what happened over the years is as our priorities shifted toward al qaeda and other terrorist groups, what we did is we ceded, we gave. what does that mean? when they collect information, they need to pass it to us. there's going to cause friction between the two. why is that? there's not the potential for a regional war, but over ten americans had died. americans were taken hostage. we were given the responsibility to collect the information. that they didn't so is a big surprise and, again, i think this will be lessons learned, but ultimately the u.s. intelligence community is not happy with this. >> no, clearly not. marc, shifting now to the war itself as we noted, the multi-day truce ended. israel has stepped up its attacks, reports on the ground saying they did so in a significant way, now focused on southern gaza. give us your read as to the state of the fighting there. >> from the israeli defense force's standpoint, they're almost done with the north. in their view, they believe they're doing particularly well. they've managed to kill probably a quarter of the hamas operatives, but the shift is going to move to the south where they believe the hamas leadership is holed up. where this gets problematic of the united states is we've made two big asks of israel, one is to change their tactics and another is to allow aid to get in, come across and into the gaza strip. israel has action question ressed on the second part, allowing aid trucks to get in. but on the first part there are questions. you saw the vice president, u.s. secretary of defense and u.s. secretary of state openly criticizing is reeling for their tactics. we have u.s. military advisers on the ground, but i think the big question is how israel is going to adjust because the international community and even members, of course, of the democratic party are getting very uncomfortable with the israeli strategy. so that's what we're looking forward to in the days ahead. biden is sticking with israel for the time being, but their tactics looks like they're going to have to change. >> yeah. there are certainly growing concerns and complicates plans to get hostages out. thank you for your insight and analysis this morning. i'm sure we'll be speaking with you again soon. up next here on "way too early," after months of republican investigations, house speaker mike johnson now says that he believes his party has the votes to launch a formal impeachment inquiry into president biden. we will get into that. and then coming on "morning joe," donald trump claims that joe biden is a threat to democracy, despite trump's own attempts to overturn the 2020 election. we'll get reaction from our political experts on why trump is now trying to flip the script. plus, as presidential candidate ron desantis hits an iowa campaign milestone, a pro-desantis super pac sees major leadership changes months before the election. plus, todd haynes will be in studio for his new netflix film. 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[ting] ♪♪ live in the moment. ask your doctor about otezla. a few years ago, i came to saona, they told me there's no electricity on the island. we always thought that whatever we did here would be an emblem of what small communities can achieve. trying to give a better life to people that don't have the means to do it. si mi papá estuviera vivo, sé que él tuviera orgulloso también de vivir de esta viviendo una vida como la que estamos viviendo ahora. es electricidad aquí es salud. the all-in-one and done symptom relief of mucinex is delivered fast with doordash, so you don't have to leave the couch. oof! that was fast. mucinex. available on doordash. it's comeback season. welcome back. in a new interview over the weekend, house speaker mike johnson says that he now thinks house republicans think he has enough votes to launch a formal impeachment inquiry into president joe biden. >> it's become a necessary step. elise and i served on the impeachment defense team of president biden twice when the democrats used it for partisan political purposes. we decried that use of it. remember, we are the rule of law team and have to do it methodically. >> you could get a lot of fact-checking work out of those comments. they came after republicans left a closed door meeting on friday, indicating the house could vote to formally authorize an impeachment inquiry into the president as early as this week. chairman james comer said gop leadership would determine the timing of the vote, stressing he wants it sooner rather than later. comer, of course, has accused the biden family of engaging in shady business practices without offering any evidence. the white house has characterized the inquiry efforts as illegitimate. they did not immediately respond to a request for comment following the speaker's later interview about the possible inquiry. joining us now is congressional reporter for "the hill," our friend, mychael schnell. good to see you. let's start there with the impeachment inquiry. the new speaker says he thinks house republicans have enough votes to start it. what are republican sources in the house telling you about if it will happen and when, and what role the speaker might play since he's sort of gone back and forth on this? >> yeah, right now, jonathan, what i'm hearing is that it looks very likely that we will see a vote on solidifying this impeachment inquiry within the next few weeks. this was a message that gop leadership told members behind closed doors. then in the clip, speaker johnson calling this a necessary step. one mark further is james comer, the chairman of the house oversight committee on sunday, saying that he is confident the house has the votes to solidify this impeachment inquiry. now, of course, time will tell, and we'll see when this actually hits the floor. if it has enough votes to pass, a number of moderate republicans may be weary about casting a vote against president biden, especially when it has to do with an impeachment inquiry. i'll note, a number of republicans have differentiated between actually impeaching president biden, which they are not doing yet, and opening an impeachment inquiry, which they say would expand their investigaive powers. that all being said, it'll still be a tough vote for some of those moderate republicans, familiarly those in districts president biden won back in 2020. it looks like they'll have their moment of truth when house republicans hold this formal vote. >> there is a difference between an inquiry and impeachment proceedings, but it sure seems like, and republicans have more or less said as much, this is a partisan effort, a political move to try to damage biden's standing in the polls ahead of his re-election campaign. what pushback are we hearing from democrats? >> immense pushback, jonathan. we're hearing democrats at every juncture of this situation say, look, republicans have not produced any information that shows a high crime or misdemeanor or wrongdoing on the part of president biden. sure, there's been suspicious activity found related to hunter biden, president biden's son, but it's not wrongdoing by the president himself. we've heard this from democrats at every turn. this is especially likely going to be ramping up if we see hunter biden testify before the house oversight committee. he has been issued a subpoena. he said he will testify in public, not in a closed door deposition as the panel would like. republicans are saying, you know, hunter biden should be following the rules. democrats are saying the fact he wants to testify publicly means he has nothing to hide as they go through the impeachment inquiry. this has been a partisan battle since before then speaker mccarthy opened the inquiry in september. there's no doubt this partisanship will continue, especially as republicans battl. democrats point out, there's no smoking gun against president biden. >> republicans are doing this with a tiny majority in the house, which you wrote about, noting how it risks getting even smaller now that george santos has been expelled. >> house republicans coming into this session of congress only had a four-seat majority. that is now down a man because george santos was expelled on friday, giving them a three-seat majority. that majority, believe it or not, could get even smaller. bill johnson, a republican in the house, has announced that he's leaving the house by middle of march to take a job as a president at a university. and there's swirling speculation regarding will kevin mccarthy drop out early? of course, we'll remember, just recently, he was deposed in the embarrassing, historic fashion. a lot of folks wondering if he is going to stick it out and remain in congress. i'll note the filing deadline for running for congress in california is coming up this month. whether or not kevin mccarthy files for re-election at that date will really tell and give a hint at what his future plans are, both for this congress and, of course, for the next. nonetheless, this all comes back to these perilous votes that republicans are heading into, whether it's on opening an impeachment inquiry, whether it's the effort to send aid to ukraine and israel. house republicans are entering these fights with a very slim majority. the fact of the matter is, that slim majority can get even narrowly. >> lastly, give us 20 seconds if you will, any post-santos lessons for the rest of congress. >> i mean, look, this, this santos expulsion showed that bipartisanship is possible. there were both republicans and democrats who came together. but it also shows that there won't be this, you know, toleration of behavior like santos. this was something that was a long time coming. santos had come under controversy since even before he was sworn into congress. i think a lot of people expected it may end this way. santos told me last week that he didn't. nonetheless, this shows that partisanship is still high in the house, but bipartisanship is also possible. >> another lesson, don't lie about your college volleyball career and thousands of other things. congressional reporter for "the hill," mychael schnell, thank you so much. thanks so all of you for getting up "way too early" on this monday morning. "morning joe" starts right now. this week, we said good-bye to a former first lady, former secretary of state, and the