Transcripts For MSNBCW Morning Joe 20171208

Show. Ive got the shirts. The tanks a little tight for you, willie but its going to be awesome. Weve got a onesie for donnie. And they all say kasie dc with the lightning bolt and everything. Its going to get to the point where people just call you kasie dc. That will be a good thing. Welcome to morning joe this morning. I did all that, because you were stumble iing on the set. I know. I know. Thank you, kasie. Danish on my lapel. A lot to get to. Twitter was a war zone as it pertains to whats going on in politics. Im used to nasty. Things have gotten so nasty over the past several weeks. Yep. I dont get it. Theres so many good conversations we could be having now. And half of them, were not having because of the vitreal and the hypocrisy. I know youre talking about al franken. Bob mueller, a war to smear this man who has serve this had country nobly and ably for years, guided us after 9 11, theres actually concerted attack by the smallest and most pet petulant in the Republican Party on the hill by rightwing talk show people. And, you know, you and i im not even going to get into it. I dont want to give anybody any oxygen that attacks us. All i will say is that we had to we actually had to contact authorities. Based on things that were said about us where people were actual actually, lets just say, suggesting that violence be done. All this tells you, mika, is that there are a lot of people not on right because that are not conservative, but people that support donald trump and personality cult that understand that the law is actually closing on him. Not bob mueller. The law is closing in on him. Theyre attacking the men and women of the fbi, bob mueller, constitutional norms. History will mark their names down in shame. Your names will be marked down in shame. Youre pathetic. You will be called out. The rule of law is bigger than any one man or woman and you are going to be on the side of autocrats. Mark it down. So lets get to the politics of yesterday. There was a lot. With three years left in his term, al franken said he will resign from the senate amid allegations of Sexual Misconduct. He spoke for about 20 minutes on the senate floor, a day after dozens of his fellow democrats, led by senator gillebrand called him to step down after another accuser had stepped forward. Over the last few weeks a number of women have come forward to talk about how they felt my actions had affected them. I was shocked. I was upset. But in responding to their claims, i also wantd to be respectful of that broader conversation. Because all Women Deserve to be heard and their experiences taken seriously. I think it was the right thing to do. I think it also gave people the false impression that i was admitting to things that i, in fact, havent done. Some of the allegations against me are simply not true. Others, i remember very differently. An important part of the conversation weve been having the past few months has been about how men abuse their power and privilege to hurt women. I am proud that during my time in the senate ive used my power to be a champion of women and that i earned a reputation as someone who respects the women i work alongside every day. I know theres been a very different picture of me painting the last few weeks but i know who i really am. I said at the outset that the Ethics Committee was the right venue for these allegations to be heard and investigated and evaluated on their merits, that i was prepared to cooperate fully and that i was confident in the outcome. But this decision is not about me. Its about the people of minnesota. Its become clear that i cant pursue both the Ethics Committee process and remain an effective senator for them. Let me be clear. I may be resigning my seat but im not giving up my voice. I will continue to stand up for the things i believe in as a citizen and as an activist. I know in my heart that nothing i have done as a senator, nothing, has brought dishonor on this institution. And i am confident that the Ethics Committee would agree. Nevertheless, today i am announcing that in the coming weeks, i will be resigning as a member of the United States senate. I, of all people, am aware that there is some irony in the fact that i many leaving while a man who has bragged on tape about his history of Sexual Assault sits in the oval office and a man who has repeatedly preyed on young girls campaigns for the senate with the full support of his party. You, too, will experience setbacks and defeats and disappointments. There will be days when youll wonder whether its worth it. What i want you to know is that even today, even on the worst day of my political life, i feel like its all been worth it. Politics, paul when thestone told us, is about the improvement of peoples lives. I know that the work ive been able to do has improved peoples lives. I would do it all over again in a heartbeat. So, been pulling together some Opinion Pieces in response to this. I just have an incredibly uneasy feeling about this entire story, to be honest. I tried to say that once yesterday and it was as if a bomb went off. By the way, so for people out there i know there are a lot of little right wingers who are 14, 15 years old. Okay but hold on. Hold on. And you have a blog post. Mika is just saying this because shes a democrat. No. I understand youre you know, you go out, you play tee ball, you come back in, do your blog post and have no sense of history. Mika brzezinski, in 1999 and 2000, when everybody else in the Democratic Party was defending bill clinton, mika has consistently said that democrats were hypocrites. Shes been saying it for 17 years, all right . So why dont you go back and, you know, get your juicy juice and go back in your basement and play with your legos and actually read up on a little history before you Start Talking about how mikas doing this because shes being tribal, because shes defending no. The people that came out and belatedly 17 years later said maybe bill clinton did something wrong in 1999, anita broderick, mikas with saying that 17 years ago. So why not keep that opinion in your basement of your moms, eat your cheetos. It has nothing to do with tribalism. It has to do with what mika thinks is right and what is wrong in this debate. And due process. Im concerned about women who are legitimately sexually harassed in the workplace across america and where this is taking us. Ruth marcus says it one way. She tackles the issue in her Washington Post column and says was al frankens punishment fair . She writes, in part, this. Theres no doubt that the case of al franken, democrats are better off with the minnesota senator gone. Theres more doubt about whether justice was done. The political calculus is simple. Franken had to go. With the grotesque picture of him groping or pretending to grope the breasts of a fellow uso performer, he would have been a nonstop distraction, muddling democrats case against alleged groper President Trump and alleged child molester roy moore. Franken paid not only for their sins but also for the alleged behavior of bill clinton two decades ago. People who say susan is just the dress owned by Monica Lewinsky, i would think, would bring down a president but it didnt. Im surprised that you think a picture of a performer i see some politic there is but i havent brought that up every step of the way because, of course, in this me too environment, you must always just believe the women. And i think that theres a lot of reasons why we need to look at the women seriously and believe them and, in many cases like, for example, i spoke to accusers in mark halperin, in which he admits a lot of what hes accused of doing. Ive spoken to them, i believe them. Im just wondering if all women need to be believed. Im concerned were being the judge, jury, cops here and so did Senate Democrats getting ahead of their skis and, trust me, Kristen Gillebrand i want you to run for president but youve got to keep it real. Theres a lot to unpack there. But youre right. Its different than when we talk about media, than when we talk about the Woman Working at a kmart and trying to get fulltime employee and is harassed by her boss. Absolutely. When it comes to politics, though, the lens is different. The truth is, i agree with the marcus opinion piece where she said, it was that photo. If there wasnt that photo, i dont think that the allegations may have gone forward because also when it comes to moore look at the journalism that was done. They found 30 sources to back that up. This wasnt a woman going to a celebrity lawyer, looking and making an allegation. This was a piece of journalism. Conyers and some of the other congressmen who are resigning. Whats that about . Payout. I was talking about al franken. But when it comes to al franken, hes collateral damage. Theres just no other way to put it. I would appreciate if Democratic Senators would say the photo is too dangerous, we recognize the work that he has done for women. I have a list of legislation that he sponsored for victims of Domestic Violence and rape survivors. We appreciate his work at this time. Right now that picture is too politically damaging and we prefer if he step aside. That would have been a more honest way of asking him to step down. In my opinion, just my opinion, i feel like we are just weve got a machine gun out and were just, you know, going around the room with every man that perhaps we dont like politically. I dont know. Here is marcia geshen. This is what concerns me. She writes in the new yorker in a column entitled al frankens resignation and the selective force of metoo. It reads in part this. The case of franken makes it all that much more clear that this conversation is, in fact, about sex, not about power, violence, or illegal acts. The accusations against him, which involve groping and forceable kissing, arguably fall into the emergent, undefined and most likely undefinable category of Sexual Misconduct. Put more simply, franken stands accused of acting repeatedly like a jerk, and he denies that he acted this way. The entire sequence of events, from the initial accusations to frankens resignation, is based on the premise that americans as a society, or at least half of a society, should be policing noncriminal behavior related to sex. If only frankens heartbreakingly articulate expression of his loss were capable of focusing our attention on this root and on the dangers of the drive to police sex. The sex panic that is happening. Having said that, kasie, theres a lot of work to be done on capitol hill. I think there is. And the mood on capitol hill yesterday reflected some of the conflict that you have highlighted here. I think there was a lot of sadness among women, Democratic Senators, who truly did actually feel that franken has done good work on behalf of women. And i think nobody would say it out loud to me but i do think that the point that every time democrats had gotten asked about roy moore or wanted to Say Something negative about roy moore or President Trump and allegations in those cases, they were met with what about al franken . Exactly. Thats why i said i understood the political position they were in. I do understand that. I want them to be honest about it. With 30 or so democrats have come out and said al franken needs to leave if there were a republican governor in minnesota who would have picked al frankens replacement . I cant answer that hypothetical necessarily. Of course not. But i think it makes it easier for them, yeah, from a political perspective that theyre not going to necessarily have to deal with changing of the number of seats. Now that said, i think there is an acknowledgement that the seat is likely to be competitive in a year when there is a special election. Its not as though this is completely free of risk. But at the same time, your point is well taken. Interesting cross currents, too. There were conservatives that came out yesterday and said the democrats overreacted. Do we have those clips . Here we go. Play these republicans or conservatives. Sad how its all played out. Theres certainly no due process for him. Youre a little nervous when people are brought down by, in some case, anonymous on the other hand theres credibility on their side and they pressure him out. Not much more to say than that. All of these nice people, none of whom have given back the money they raised from harvey wisen. Weinstein. Weinstein. None of whom have repudiated hillary and bill clinton, suddenly in a moral outrage create a lynch mob. What you saw today was a lynch mob. Lets not have due process, let not ask anybody any questions, lets not have a chance to have a hearing. Lets just lynch him. When we get done lynching him, well be so pure. Hes unwilling to fight for his reputation. I happen to think this is a bad decision. And i pretty much dont agree with him on anything. This was a crass political ploy. Democrats dumping franken overboard because now that they can claim, hey, the moral high ground for 2018 and pursue allegations against donald trump and roy moore. Yeah. So, again, some interesting crosscurrents yesterday. You know, mika, of course, read what she read new yorker also. I think masha also talked about the dangers of a, quote, sex panic, going on. You had some people on the right agreeing maybe also for political purposes. Who knows. If you had any question about whether politics were involved in this, watch al franken finish his speech, step off and hug many of the senators who called him for him to resign who said were outraged and youre unfit to serve in this body. The question i asked go was why was it the seventh allegation that made him unfit for the senate . Why wasnt it the fourth, fifth or sixth . Of course there are politics at play in this. Of course they wanted to have something to say when they were asked, well, youre condemning roy moore. What about al franken . Now they can say we took out al franken. The other point i would make is if you listen to that speech yesterday from al franken, he said something important, which might be a model for other people, which is i came out initially and tried to be respectful of the accusations against me. And people took that as some admission of guilt. So what if he had come out and said this is ridiculous, that picture was a joke, grow up. Get over it. We were having fun, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. A lot of people wouldnt have taken that picture as fun, obviously. But my point being the position of i respect all these accusations, im willing to listen, im sorry if anybody was offended may not be one people use Going Forward because this is what happens in the end. Ive got to say also, mika, weve talked about this before. We probably have i dont know, 10,000 pictures taken . Yeah. Where youre standing in line and everything. Yeah. Maybe more than that. Its nonstop. People come up. They want their pictures, da, da, da, da, da. Seven or eight years ago, nine years ago saying al frankens hand moved to my waist and he s squeezed me or went down lower and he squeezed me. I guess i have a lot of mika, so the joke has been, i have, at times, put my arm down low and ive said im going to put, you know what i call the butt bar to stop people from their hands wandering down. Thats not funny. But guess what, it happens. Theres so many people. And sometimes people do it accidentally. Ive had women, middleaged women from Middle America do it to me. Do you know what you do . Youre like ugh. And it moves on. You know what . You assume maybe it was a mistake. Maybe it was this, maybe it was that. But David Ignatius for a guy to say lets see, ive had 10,000 people do this. And this woman says in 2008 my hand wandered to her waist and maybe a little bit lower. If that is the new standard for destroying peoples career, that is a dangerous, arbitrary standard. Not just i find that listen, i find that behavior gross and vile and when people in photo lines do it to mika, i just stop and stare like, what the hell is going on . Not justifying that gross behavior. Im saying, to say to a senator who does this 10,000 times over a decade, hey, back in 2009, you may not remember, but you grabbed me in the waist in a way that made me feel uncomfortable or went down to my butt. Were all starting to figure out what the new balance is, what the right standards are. A good starting point, obviously, as people are saying, conduct that makes women uncomfortable is inappropriate and we need to think more about that as men in the workplace and in general. This is, as Time Magazine told us, the year of the silence as with any big thing that happens, theres some kind of overreaction. Were not trying to like, for instance, the french revolution. I dont think this is a french revolution. Im just saying. People arent being taken to the guillotine. Wait a minute. I was going to say, what about this is something that masha talked about or maybe barry weiss talked about it. This is going to keep going and its going to keep steam rolling and women have said this, not me, but it ultimately leads to a duke lacrosse case. It ultimately leads to ultimately leads to a Rolling Stone virginia article, two stories which, by the way, while ive been at this network we covered as the truth. I covered as the truth for a month. People get wronged in these investigations. And the two examples you cited are perfect ones. Im just saying that, again, the Time Magazine cover was right. Yeah. This is the year of the silence speaker. Im the first to it was poignant to watch al franken who, in many ways, has been a hardworking, decent litiga litigator, a classmate of mine, to see his political career shattered that way. When you look at the fundamentals of whats going on you have to say he got caught up in something whose fundamental rightness, its just when i go home and talk to my wife and daughters, i dont hear a lot of people say stop this right now. Its just gone too far. Im not hearing that at all. I dont disagree. Im very torn apart by it. I feel that to just be on one side of all of these stories sometimes is very dangerous. Now to this. Former congressman harold ford jr. Says he will file a lawsuit after being fired from Morgan Stanley over one allegation of misconduct. In a statement, the Company Tells the Huffington Post, quote, he has been terminated for conduct inconsistent with our values and in violation of our policies. Huff post reports says a woman who is not employed by Morgan Stanley or by ford alleges that he harassed her several years ago when they were at a business meeting. Nbc news has not verified her allegation and the Huffington Post is not identifying the woman at her request. In a statement provided to the Huffington Post, ford denied any wrongdoing saying, quote, this simply did not happen. I have never forcibly grabbed any woman or man in my life. Having drinks and dinner for work is part of my job. And all of my outreach to the News Reporter making these false allegations was professional and at the direction of my firm for business purposes. I support and have tremendous respect for the behave women now speaking out in this Important National dialogue. False claims like this undermine the real silence breakers. I will now be bringing legal action against the reporter who has made these false claims about me as well as Morgan Stanley for improper termination. The tennessee democrat joined Morgan Stanley in 2011, after leaving congress in 2007. Hes also an msnbc political analyst and a frequent panelist here on morning joe. Msnbc and ford agreed he would not be a guest on the network until the defamation lawsuit he says he will file against his accuser and the planned wrongful termination action against Morgan Stanley are settled. Fords attorney say theyve yet to determine the amount of damages they will be seeking. Still ahead on morning joe, President Trump gets as close as he can to roy moore and alabama without actually stepping forward on the state. Well go live to pensacola, florida, where the president is absolutely not campaigning for an accused child molester today. Not at all. Different state. By different state, that said, same media market. This is the mobile media market. Plus the white house lectures john lewis about civil rights. Hold on. What did you just say . Yeah, that man got a lecture from the white house. Its important that he learns his history, joe. Can i guess, was it Sarah Huckabee sanders who lectured john lewis . Oh, yeah. On civil rights . Yes. Oh, my god. Yes. And everybody deserves a lecture from Sarah Huckabee sanders. She is the authority on civil rights. Wasnt that the john lewis that was beaten and bloodied in alabama during a Martin Luther king yes, it is. Why would Sarah Huckabee sanders i dont know. She works for what comes next. If you move your old 401 k to a fidelity ira, we make sure youre in the loop at every step from the moment you decide to move your money to the instant your new retirement account is funded. Oh and at fidelity, youll see how all your investments are working together. Because when you know where you stand, things are just clearer. Just remember what i said about a little bit o soul things are just clearer. Nahelps protect eyesin blue from damaging blue light, filtering it out to help you continue enjoying your screens. Or. You could just put your phones down and talk to each other. [laughing] natures bounty lutein blue. Because youre better off healthy. If yor crohns symptoms are holding you back, and your Current Treatment hasnt worked well enough, it may be time for a change. Ask your doctor about entyvio, the only biologic developed and approved just for uc and crohns. Entyvio works at the site of inflammation in the gi tract and is clinically proven to help many patients achieve both symptom relief and remission. Infusion and serious allergic reactions can happen during or after treatment. Entyvio may increase risk of infection, which can be serious. Pml, a rare, serious, potentially fatal brain infection caused by a virus may be possible. This condition has not been reported with entyvio. Tell your doctor if you have an infection, experience frequent infections or have flulike symptoms or sores. Liver problems can occur with entyvio. If your uc or crohns treatment isnt working for you, ask your gastroenterologist about entyvio. Entyvio. Relief and remission within reach. Hey yeah . I switched to geico and got more more savings on Car Insurance . They helped with homeowners, too ok plus motorcycle, boat and rv insurance geicos got you covered like a blanket houston . You seeing this . Geico. Expect great savings and a whole lot more. Wifiso if you cant live without it. T it. Geico. Why arent you using this guy . It makes your wifi awesomely fast. No. Still nope. Now were talking it gets you wifi here, here, and here. It even lets you take a time out. No no yes yes, indeed. Amazing speed, coverage and control. All with an xfi gateway. Find your awesome, and change the way you wifi. Okay. Were going to get to this next story but if i claim that somebody grabbed my butt could i get them fired right now, susan . Absolutely. Great. Were days away from the election in alabama and republicans are standing by their calls for roy moore to step aside, among them, cory gardner who told the weekly standard, quote, roy moore will never have the support of the senatorial committee. We will never endorse him. We wont support him. Leading the call fo expel moore if he wins on tuesday. President trump will hold a campaignstyle rally in pensacola, florida, today. Why pensacola . Maybe he wants to visit joe and his no. Pensacola is less than 20 miles outside of alabama and shares a media market with mobile. Allowing trump to reach alabama voters without having to cross state lines. Yeah. Its a so cowardly. So the media yeah. Hey, vaughn, how are you doing . So, vaughn, its good to see you. You are now officially in gods country, pensacola, florida. The redneck riviera. We like to call it l. A. , lower alabama. It looks like its rainy today. What are you expecting . Yeah. That cloud over alabama seemed to come down to your territory down here. It follow immediate in. What are we expecting . We dont expect roy moore here at this point. What do we expect donald trump to really go on the attack against doug jones is what weve seen over the last week. The question is, can he actually move the pendulum in this race . Remember two months ago, despite his suggestions that he did, he didnt seem to change the race against roy moore and Luther Strange. I want to take you back to that 2012 race. Roy moore won that chief justice race after being uprooted from his position a few years earlier, by just 75,000 votes against a democrat. 51 to 48 . Mitt romney was on the ballot that same year and won his race by more than 450,000 votes. Despite suggestions that alabama you cant move it. You know the state. The difference in that election alone was significant. Ive been around, talking to republicans here. I just got a message from Connie Thomas again yesterday who lives in hoover, one of those more affluent white suburbs outside of birmingham. She said shes sticking by doug jones. Ied with Katie Pickert who voted for donald trump one year ago. I said whats the difference this time around . She said theres a difference between young women, 16 to 18yearolds and older women that donald trump has suggested that he had engaged in Sexual Misconduct with. So when youre looking at this race, doug jones has an apparatus. Roy moore is running a ghost campaign, far from robust. Doug jones, we gave donald trump a hard time for his game. Doug jones has a presence here. Theyre phoning, campaigning, have field offices. Cory booker. John lewis, who will not be appearing. In town. Democrats who do not believe theyve had much of a voice over these years. Vaughn, now if you can take out your reporters notebook im going to help you on some things here, okay . Okay, ready. Its 5 30 pensacola time. At 6 00 you need to go over to bagel heads, garden street. Tell them joe says hi. Say hi to rob and jan. Okay. Get a chocolate cappuccino muffin. You think im joking. Im not. Then go over to the fish house, say hi to collier. Swear to god, they have the biggest wharf rats. And im joking, collier, im joking then when its over im going to stay through the weekend so lets say we ate at the Hilton Garden Inn which wasnt quite good enough. You have to go out to the beaches and go to the Naval Air Museum. Then go back to the fish house. You can put a saddle on one of those wharf rats and ride it around for a while. Collier, im just joking how about msnbc gives me a couple of days when this thing is wrapped up and ill go make it happen, as long as we dont have a recount. Cute. Give me a call. Youre going to have a great time there. Just dont get bit by the how about you just come out early and well do the weekend . I would absolutely love that. Julie pace now. Thank you, vaughn. Watch out for the bites. It takes your whole arm off. Joining us now, columnist at the Washington Post and msnbc political analyst eugene robinson. Julie pace is also with us. Hey, julie pace, how fascinating. We saw cory gardner make a strong statement about roy moore, shows that the entire party has not buckled, that there still really is a divide in donald trump going down to campaign for roy moore in l. A. , lower alabama. It just raises so many fascinating questions. What are they going to do if this man wins . Absolutely. That is the biggest question right now. I think vaughn is right, its hard to make a real prediction about this race. We havent seen a lot of credible polling. Im not sure polling would even tell us the state of this race, given all the different dynamics that could impact the way people might answer questions to pollsters. Republicans are split on this. We have seen republicans that reacted initially negatively to roy moore back away from those but you have cory gardner leading the way on this and other republicans who talk quietly behind the scenes, what it would mean to have roy moore as a sitting senator in 2018 in the context of everything you were talking about in the first half hour of the show, in the context of these constant allegations that are coming forward against people. There will be more on capitol hill. Thats one thing we can say for certain. Theres a lot of discussion about that right now. Republicans will be asked time and again, what about roy moore, who is now in your party, who youre now counting on for votes . One of the things i heard from republicans, though, is the danger of the Republican Leadership saying to alabama voters you knew all the information about this man going into this race. You still voted for him. Now were going to tell you that were taking him out of the senate. That is a dangerous precedent to set if you look beyond the implications of roy moore himself that, Party Leadership could say no, were not going to respect the will of the voters. Julie, that is a great point. Thats something ive been wrestling with. Obviously were all very concerned about the allegations against roy moore. But think about the precedent it does set. The people of alabama have known about these allegations about roy moore for over a month. If they choose to send roy moore up to the United States senate and the Republican Senate then decides were not going to seat the man the voters sent up, that does set a precedent, a precedent that could be abused, a precedent that could be very dangerous. Sure, it does. Look, its a tough place for the Republican Party to be in, right . Wherever the line is and i agree, mika, we havent figured out exactly where the line is. Youve got very credible allegations from a number of women who were teenagers at the time. And thats incredibly troubling. I dont see republicans in the senate saying we will not seat the elected representative. Theyll be stuck with them. There is one thing if it goes immediately into an ethics investigation, roy moore will have to be under oath when that happens. And thats something that he has been very, you know he does not want to be caught under oath in the amount of that may be the only justice that these women get, is that yes, theyll have to be yes, theyll have to testify in Ethics Committee. But he will be under oath. That, in itself, will be the Ethics Committee is there for a reason and often good to use it. Then theres this. Civil rights icon congressman john lewis canceled plans to attend the opening of the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum this weekend due to President Trumps attendance. Lewis told the Atlanta Journal constitution that he would have a difficult timesharing the stage with trump telling the paper wednesday, i think his presence would make a mockery of everything that people tried to do to redeem the soul of america and to make this country better. White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee sanders released a statement yesterday, addressing both congressman lewis and benny thompson, skipping the event. Writing, quote, this, we think its unfortunate that these members of congress wouldnt join the president in honoring the incredible sacrifice civil rights leaders made to to right the injustices in our history. You mean civil rights leaders like john lewis . John lewis, who was almost beaten to death on the bridge in selma and still bears the scar. That guy . That guy. Thank you, sarah, so much. How does john lewis stand next to a man exactly. Who just a few weeks just last week was actually retweeting white supremacist videos and, after charlottesville was saying there were good people on both sides. John lewis does not stand next to that man. I know him pretty well and i can tell you he is entirely untroubled by whatever Sarah Sanders might have to say from the white house podium about hi him. Gene, stay with us. Kasie hunt, thank you very much. Thank you. Were seeing more violence in the middle east today. Live picture from the west bank after the president s controversial decision to recognize jerusalem as the capital of israel. The counsel on Foreign Relations richard haas will be here on set. Morning joe is coming right back. Heres the story of Green Mountain Coffee Roasters sumatra reserve. Lets go to sumatra. The coffee here is amazing. Because the volcanic soil is amazing. So we give farmers like win more plants. To grow more delicious coffee. Which helps provide for wins family. All, for a smoother tasting cup of coffee. Green mountain Coffee Roasters. What if we could keep more amof what we earn . D. Trillions of dollars going back to taxpayers. Who could possibly be against that . Well, the National Debt is 20 trillion. As we keep adding to it, guess who pays the bill . Him. And her. And her. Congress, we should grow the economy. Not the debt. Eight hundred dollars whenlmost we switched our auto and home insurance. Liberty did what . Yeah, they saved us a ton, which gave us a little wiggle room in our budget. Wish our insurance did that. Then we could get a real babysitter instead of your brother. Hey, welcome back. This guy. Right . Yes. Ellen. Thats my robe. You could save seven hundred eighty two dollars when liberty stands with you. Liberty mutual insurance. Oh, my gosh. Joining us now, president of the council on Foreign Relations and author of the book, a world in disarray, richard haas. Good to have you, along with David Ignatius this morning. Ive always been pro israel. Dr. Brzezinski always chided me for being far too proisrael. Stunningly superficial. Actually called me stunningly superficial. Okay, google it. In my defense of israel. But in this case i think we talked about this. Is the middle east not at a turning point now where the chances for peace could be better because sunny arabs are now looking upon iran as a bigger enemy than israel. And doesnt this get in the way of that, shifting the capital to jerusalem . Its true that the sunny arabs, uae are more worried about iran than anything else t doesnt translate into something that theyll be able to change the dynamics between israelis and palestinians. Its about as unripe as you get. Israelis and palestinians, chasm between them. This announcement wont help them. This announcement will hurt it. Thats my point. Arent they exchanging information . Arent there some joint military arent they moving in a direction that they havent moved in since 1948 . Yes, sir. Youre seeing greater strategic cooperation between saudis and israelis and the saudis would like nothing more than the United States to play a larger role in yemen against iran and in syria against iran. We are no longer seen, are we, as a peacemaker there that can talk to palestinians and israelis. This announcement makes it very difficult for the u. S. To play the role its played for 50 years, as the broker, trying to get a process going, trying to keep this part of the world from going up in flames. It is true that the dynamics are change iing and i think the tru administration, the president , Jared Kushner bet on their new alliance with the saudis and parallel saudi relationship with israel as being able to get them through. As i said on your show a couple of days ago, they like the fact that this is disruptive. They think thats great. They say that this Peace Process has been static, everybody has been so careful, hasnt wanted to offend anybody and its gone nowhere. They say lets go in and completely change the stakes, take jerusalem off the table. Its not going to be an issue now. Well deal with mortars and security. Looking at todays events, looking at the footage well see of palestinians in the streets, you would have to say that judgment probably wasnt right. The case for this decision from the administration basically amounts to nothing else has worked over the years. Lets try this. Can you make a case that this could somehow, maybe not today, but down the road, help the Peace Process . No. If they wanted to, they could have use this had in a way that might have helped them, leverage ed to get israel to make certain commitments. They could have packaged it or given things to the palestinians about their stake in the future of jerusalem. To single this out in a narrow way doesnt solve anything. Plus we dont even know what were talking about. Which set of boundaries of jerusalem . Which geography of jerusalem . This solves nothing. The chance to make this part of a larger package, the administration kicked that away. They didnt even do something by their own rights that might have theres no theres a considerable downside. Julie pace has a question. Richard, to pick up on davids point. The administration certainly does seem to be making a bet on the saudis hoping they can influence the palestinians Going Forward and the anger were seeing will die down. I was told by an Administration Official theyre hoping it dies down into early next year and they can move forward. Based on what you know about the region, what impact do you think the saudis can have on the palestinians and the jordanians and others that are going to be upset. Is the administration making a smart bet . The power of the saudis is the power of checkbook diplomacy. The problem is the saudi government is not that strong. Its trying to consolidate power. The iranian government is going after the saudis for being too close to the americans and criticizing the decision. Already were seeing the saudis distance themselves from the new american policy. Saudi preoccupation, its been a bad day for the saudis. The purchase of the 450 million painting. Its hard to run an anticorruption drive when youre opening up your checkbook to do things like this. At the end of the day, their priority has to be the consolidation of political power. If they have to distance themselves from the United States position on the Israeli Palestinian issue, trust me, they will do that. Wait. It was a nice painting, though. Very nice. Richard, youll be back with us next hour. By the way, willie and i are on Chapter Seven in your book. Christmas treats done cheap. Willie its a dense read. Its a hard one to get through. Harder than you would have thought. It really is. Richard, if you want cranberry sauce. Youll be back in an hour. To grill cranberry sauce is difficult. Also ahead on morning joe, chuck and nancy met with the president at the white house as Congress Managed to keep the government running for two more weeks. But congress could still manage to give the American People a shutdown for christmas. Morning joe is coming right back. You cant predict the market. But through good times and bad. At t. Rowe price. Weve helped our investors stay confident for over 75 years. Call us or your advisor. T. Rowe price. Invest with confidence. More people shop online for the holidays than ever before. And the United States Postal Service delivers more of those purchases to homes than anyone else in the country. Because we know, even the smallest things are sometimes the biggest. Even the smallest things we35 mules,ur doors with 70 megawatts, and an ice plant. But we brought power to the people redefining what that meant from one era to the next. Over 90 years later, we continue to build as americas 3rd largest investor in infrastructure. We dont just help power the american dream. Were part of it. Coming up, well dink with the implications of al frankens resignation amid allegations of Sexual Misconduct. Are democrats paving the way to drive pressure on others to resign. And another reported contact between a russian and President Trumps team. This time involves the president s social media director, the guy who sometimes tweets under trumps name. Morning joe is coming right back. Ddos campaigns, ransomware, malware attacks. Actually, we just handled all the priority threats. You did that . We did that. Really. We analyzed millions of articles and reports. We can identify threats 50 faster. You can do that . We can do that. Then do that. Can we do that . We can do that. A wealth of information. A wealth of perspective. A wealth of opportunities. Thats the clarity you get from fidelity wealth management. Straightforward advice, tailored recommendations, taxefficient investing strategies, and a dedicated advisor to help you grow and protect your wealth. Fidelity wealth management. To help you grow and protect your wealth. A trip back to the dthe doctors office, mean just for a shot. But why go back there, when you can stay home. With Neulasta Onpro . Strong chemo can put you at risk of serious infection. Neulasta helps reduce infection risk by boosting your white blood cell count, which strengthens your immune system. In a key study, neulasta reduced the risk of infection from 17 to 1 . A 94 decrease. Applied the day of chemo, Neulasta Onpro is designed to deliver neulasta the next day. Neulasta is for certain Cancer Patients receiving strong chemotherapy. Do not take neulasta if youre allergic to neulasta or Neupogen Filgrastim . Ruptured spleen, sometimes fatal as well as serious lung problems, allergic reactions, kidney injuries, and capillary leak syndrome have occurred. Report abdominal or shoulder tip pain, trouble breathing or allergic reactions to your doctor right away. In patients with sickle cell disorders, serious, sometimes fatal crises can occur. The most common side effect is bone and muscle ache. So why go back there . If youd rather be home, ask your doctor about Neulasta Onpro. There is no finer institution than the fbi, and no finer people than the men and women who work there and are its very beating heart. What i can tell you is that the fbi that i see is tens of thousands of agents and analysts and staff working their tails off to keep americans safe from the next terrorist attack, gang violence, child predators, spies from russia, china, north korea, and iran. The fbi that i see is people, decent people, committed to the highest principles of integrity and professionalism and respect. You know, one of the really surprising things about the past year is i have found myself and others have found themselves compelled to actually say the obvious. Whether on twitter or on this show, that the men and women who work in the fbi have been on the front lines of keeping americans safe for years and years after 9 11, they were the first in to try to figure out what happened. And have done an extraordinary job. And the fact that we actually have a president and unfortunately some republicans in congress that attack the professionalism of the men and women of the fbi every day just to run resistance for a president who right now is being investigated for good reason, i must say is one of the more shocking turn of events. I knew that politicians could go low. I didnt know how low they could go, but yesterday the fbi director David Ignatius, i thought just did a masterful job defending the honor and integrity of the professionals who work in the fbi. I thought chriss testimony which we just showed was a wonderful moment in this season where so much is nasty and partisan here was a republican appointed fbi director, pushing back against his own president s statement that the fbi is in tatters. This is the worst moment in it history, and chris ray, the director said, thats not what i see. I see people doing their job every day, taking risks, defending the country, and he said further, i see people respecting our fbi officers, and the implication was i dont see that from the president. And mika, the president s projecting here. Yeah. He says that the fbi is in tatters. Perhaps he thinks his own administration is in tatters. He says that the fbis reputation is lower than its ever been. You can look at the polls. Perhaps its the president s own reputation thats lower than ever before. And you know what . The law is closing in on him. And so what is he doing . Hes striking out and attacking the men and women who represent this country extraordinarily well every day. Lets bring in new guests to the conversation. Also with us we have the New York Times Washington Bureau chief elizabeth miller. An opinion writer and editor for the new york types, barry wise. Let me first congratulate both of you. I saw some extraordinary numbers coming across yesterday. The New York Times doing so well this year. In every way. The times, the post. This really has been for all the negative of the past year, its really been a remarkable time, has it not, for traditional news outlets that do great work . Yes. Thank you. We say its a full Employment Program for journalists, as tough as its been to cover this white house and this administration. Yes, we have a lot of people in the Washington Bureau now. More than ever before. Trump is keeping us busy. I bet. Lets get to politics with three years left in his term. Al franken says hell resign from the senate in the coming weeks. Amid allegations of Sexual Misconduct, he spoke for about 20 minutes on the senate floor a day after dozens of his fellow democrats called on him to step down after another accuser had stepped forward. Over the last few weeks a number of women have come forward to talk about how they felt my actions had affected them. I was shocked. I was upset. But in responding to their claims, i also wanted to be respectful of that broader conversation. Because all Women Deserve to be heard and their experiences taken seriously. I think that was the right thing to do. I also think it gave some people the false impression that i was admitting to doing things a, in fact, i havent done. Some of the allegations against me are simply not true. Others i remember very differently. You know, an important part of the conversation weve been having the last few months has been about how men abuse their power and privilege to hurt women. I am proud that during my time in the senate i have used my power to be a champion of women, and that i have earned a reputation as someone who respects the women i work alongside every day. I know theres been a very different picture of me painted over the last few weeks, but i know who i really am. I said at the outset that the Ethics Committee was the right venue for these allegations to be heard and investigated and evaluated on their merits. That i was prepared to cooperate fully and that i was confident in the outcome. But this decision is not about me. Its about the people of minnesota. Its become clear that i cant both pursue the Ethics Committee process and at the same time remain an effective senator for them. Let me be clear. I may be resigning my seat, but i am not giving up my voice. I will continue to stand up for the things i believe in as a citizen and as an activist. I know in my heart that nothing i have done as a senator, nothing, has brought this honor on this institution. And i am confident that the Ethics Committee would agree. Nevertheless, today i am announcing that in the coming weeks i will be resigning as a member of the United States senate. I of all people am aware that there is some irony in the fact that i am leaving while a man who has bragged on tape about his history of Sexual Assault sits in the oval office and a man who has repeatedly preyed on young girls campaigns for the senate with the full support of his party. And with that al franken will be leaving office in the next few weeks. Pretty moving 20 minute speech he made. Barry youve been writing on this. Whats your perspective . Very smart politics. The democrats are making themselves into the party of family values while republicans are now the party of people like roy moore who are alleged to have molested 14 and 16yearold girls. Which is the more long lasting and appealing political brand . Theyll be able to keep al frankens seat because the governor will appoint his deputy who conveniently is also a woman. Thats the political question. Theres a different question here, though, which is the ethical one and moral one. Thats much more gray. Right now i fear theres a sort of category collapse and a moral flattening happening which is that the punishment when a judge gives down a punishment, the judgment has to fit the crime. Does al franken deserve the same punishment as Harvey Weinstein and charlie rose and matt lauer and othea radio host it was escd out of the building . Thats my fear is all the people are having the same punishment, and in a way, it devalues the more serious allegations. Thats my fear. Well, we had a u. S. Senator who was sort of leading the charge on al franken resigning saying you know what . Shes tired of trying to make a differentiation between i dont have the exact word, but a grope or a whatever, and assault. That its all bad. They all should go . Its all bad. Im not defending squeezing someones butt. Is there a difference . I think there is a difference. I think most americans think theres a difference. Wait a minute. Harvey weinstein is a serial predator. Thats if it happened. Am i allowed to say that . Hes denying it happened. Right. Am i allowed to say if it happened or should we just assume it did . You know the problem is in this climate even asking if it happened is such a risky thing to do, and i think thats dangerous. I do too. Be barry, were you the one th wrote, did you write that you prefer to due process over a lynch mob . Yes. Or mob rule . Yeah. So yeah, so mika, to answer is your question, can you ever ask any question like that . It depends on whether were talking about a system with due process or whether its just a lynch mob. Right. It was untenable politically especially with the moore special election coming up for them to stand by franken. I understand that. I said that yesterday. I do understand. Yes. I just think they should have been more transparent about it. Also, they could have let the Ethics Committee investigation play out the way it did for bob menendez. Another thing thats happening is were elevating Sexual Misconduct above all other kinds of misdeeds and crimes. I think thats also another problem. We asked you about congressman speir and said if al franken did this, youll find out through the Ethics Committee. She said the process is flawed. I mean, on the one hand you want them to go through due process, but you say the system doesnt work so they dont deserve due process. It seems like a bad place to be in congress right now. This is part of a broader cultural moment where companies and brands are deciding we dont want to touch this. We dont want to be near someone accused. But the problem is some innocent people are going to go down, and is that worth the price of sort of bringing down the patriarch . A lot of people are saying its worth the price. Im uncomfortable with that. I am too. Heres a column entitled allens resignation and the selective force of me too. It reads the case of franken makes it that much more clear this conversation is in fact about sex, not about power, violence or illegal acts. The accusation against him which involve groping and forcible kissing arguably fall into the undefined and most likely undefinable category of Sexual Misconduct. Simply, franken stands accused of acting repeatedly like a jerk. And he denies that he acted this way. The entire sequence of events from the initial accusations to frankens resignation is based on the premise that americans as a society or at least half a society should be policing noncriminal behavior related to sex if only frankens heart breaking articulate expression of his loss were capable of focusing our attention on this route and on the dangers of the drive to police sex. What are your thoughts on frankens resignation given what i just read and the overall climate that we are in right now . Well, i agree that there are nuances here that are being lost in this rush. I also think its quite obvious that franken sacrificed himself so the party could go after roy moore and then donald trump next year. That is quite simply what happened. And the question we all have is have they gone too far . Will there be a pushback . We heard the other night, laura ingram was calling out the democrats for getting rid of franking a franken and saying this was politics. I think theres dangers in holding yourself up as the party of purity. The republicans who for so many years made this such an issue, Sexual Misconduct and theyve turned their back on this now, and you see the full support of roy moore. The parties have really flipped. Right. Its stunning. In the 1990s republicans trotted themselves out as a family values party. Democrats believed in liberalism, and expansiveness, and now here we are in 2017, and we dont want to make the clinton mistake again. We have to admit to that first, the people calling on franken to resign need to point out they supported bill clinton. They hung with the clintons. I think people are pointing that out. Really . I dont see people going out to the podium and saying al franken step down now, theyre the same people who worked hard inside the clinton bubble to try to help elect Hillary Clinton and support bill clinton in his success post presidency success. Im sorry. Thats hypocrisy. The amazing thing about all of this is if Hillary Clinton were president , i dont think any of this would have happened. This is a proxy war. Its real, and im happy the reckoning is happening, but the fact of the matter is this is a proxy war against donald trump. And people are deluding themselves because if they think al franken is stepping down, donald trump is going to step down. It is a proxy war, and bill clinton who was the toast of this town and the toast of elites across the world would if he were first husband, still be the toast of this town. Exactly . And the toast of the world. And people wouldnt have gone after him or they wouldnt have gone after this issue in the same way because it would have discredited her so horribly. Yes. I want to say well read what ruth has written. Ruth did say that democrats recognize that they underreacted to bill clinton, and so now theyre overreacting to al franken. I also think elizabeths point was spot on. Al franken basically fell on the sword so the Democratic Party could have cleaner talking points. Republicans, of course, to elizabeths point, are also coming out suggesting that democrats went too far. The former press secretary to president bush said franken should not have resigned. His fate should have been left to the people. Moore who had sexual contact with a 141yearold should drop out. Conyers who hit on his employees here is more reaction from republican senator bill cassidy and other conservative voices. Its sad the way its all played out. The due process for them, but youre a little nervous when people are brought down by in some cases anonymous, on the other hand, obviously theres credibility on their side, and they pressure them out. Not much more to say beyond that. All of these nice people, none of them have given back the money that they raised from Harvey Weinstein. None of them have repudiated Hillary Clinton and bill clinton. None of them seemed offended in the past. Suddenly in moral outrage, create a lynch mob. What you saw today was a lynch mob. Lets not have due process. Lets not ask anybody any questions or have any chance to have a hearing. Lets just lynch him. Because when we get done, well be unpure. Hes unwilling to fight for his pep youation. I think this is a bad decision, and i dont agree with him on anything. This was a crass political ploy. Democrats dumping franken overboard because now that they can claim, hey, the moral high ground for 2018 and pursue allegations against donald trump and roy moore. I thought there was an incredible point. The democrats stood by bob menendez after he was indicted and arrested and tried, and they gave that guy due process. And stuck by him. Theres a mistrial, and hes still in the senate. And they wouldnt let al franken go through the due process he volunteered for. Because there wasnt a roy moore on the other side of the bob menendez conversation. Theres also a photo that every time is put up when youre talking about senator franken. Thats the case. Its the photo which is the one thing that will never go away. We can talk about the accusations all we want, and yes, theyre horrible, but there is nothing as pointed as being able to in every news clip, put up that photo. But the politics of this are that the democrats are trying to reposition themselves as the party of zero tolerance on these issues involving women, and they think that going in midterm elections thats going to be powerful. Theyd better be careful with that standard. The point that i would make is that the republicans as we heard from Newt Gingrich saying this is a party thats going crazy, the republicans, through trump to now, are saying the democrats are the party of political correctness. The democrats are the party of intolerant how easy is it for steve bannon to weapon news this . If he hasnt already, guys. Hello. Does okay. Im just going to stop while im ahead. Nancy pelosi was majority leader, speaker and minority leader over a period of ten years where that slush fund existed. I dont think its possible that she thats the next shoe to fall in the story. We look at this and say the democrats want to be above it all. Theyre going to have to go back in their history to see what cases were settled under her leadership. What taxpayer money was spent to settle cases with no Public Disclosure . Thats the next thing. Elizabeth, do you think the next step in terms of democrats and their thinking to the extent theres a strategy is to line up against donald trump, against the president of the United States . Theyre now set themselves up where al franken is off the map. John conyers is off the map. Are they preparing themselves now, if they were willing to get up in great numbers against al franken, why not do so for the president . Thats whats going to happen in 2020, next year, and, again, there could be a backlash. I can hear one already on the show this morning. There could be a backlash with voters but i also the calculation is a lot of women will turn out. Weve seen that with our reporting that there are vast numbers of women lining up to run in 2018 to get involved in politics. Thats the bet. That this will mobilize large numbers of women who did not vote last time. Wow. All right. Elizabeth and barry, thank you both very much. Still ahead on morning joe, well have new developments in the russia investigation. Plus clashes between Israeli Police and protesters in the west bank show no sign of letting up after the president s jerusalem decision. This video came in just moments ago. Theres more coming. Well be joined live from jerusalem. Youre watching morning joe. Well be right back. Ur cup. Ur cup. Lets go to sumatra. Wheres sumatra . Good question. This is win. And thats wins goat, adi. The coffee here is amazing. Because the volcanic soil is amazing. Making the coffee erupt with flavor. So we give farmers like win more plants. To grow more delicious coffee. That erupts with even more flavor. Which helps provide for wins family. And adi the goats family too. Because his kids eat a lot. All, for a smoother tasting cup of coffee. Green mountain Coffee Roasters. Packed with goodness. Its a lot easier to make decisions when you know what comes next. If you move your old 401 k to a fidelity ira, we make sure youre in the loop at every step from the moment you decide to move your money to the instant your new retirement account is funded. Oh and at fidelity, youll see how all your investments are working together. Because when you know where you stand, things are just clearer. Just remember what i said about a little bit o soul things are just clearer. Discover card. I justis this for real . Match, yep. We match all the cash back new cardmembers earn at the end of their first year, automatically. Whoo i got my money hard to contain yourself, isnt it . Uh huh let it go whoo get a dollarfordollar match at the end of your first year. Only from discover. Joining us now live from jerusalem is amen. Good morning. Whats the situation on the ground this morning . Reporter a couple hours ago friday prayers concluded. There were thousands of protesters and worships inside the walls. As they made their way out, there were protests. It got a little dicey inside the old city with the police trying to break up the protesters from gathering any kind of momentum before they made their way out of here. In terms of what the scene is like now, im going to step out of the way. It remains a calm scene with the moments of tension inbetween them. Israeli Police Standing guard outside of the walls of the old city damascus gate. A group of protesters denouncing President Trumps decision about jerusalem, and every once in a while youll see the Israeli Police come in and try to break this sit in up. So there hasnt been any kind of large scale or wide scale violence that weve expected. But there have been minor clashes between the Peaceful Protesters sitting behind me and the Israeli Police that are adamant to make sure the crowds dont get any kind of momentum and certainly not spread beyond this little area around the old city. In terms of the political fallout, we are still talking about that. Youve talked about it in the show. Were hearing from some of the senior members of the plo, for example, who said recently that Vice President mike pence is not welcome to palestine, and theyve called on the palestinian president not to meet with the Vice President as he makes his way through the middle east following this decision, and more recently weve heard from members of the president s Political Party saying here in the occupied palestinian territories that President Trumps announcement effectively a declaration of war on the Palestinian People. It makes a resujs to the Peace Process difficult at this time. Maimen, lets talk about for a second, have you, you know the region extraordinarily well. Weve talked a good bit about americas relationship with egypt, saudi arabia, other majority sunni arab countries in the region. What is the reaction . What are you hearing from egypt, from saudi arabia, countries that the Trump Administration bragged about having a great relationship with . How much damage has this done to cc and others relationship with donald trump . It is definitely undermined. Ive spoken to representatives and officials from all the governments youve listed in the gulf, and particularly the arabian gulf, saudi arabia, qatar, they were very optimistic on President Trump having a strong tone about iran. That is something they were concerned about. But they are all surprised, extremely surprised about this decision. For a few reasons. One, they had told President Trump particularly through Jared Kushner and others this is a bad decision. It would break trust with the region at a time youre trying to gain the trust of these leaders and trying to get them to an Arab Peace Initiative of sorts. Thats something saudi arabia was interested in doing. And were hearing the official statements. What has been surprising is the fact theyre questioning why President Trump would have made this decision without in any way, shape, or form, taking into consideration the concerns of the leaders. Many of these leaders are domestically weakened. They may look like strong men, but they dont have a lot of popularity. This is a decision where theyre going to be seen as less popular. Theyve already established good relationships with President Trump. Now they are writing saying what are we getting in return for our leaders being so close to President Trump and not seeing any kind of concession on the other side of the divide . You know, since we have less of a delay with you in jerusalem than we would if we had you in a shot on 48th and 7th, were going to have one more question. This one from David Ignatius. David. Theyre saying im sure as they watch, this will pass. But whats your sense . How deep is the anger, and is it going to be possible in a few weeks or months to restart a Peace Process . Thats a good question. In terms of the israeli response, i think the fact that they didnt have a Strong Security presence here, they had a robust presence, but its not like the past. I think it was an indication they dont want to see an escalation in terms of the protests here. Theyve played that very calmly, and its reflected on the ground. Politically thats the question. I think the Palestinian Authority are coming out of this under tremendous pressure. Ill tell you why quickly. The Palestinian Authority including abbas has been selling to the Palestinian People peace and negotiations are the only way to tfulfill our dreams. Others want con frfrontation, b abbas has nothing to show for it for the Palestinian People. Today hes waking up under pressure saying to the Palestinian People, were staying part of the Peace Process, but theres nothing to show for their lives getting better. Home demolitions happen. As a result, he now has to face the pressure from internally within the plo as we mentioned some of the senior members saying its time for a onestate solution. The Peace Process is dead, and from others who are saying that we now have to launch a third uprising. Hes in a difficult position. I think that is why its not clear what the Palestinian Authority is going to do. And more difficult to joes point, what are the arab countries going to do besides put out statements and hold summits. The uncertainly is creating a lot of tension Going Forward. Amen who understands that part of the world so well. Great job out there. Thank you. Joining us from washington, robin wright. A joint fellow at the u. S. Institute of peace and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for council. And back with us, richard haas. Robin, your piece in the new yorker, the headline is with jerusalem move, trump sabotages his own mideast Peace Process. Why was this such a bad decision in your judgment . It plays out on many levels. First, when it comes to the Peace Process, there was a delicate process among the palestinians trying to reconcile between the plo and west bank and hamas and gaza. This would have involved hamas turning security over to the plo. It would have been important in preventing the rockets on israel. This is in question with hamas saying that there should be a third uprising and the plo saying this is a moment to try to be calm to move forward and figure out a way to do something peacefully. Then you have it playing out across the region where you find tremendous anger among that young generation that gave us the arab spring who feel that they have been betrayed and see their countries either moving toward awe to be raties and going into civil wars. And protests as far away as malaysia and indonesia, and kal qaeda calling for new attacks against the u. S. This is a fissure for one part of the world that liked President Trump and thought he was committed to dealing with them and to bring peace. There was tremendous optimism in the region. And this is a moment that kind of undermines that when the president could have said look, we look forward to opening an embassy in west jerusalem for israel, and someday if there is a twostate solution, which he did support, opening an embassy in East Jerusalem for the palestinians. That could have nurtured the Peace Process. Hes thrown a diplomatic bomb into the middle east Peace Process. So, richard, whats the impact of the other countries . Cc who has been struggling with dissent, the saudis who are obviously going through a hard time between their purchases of paintings which does feed into this. Youre buying 450 million paintings and youre friends with Jared Kushner and donald trump, the people now moving the capital to jerusalem . I mean, this seems like this could be unsettling in an extraordinary way for some of our closest allies in the region. Its unsettling for them. I think it has to impede their ability to be seen to be working closely with us. It would have been one thing if we linked the move to some concessions with israel. Something for the palestinians on jerusalem, but to have it as a naked, isolated move didnt help them. One other thing. Last i checked this president has a full plate. North korea, we have korean, the meeting with lavrov between tillerson yesterday. Youve got venezuela. We can go around the world. This does exactly what richard has been warning the United States not to do. Stop taking actions that draw 90 of your focus on the middle east onto that one region when long term weve got to look east. Weve got to look to asia. Weve got to worry about our relationships in europe. Weve got to worry about our relationships across the world. And not just this one region. Absolutely. The middle east has sponged up so much of our calories for a generation. Ironically enough, jerusalem was one of the few relatively peaceful places in the middle east. What we now have done is said okay, lets put some more fuel on the fire. Thats what this did. As your friend tom friedman said, this ought to be called the art of the give away. President trump got nothing for playing one of the essential cards that the u. S. Has in any Peace Process which is the future status of jerusalem and the u. S. Embassy. Got nothing for it. Robin, weve seen that the president has thrown tillerson under the bus many times. Now he has disagreed publicly, at least its been widely reported that mattis was very much against this decision. It seems like his first significant break with general mattis. I wonder how that gets perceived worldwide. And especially in this area. I dont think this is the first break or first difference between the secretary of defense and the president. I think general mattis has been one of those who has been the most effective in trying to temper down some of the president s more ambitious moves, but the fact is there is a deep divide, really, and those who counted on the generals, general kelly at the white house as chief of staff, general mcmaster, general mattis to be the voices of reason, explaining the world to the president have not had the kind of impact anyone anticipated, and this is a serious gap. Now, everyone believes secretary of state tillerson is not long for that position. And that someone more akin to the president s views, pompeo is likely to take that spot. The team does not speak with one voice and the divisions within are very destructive on some of the most inflammatory issues the president faces. And the fact that the president is not just America First but me first, when it comes to Decision Making is a little dangerous when it doesnt factor in the views of his closest advisers. All right. Robin wright, thank you so much. We greatly appreciate it you being here. Richard haas, what would your advice be for the secretary of state . What would your advice be for general mattis . What would your advice be for general mcmaster . What do they do next . Well, i would say the most urgent question is still north korea. Time is not our friend. I would introduce a diplomatic dimension into u. S. Foreign policy by north korea. We dont want to limit ourselves to the choice of living with a massive arsenal posed against us or war. There has to be a third dimension. I would say try the diplomatic approach. I cant say it will work, but its worth exploring given the two alternatives. I would make that issue number one for American Foreign policy. David . Final thoughts. I think were learning again and again the value of diplomacy. There is no way out of the north korea crisis. Everybody looked at that and understands it, including the white house. You need to be creative with diplomacy. You need to work with the chinese. Trump has done a good job in opening up that channel. Go down that channel. Trump has done a good job in opening up saudi arabia as a potential source of change. Do that wisely. Dont blow up the middle east. Use the tools that youve got in hand. Weve got to go to tease, excuse me for saying this. I read china daily, English Version of it, occasionally. I am struck by how their approach to the world is the complete opposite of our approach or russias approach. Every single article is china is throwing their arms wide open. The canadian Prime Minister is here. Were excited about the possibility of a new deal. They talk about america. They even talk about positive things about donald trump. You go through it. It is all about they are friends with everybody. They do good news part. They want to do deals with everybody. We are open to the world, and the contrast between that and America First, america isolated, is stunning. People should read china daily to see what our top economic rival is doing. They are integrating their diplomacy and military policy. Theyre not that open, but theyre giving the appearance of being open and as a result theyre spreading their influence. Ours is being diminished. Theyre open for business. The irony is they are closing in on and camping down when it comes to freedom, but theyre open for business. Coming up, there is new reporting about outreach between the Trump Campaign and russian connected social media, and its 100 million users. The details straight ahead on morning joe. I see mika doing facebook live. I didnt know she didnt do that without chickens. No matter how the markets change. At t. Rowe price. Our disciplined approach remains. Global markets may be uncertain. But you can feel confident in our investment experience around the world. Call us or your advisor. T. Rowe price. Invest with confidence. They appear out of nowhere. My secret visitors. Appearing next to me in plain sight. Hallucinations and delusions. These are the unknown parts of living with parkinsons disease. What stories they tell. But for my ears only. What plots they unfold. But only in my mind. Over 50 of people with parkinsons will experience hallucinations or delusions during the course of their disease. And these can worsen over time, making things even more challenging. But there are advances that have led to Treatment Options that can help. If someone you love has parkinsons and is experiencing hallucinations or delusions, talk to your parkinsons specialist. Because theres more to parkinsons. My visitors should be the ones i want to see. Learn more at moretoparkinsons. Com more people shop online for the holidays than ever before. clapping and the United States Postal Service delivers more of those purchases to homes than anyone else in the country. because we know, even the smallest things are sometimes the biggest. Up next the fiance of George Papadopoulos is speaking out this morning alleging the first trump official who plead guilty in the russia investigation was in direct contact with Michael Flynn and steve bannon. And that she had seen the messages that prove it. Well be right back. [ keyboard clacking ] [ click ] [ keyboard clacking ] [ clacking continues ] good questions lead to good answers. Our advisors can help you find both. Talk to one today and see why were bullish on the future. Yours. Talk to one today and see why were bullish on the future. Bps natural gas teams use smart App Technology to share data from any well instantly. So they can analyze trends and stop potential problems in their tracks. Because safety is never being satisfied and always working to be better. Nahelps protect eyesin blue from damaging blue light, filtering it out to help you continue enjoying your screens. Or. You could just put your phones down and talk to each other. [laughing] natures bounty lutein blue. Because youre better off healthy. From what you know about his story, what do you think the title of that story is . Um, dont want to spoil the premier, has been sort of the first domino in the russiagate. The first domino . Something like he is the first one who decided to break the silence in this situation. That was the italian fiancee of the first former Trump Campaign advisor to plead guilty, George Papadopoulos, speaking to abc this morning alleging that papadopoulos had contact with steve bannon and Michael Flynn. The campaign has described papadopoulos as a mere volunteer, but simona disputes that he was that low level. Was he in touch with the chief strategist, steve bannon . Yes. As far as i know, yes. Well provide more details about that when were able to speak. Bannon, Michael Flynn. He was in touch with Michael Flynn, general flynn . Yes, as well. By email, by phone calls. Being based in london, there was always communication with email. As far as i know, absolutely, yes. He never took an initiative without the blessing of the campaign. And you believe that he can demonstrate that . Absolutely, yes. And my opinion is based on the fact that he can demonstrate that. I know he can. Youve seen the emails. Yes. An attorney for flynn had responded to abcs request for comment on thursday. Were also learning about another point of direct contact between russia and the Trump Campaign according to emails revealed by the Washington Post and confirmed by people familiar with their content. Vk contacted donald trump jr. And dan scavino in january and november hoping to help promote Trumps Campaign to its 100 million users. While scavino showed interest, it was unclear whether the campaign pursued that idea. He did not respond to requests from the Washington Post for comment. Joining us now, Political Correspondent for Business Insider natasha bertrand. Lets start with that second story first, vk reaching out trying to get trump on their social media platform. Why could that be a problem on its face . There are two things that jumped out at be about this. Were now learning of Something Else that was discussed at the trump tower meeting last june that we had not known previously. Something else besides just the topic of adoptions, which is what they initially said the entire meeting was about. The second thing is theres a new player in all this, which is dan scavino. He knew that the russians were trying to reach out to trump to create this social media page on vk, which has very few users in the United States. Its really used around the world just for russians, expats, russian language speakers, so its really, you know, it also speaks to the extent to which the russians really saw a friend in donald trump to the point where they wanted him to actually begin to advertise to social media users over there. David, what jumps out to you about that story . What jumps out to me is that the key leads in this story, the june 9 meeting that donald trump jr. Had with the russian lawyer was followed up, that it wasnt a one shot, that there was a continuing tail to it. But he had said on hannity, don junior said on hanhannity, t was it. There was no followup. Specifically contradicted something that he said. What we just saw from the and interview with George Papadopoulos fiancee, thats important in the sense of taking this person who had very clear detailed contacts with a series of russians, trying repeatedly to arrange meetings, i mean theres a blizzard of emails from him through the summer of 2016 trying to arrange these meetings. Its now asserted that he wasnt just in contact with paul manafort, we knew that, or other Senior Campaign officials, we knew that, but with Michael Flynn specifically. Right. And, again, it widens these areas of inquiry and mueller is going to have to go through each of these. We dont know how many of these witnesses mueller has already interviewed, how many have been have given testimony, what secret plea agreements or cooperation agreements have been made. One of the most interesting things that came out this week was that in the plea agreement for mike flynn, it is suggested that he has agreed to wear a wire. I dont know if you followed that, but theres a very interesting little tiny sense that says that he agrees to covert Law Enforcement activities on behalf of the special counsel. Boy, that was in so many ways a onesided deal. Mueller got you talk about the art of the deal. Mueller got the deal of the century. Natasha, let me ask you this. Im an old guy. Im 54. And i remember when i was growing up, republicans were a bit weary of russians. I just give us a im asking this for a reason. New video has surfaced that has roy moore praising Vladimir Putin and suggesting that america is the center of evil in the world. Something along those lines. And mika and i have not understood. What is going on . Why do you have people like hannity and people around trumps orbit praising putin, praising wikileaks, praising basically a russian intel operation trying to hack our election . Ive actually written about this. There are two kind of threads to this. The first is kind of this drift towards, you know, a propensity for authoritarianism which is what we have begun to see within some areas of the Republican Party, especially with the hannitys who praise strong leaders and this idea that perhaps putin has led his country better than obama ever did. And then theres this other aspect to it which is that many republicans or many conservatives today see putin as kind of a defender of traditional christian values, that hes really the savior of western civilization and that he is kind of like the ultimate white nationalist. Youre not talking about lets be very clear, not like churchill was the defender of western civilization in 1940 but this has ethno nationalism. Of white europe, of white america. Explicitly, which is ironic because obviously russia has such a culturally diverse place, but putins emphasis on the Russian Orthodox church right now, hes really empowered it so he can distract from his own domestic problems at home. It has really created this kind of model for, you know, christians in the u. S. To look at and say, well, why is a church being empowered so much over there when we as a religion feel like were being marginalized. Theres also a lot of money. And lets not forget that. Thats also a big difference. Theres a lot of money now. That explains trump in part, the money connection. Also the love of autocrats. Were going to play that roy moore statement, sound bite, that you talked about next block. By the way, do we have a bite of him saying that america was great back when we had slavery, that families were closer . If we have that, because i think that was a september l. A. Times article. The good people of alabama probably have seen that, havent they . Perhaps. I hope so. Well open the archives and find that. Well get a fresh read on the economy when the november jobs report is released just a short time from now, and senator al franken bows to pressure from his democratic colleagues and resigns amid allegations of Sexual Misconduct. Well talk about what this means for roy moore and donald trump, if anything. Morning joe is coming right back. Lets get the big guy in place. The ford year end sales event is here. I can guide you in. No, thanks , santa. I got this. Santa uh, it looks a little tight. Perfect fit. Santa needs an f150. Thats ford, americas best selling brand. Hurry in today for 0 financing for 72 months across the full line up of ford cars, trucks and suvs. For a limited time, get an additional 1,000 cash back on top of 0 financing for 72 months. Get these exclusive offers during the ford year end sales event. But prevagen helps your brain with an ingredient get these exclusive offers originally discovered. In jellyfish. In clinical trials, prevagen has been shown to improve shortterm memory. Prevagen. The name to remember. Was supposed to be a wake reup call for our government . Sh people all across the country lost their savings, their pensions and their jobs. Im tom steyer and it turned out that the system that had benefited people like me who are well off, was, in fact, stacked against everyone else. Its why i left my Investment Firm and resolved to use my savings for the public good. But here we are nine years later and this president and the Republican Congress are making a bad situation even worse. They wont tell you that their so called tax reform plan is really for the wealthy and big corporations, while hurting the middle class. It blows up the deficit and that means fewer investments in education, health care and job creation. Its up to all of us to stand up to this president. Not just for impeachable offenses, but also to demand a country where everyone has a real chance to succeed. Join us. Your voice matters. Heres the story of Green Mountain Coffee Roasters sumatra reserve. Lets go to sumatra. The coffee here is amazing. Because the volcanic soil is amazing. So we give farmers like win more plants. To grow more delicious coffee. Which helps provide for wins family. All, for a smoother tasting cup of coffee. Green mountain Coffee Roasters. Good morning, everyone. Its friday, december 8th. We got our Christmas Music going. You should play it for the kids. With us we have republican strategist and political commentator, susan del percio on the set with us. Also columnist and associate editor for the Washington Post, David Ignatius. And joining us from washington, nbc news capitol hill correspondent and host of, oh, yeah. Kasie d. C. Yeah, kasie d. C. On msnbc. Yesterday was tough to watch, and twitter was a war zone as it pertains to whats going on in politics today. Im used to nasty, but things this was ugly. Things have gotten so nasty over the past several weeks. Yep, i dont get it. Theres so many good conversations we could be having now. Yeah. And half of them were not happening because of the nastiness out there and the tribalization, the vitriol and the hypocrisy. And youre seeing now bob mueller, there is i know youre talking about al franken, but you can talk about bob mueller. Theres a concerted war to smear a man who has served this country nobly and ably for years, who guided us after 9 11. There is actually a concerted attack by the smallest and most petulant in the Republican Party on the hill, by rightwing talk show people, and, you know, you and i, im not even going to get into it. I dont want to give anybody any oxygen that attacks us, but all i will say is that we had to we actually had to contact authorities based on some things that were actually said about us, where people were actually lets just say suggesting that violence be done. And all this tells you though, mika, that there are a lot of people in not the right because theyre not conservative, but a lot of people who support donald trump and this personality cult that understand that the law is actually closing in on him, not bob mueller, the law is closing in on him. So theyre attacking the men and women of the fbi, theyre attacking bob mueller, theyre attacking constitutional norms. And you know what . History will mark their names down in shame. Your names will be marked down in shame. Youre pathetic. You will be called out. The rule of law is bigger than any one man or woman. And you are going to be on the side of autocrats. Okay. Mark it down. So lets get to the politics of yesterday, and there was a lot. With three years left in his term, democrat al franken says hell resign from the senate in the coming weeks amid allegations of Sexual Misconduct. He spoke for about 20 minutes on the senate floor a day after dozens of his fellow democrats, led by senator kirsten gillibrand, called on him to step down after another accuser had stepped forward. Over the last few weeks, a number of women have come forward to talk about how they felt my actions had affected them. I was shocked. I was upset. But in responding to their claims, i also wanted to be respectful of that broader conversation. Because all Women Deserve to be heard and their experiences taken seriously. I think that was the right thing to do. I also think it gave some people the false impression that i was admitting to doing things that in fact i havent done. Some of the allegations against me are simply not true. Others i remember very differently. You know, an important part of the conversation weve been having the last few months has been about how men abuse their power and privilege to hurt women. I am proud that during my time in the senate i have used my power to be a champion of women. And that i have earned a reputation as someone who respects the women i work alongside every day. I know theres been a very different picture of me painted over the last few weeks, but i know who i really am. I said at the outset that the Ethics Committee was the right venue for these allegations to be heard and investigated and evaluated on their merits. That i was prepared to cooperate fully and that i was confident in the outcome. But this decision is not about me. Its about the people of minnesota. And its become clear that i cant both pursue the Ethics Committee process and at the same time remain an effective senator for them. Let me be clear. I may be resigning my seat, but i am not giving up my voice. I will continue to stand up for the things i believe in as a citizen and as an activist. I know in my heart that nothing i have done as a senator, nothing, has brought dishonor on this institution. And i am confident that the Ethics Committee would agree. Nevertheless, today i am announcing that in the coming weeks, i will be resigning as a member of the United States senate. I of all people am aware that there is some irony in the fact that i am leaving while a man who has bragged on tape about his history of Sexual Assault sits in the oval office and a man who has repeatedly preyed on young girls campaigns for the senate with the full support of his party. You too will experience setbacks and defeats and disappointments. There will be days when you will wonder whether its worth it. What i want you to know is that even today, even on the worst day of my political life, i feel like its all been worth it. Politics, Paul Wellstone told us, is about the improvement of peoples lives. I know that the work ive been able to do has improved peoples lives. I would do it all over again in a heartbeat. So ive been pulling together some Opinion Pieces in response to this. I just have an incredibly uneasy feeling about this entire story, to be very honest, and tried to say that once yesterday. Yeah. And it was as if a bomb went off. By the way so. For people out there, i know there are a lot of little rightwingers who are 14 or 15 years old and you have a blog post. Oh, mika is just saying this because shes a democrat. I understand you go out and play tee ball and then you come back in and do your blog post and you have no sense of history. Mika brzezinski in 1999 and 2000 when everybody else in the Democratic Party was defending bill clinton, mika has consistently said that democrats were hypocrites. Shes been saying it for 17 years, all right . So why dont you go back and, you know, get your juicy juice and go back in your basement and play with your legos and actually read up on a little history before you Start Talking about how mika is doing this because shes being tribal, because shes defending al franken. No, the people that came out belatedly 17 years later, oh, maybe bill clinton did something wrong in 1999, mika was saying that 17 or 18 years ago. So that little argument, why dont you keep that in your basement with your mom, eat some cheetos and stuff it because thats not the case. This doesnt have to do with tribalism. It has to do with what mika thinks is right and what she thinks is wrong when it comes to this debate. And due process and im worried about women, im concerned about women who are legitimately sexually harassed in the workplace across america and where this is taking us. Ruth marcus says was al frankens punishment fair . And she writes in part this. Theres no doubt in the case of al franken that democrats are better off with the minnesota senator gone. Theres more doubt about whether justice was done. The political calculus is simple franken had to go. With the grotesque picture of him groping or pretending to grope the breasts of a former uso performer, he would have been a nonstop distraction, muddling democrats case against alleged groper President Trump and adding child molester roy moore. Franken paid not only for their sins but also for the alleged behavior of bill clinton two decades ago. Democrats underreacted then and consequently were compelled to overreact now. The women, all this time along, and im going to read another one, weve never really talked about the woman who first came out against al franken whos in the picture that you say, susan, is just the death nell. I would think a dress owned by Monica Lewinsky would bring down a president , but it didnt, so im surprised that you think a comedians picture of a performer, playboy model who goes on hannity who voted for trump. You know, i see some politics there, but i havent brought that up every step of the way because, of course, in this me too environment you must always just believe the women and i think theres a lot of reasons we need to look at the women seriously and believe them. In many cases, like, for example, i spoke to accusers of mark halperin, to which he admits a lot of what hes accused of doing. I spoke to them, i believe them. Im just wondering if all women need to be believed. And im concerned that we are being the judge, the jury and the cops here and so did Senate Democrats getting ahead of their skis. Trust me, kirsten gillibrand, i want you to run for president , but youve got to keep it real. So well, theres an awful lot to unpack there. Youre right, when we talk about politics, its different than when we talk about media. Its also different than when we talk about the Woman Working at a kmart and trying to get fulltime employment and is harassed by her boss. So when it comes to politics, though, the lens is different. The truth is, i agree with the marcus opinion piece where she said it was that photo. If there wasnt that photo, i dont think that the allegations may have gone forward because also when it comes to moore, look at the journalism that was found. They found 30 sources to back that up. This wasnt a woman going to a celebrity lawyer looking and making an allegation, this was a piece of journalism. Conyers and some of the other congressmen who are now resigning, what is that about . Payouts. I was actually talking about al franken. When it comes to al franken, hes collateral damage. Theres just no way else to put it. I would appreciate it if Democratic Senators would say the photo is too dangerous. We recognize the work that hes done for women. I have a list of legislation that he sponsored for victims of Domestic Violence and rape survivors. We appreciate his work. At this time right now that picture is too politically damaging and wed prefer that he step aside. That would have been a more honest way of asking him to step down. In my opinion, just my opinion, i feel like we are just weve got a machine gun out and were just, you know, going around the room with every man that perhaps we dont like politically. I dont know. Heres masha who says it a lot better than me. This is what concerns me. She writes in the new yorker in a column entitled al frankens resignation and the selective force of me too and it reads in part this. The case of franken makes it all that much more clear that this conversation is in fact about sex, not about power, violence, or illegal acts. The accusations against him, which involve groping and forcible kissing arguably fall into the emergent, undefined and most likely undwoinable category of Sexual Misconduct. Put more simply, franken stands accused of acting repeatedly like a jerk and he denies that he acted this way. The entire sequence of events from the initial accusations to frankens resignation is based on the premise that americans as a society or at least half of a society should be policing noncriminal behavior related to sex. If only frankens heart breakingly articulate expression of his loss were capable of focusing attention on this root and on the dangers of the drive to police sex. The sex panic that is happening. Having said that, kasie, theres a lot of work to be done on capitol hill. I think that there is. I think that the mood on capitol hill yesterday reflected some of the conflict that you have highlighted here. I think there was a lot of sadness among women, Democratic Senators, who truly did actually feel that franken has done good work on behalf of women. And i think nobody would say it out loud to me, but i do think that the point that every time democrats had gotten asked about roy moore or wanted to Say Something negative about roy moore or President Trump and the allegations in those cases, they were met with what about al franken. Thats what i said i understood the political position they were in. I do understand that. And also they just want him to be honest about it. Also 30 or so democrats had gotten out and said al franken has to leave. If there were a republican governor in minnesota who would have picked al frankens replacement . I cant answer that necessarily. Of course not. But it makes it easier for them from a political perspective that they are not going to have to necessarily changing of the number of seats. That said, i think there is an acknowledgement that this seat is likely to be competitive in a year when there is a special election, so its not as though this is completely free of risk. But at the same time, your point is well taken. Still ahead on morning joe last week the white house said President Trump would not campaign for roy moore in alabama. Never. Instead, hes holding a Campaign Rally 20 miles away. Well preview that very enclosure workaround next on morning joe. Were on a mission to show drip coffee drinkers, its time to wake up to keurig. Wakey wakey rise and shine oh my gosh how are you . Well watch this. I pop that in there. Press brew. Thats it. So rich. I love it. Thats why you should be a keurig man fullbodied. Are you sure youre describing the coffee and not me . Fullbodied. If yor crohns symptoms are holding you back, and your Current Treatment hasnt worked well enough, it may be time for a change. Ask your doctor about entyvio, the only biologic developed and approved just for uc and crohns. Entyvio works at the site of inflammation in the gi tract and is clinically proven to help many patients achieve both symptom relief and remission. Infusion and serious allergic reactions can happen during or after treatment. Entyvio may increase risk of infection, which can be serious. Pml, a rare, serious, potentially fatal brain infection caused by a virus may be possible. This condition has not been reported with entyvio. Tell your doctor if you have an infection, experience frequent infections or have flulike symptoms or sores. Liver problems can occur with entyvio. If your uc or crohns treatment isnt working for you, ask your gastroenterologist about entyvio. Entyvio. Relief and remission within reach. Bp is taking safety glasses to a whole new level. Using augmented reality so engineers in the field can share data and get expert backup in the blink of an eye. Because safety is never being satisfied and always working to be better. We thats why at xfinityic. Weve been working hard to simplify your experiences with us. Now with instant text and email updates youll always be up to date. You can easily add premium channels so you dont miss your favorite show. And with just a single word, find all the answers youre looking for. Because getting what you need should be simple, fast, and easy. Download the xfinity my account app or go online today. All right. Were just days away from election day in alabama, and some republicans are standing by their calls for roy moore to exit the race despite the fullbacking of President Trump. Among them, the chairman of the National Republican senatorial committee, cory gardner, who said roy moore will never have the support of the senatorial committee. We will never endorse him. We wont support him. Gardner notably has led the call for the senate to expel moore if he wins on tuesday. Meanwhile President Trump will hold a campaignstyle rally in pensacola, florida, later today. Why pensacola . Maybe he wants to visit joe and his no. It is less than 20 miles outside of alabama and shares a media market with mobile, allowing trump to reach alabama voters without having to cross state lines. Yeah, its a thats so cowardly. Yeah. Hey, vaughn, how you doing. Joining us from pensacola so, vaughn, its good to see you. You are now officially in gods country, in pensacola, florida, the rid neck riviera. Also we like to call it l. A. , lower alabama. So it looks like its raining today, but what are you expecting . Reporter yeah, that cloud over alabama seemed to come down to your territory down here, it followed me in. What are we expecting . We dont expect roy moore here at this point but what do we expect donald trump to really go on the attack against doug jones is what weve seen over the last week. But the question is can he actually move the pendulum in this race. Remember two months ago despite his suggestions that he did, he didnt seem to change the race with roy moore against Luther Strange. Roy moore ended up beating Luther Strange by ten points. Ive been here for a month now, you guys, and im really hesitant to make any sort of prediction on where this race is going. I want to take you back to the 2012 race. You remember roy moore won that chief justice race after being uproolted from his position earlier by 75,000 votes against the democrat. It was 51 to 48 . Mitt romney was on the ballot that same year and won his race by more than 450,000 votes. So despite the suggestions that alabama you cant move it, you know the state. The difference in that election alone was significant. Ive been around talking to republicans here. I just got a message from Connie Thomas again yesterday. She lives in hoover, one of those more affluent white suburbs and she told me shes sticking by doug jones. I was down in fairhope and talked with Katie Pickert who told me voted for donald trump one year ago. I said whats the difference this time around. She said theres a difference between young women 16 to 18yearolds and older women that donald trump suggested that he had engaged in Sexual Misconduct with. So when youre looking at this race, doug jones has an apparatus. Roy moore is running a ghost campaign, far from robust. Doug jones, we gave donald trump a hard time for his sign game. Doug jones has a presence here. Theyre phone banking, theyre canvassing, they have field offices. Cory booker and john lewis, who will not appear with donald trump on saturday, the word is he will be in town. They need to turn out democrats who have not believed they have had much of a voice over these years. So, vaughn, im going to now, if you can take out your reporters notebook im going to help you on some things. You need to do this. First of all, its 5 30 pensacola time. At 6 00 you need to go over to bagel heads on garden street. Tell them joe says hi. Say hi to rob and jan. Get a chocolate cappuccino muffin. You think im joking. Im not. Then go over to the fish house, say hi to collier merrill. Swear to god, they have the biggest im just joking and then after its all over. Im going to stay through the weekend so i can make that happen. I just went to the Hilton Garden Inn. Swear to god, the beaches, whitest beaches in the world, go to the beaches and go to the Naval Air Museum and then go back to the fish house and you can you can put a saddle on one of those war frats and ride it around for a while. Collier, im just joking reporter how about nbc gives me a couple days when this is wrapped up and ill make it happen. As long as we dont have a recount. Give me a call, vaughn. Give me a call, youre going to have a great time there. Just dont get bit reporter how about you just come out early and well do the weekend. I would absolutely love that. Julie pace now. Thank you, vaughn. Okay. Watch out for the bites because it takes your whole arm off. Joining us now, eugene robinson. Julie pace is also with us. Hey, julie pace. So how fascinating, we actually saw cory gardner make a statement, a strong statement about roy moore, shows that the entire party has not buckled. That there still really is a divide in donald trump going down to campaign for roy moore in l. A. , lower alabama. It just raises so many fascinating questions. What are they going to do if this man wins . Absolutely, that is the biggest question right now. I think vaughn is right, its hard to make a real prediction about this race. We havent seen a lot of credible polling. Im not sure polling would tell us the state of this race given all of the different dynamics that might impact questions asked by pollsters, but republicans are split on this. We have seen some republicans who reacted pretty negatively to the initial allegations of roy moore, kind of back away from those, back away from raising the possibility they might not seat him, but you do have cory gardner whos been leading the way on this. You do have other republicans who talk quietly behind the scenes about what it would mean to have roy moore as a sitting senator in 2018 in the context of everything that you were talking about in the first half hour of the show, in the context of these constant allegations that are coming forward against people. There will be more on capitol hill, thats one thing we can say for certain, theres a lot of discussion about that right now. Republicans will be asked time and again, what about roy moore whos now in your party who youre now counting on for votes . One of the things ive heard from republicans, though, is the danger of the Republican Leadership saying to alabama voters, you knew all of this information about this man going into this race, you still voted for him and now were going to tell you that were taking him out of the senate. That is a dangerous precedent potentially to set if you look beyond the implications for just roy moore himself, what that would mean to voters in both parties, that Party Leadership could just say, no, were not going to respect the will of the voters. Julie, that is that is a great point. Thats something ive been wrestling with. Obviously were all very concerned about the allegations against roy moore. But think about the precedent it does set. The people of alabama have known about these allegations about roy moore for over a month. Yeah. If they choose to send roy moore up to the United States senate and the Republican Senate then decides were not going to seat the man the voters sent up, that does set a precedent. A precedent that could be abused, a precedent that could be very dangerous. Sure, it does. Look, its a tough place for the Republican Party to be in, because wherever the line is, and i agree, mika, we havent figured out exactly where the line is, but to my mind at least doug moore is way on the other side of the line, there were very credible allegations from a number of teenagers at the time and thats incredibly troubling, but i dont see i dont see republicans in the senate saying we will not seat the elected representative so theyll be stuck with him. Coming up on morning joe wildfires are tearing across california communities and powerful winds could continue to be a threat over the weekend. Well check in with bill karins for the forecast, plus were Just Moments Away from the monthly jobs report. Well check in with cnbc for what wall street is looking for. Morning joe is coming right back. Us. Its what this country is made of. But right now, our bond is fraying. How do we get back to us . The y fills the gaps. And bridges our divides. Donate to your local y today. Because where theres a y, theres an us. What if we could keep more amof what we earn . D. Trillions of dollars going back to taxpayers. Who could possibly be against that . Well, the National Debt is 20 trillion. As we keep adding to it, guess who pays the bill . Him. And her. And her. Congress, we should grow the economy. Not the debt. You can do it. We can do this. At fidelity, our online planning tools are clear and straightforward so you can plan for retirement while saving for the things you want to do today. Whoo as a person who loves the finer things, this Holiday Season, ive asked for a luxurious new buick suv. fingers crossed. ring in the holidays with buick. Get up to 20 below msrp on most 2017 luxury suv models. Thats almost 7,400 on this Buick Enclave leather. Experience the new buick this Holiday Season for remaining 2017s. We are the driven. Experience the new buick the dedicated. The overachievers. We know our best investment is in ourselves. We dont take no for an answer. We fight for what we want. Even for the things that were once a given. Going to college. Buying a home. And not being in debt for it for the rest of our lives. But were only as strong as our community. Who inspires and pushes us to go further than we could ever go alone. Sofi. Get there sooner. My name is jamir dixon and im a locafor pg e. Rk fieldman most people in the community recognize the blue trucks as pg e. My truck is something new. Its an 811 truck. When you call 811, i come out to your house and i mark out our gas lines and our electric lines to make sure that you dont hit them when youre digging. 811 is a free service. Im passionate about it because every time i go on the street i think about my own kids. Theyre the reason that i want to protect our community and our environment, and if me driving a that truck means that somebody gets to go home safer, then ill drive it every day of the week. Together, were building a better california. The wildfire threat in Southern California continues to grow. Crews are now working to contain six large fires that have burnds mo burned more than 140,000 acres. The lilac fire broke out yesterday in san diego county. The blaze has grown at a dangerous rate destroying dozens of structures, threatening thousands of others. Lets go to bill karins for the very latest. Bill. Good morning. You just saw the pictures of those houses burning there. Thats the lilac fire. That was the new one that formed yesterday south of los angeles, in between los angeles and san diego. The thomas fire is still the biggest fire and that has a chance by the end of today to be in the top 20 alltime biggest fires in the history of california, so its pretty serious stuff for december. Hardly ever, if ever, do we get fires this big this time of year. This is the rainy season. For today, it is still dry. Its not going to rain in Southern California for at least the next week. As long as we continue with wind gusts in the 30, 40, even 60mileperhour range in the mountains, the fire danger remains high. Today it is critical. The last two days it was in the extreme. I just saw the number count for homes burned this week alone is 500. Thats 500 families that no longer have a place they call home. So again thats mostly from the thomas fire here. This was the new fire that we saw down here. So we also have the story of the south in the snow. It has snowed in corpus christi, 2 inches in san antonio. This is snowflakes in the houston area. Now the snow is coming down in louisiana, mississippi and central portions of alabama. In baton rouge, louisiana, theres a coating of snow on the ground. This storm will eventually make its way this afternoon and this evening towards the atlanta area, especially the north side of atlanta could see 2 to 4 inches of snow. Eventually later tonight that snow moves into areas of virginia. Thats 4 to 6, maybe a couple of spots with 8 inches of snow. Watch out richmond. Then it will clip areas of new england as we go in the northeast into saturday. Thats 2 to 4 inches here, maybe 3 to 5 hartford to boston. So keep that in mind for your travels today and on saturday. We now know the number of jobs the economy created last month. Thats next on morning joe. We come into this world needing others. Then we are told its braver to go it alone. But there is another way to live. A way that sees the only path to fulfillment is through others. When this guy got a flat tire in the middle of the night. Hold on dad. Liberty did what . Yeah, Liberty Mutual 24hour roadside assistance helped him to fix his flat so he could get home safely. My dad says our insurance doesnt have that. Dont worry i know what a lug wrench is, dad. Is this a lug wrench . Maybe . You can leave worry behind when liberty stands with you™. Liberty stands with you™. Liberty mutual insurance. I cannot imagine managing my diabetes without my dexcom. This is the dexcom g5 mobile continuous Glucose Monitoring system. A small, wearable sensor measures your glucose every 5 minutes and sends the data to a dexcom receiver. Dexcom helps lower a1c and improves quality of life. If youre over 65 and you have diabetes, you should have a dexcom. If you get a dexcom, youre going to be very glad that you did. Visit dexcomnow. Com to learn more. Thats why feeling safe to be very glad that you did. Is priceless. With adt, you can feel safe with an adt starter kit professionally installed for only 49. 00. Call today, and install an adt starter kit that includes security panel, keypad, key fob, entry and motion sensors and for a limited time, get a camera included and installed at no additional cost. Thats a 449. 00 value, installed, for just 49. 00. The ford yearend sales event is in full swing. you are going to be a big surprise. whining aww, i see a big puppy. I see a biig puuppy. Hey greg thats ford, americas bestselling brand. Now get exclusive holiday offers, with 0 financing for 72 months across a full line up. For a limited time, get an additional 1,000 cash back on top of 0 financing for 72 months. Get these exclusive offers during the ford year end sales event. Breaking Economic News now. With the release of the monthly jobs report, cnbcs dominic chu joins us now. Whats in it . Mika, markets are holding pretty steady because we got a decently better than expected jobs number. 228,000 jobs created last month in november. That beats the average analyst estimate for 195,000. Unemployment holds steady at 4. 1 . Also average Hourly Earnings up 0. 2 of 1 over the prior month. Year over year thats a 2. 5 increase in overall wages. Another number a lot of folks like to look at is the underemployment rate, something the Labor Department calls the u6 number. 8 , thats slightly higher than it was last month at 7. 9 . That measures the number of people out there who are not working the kinds of jobs they want given the financial situation that theyre in. I would also point out here, revisions to prior months, the last two months an additional 3,000 jobs. The best perform aing areas of e economy, professional and Business Services added 46,000 jobs, manufacturing added 31,000 jobs, construction jobs another 24,000, and health carerelated jobs, 30,000. Labor force participation, thats the last big one, same as it was the prior month, 62. 7 . Generally speaking a more positive jobs report, but i would point out this is now probably some of the slower gains that weve seen in job growth over the course of the last five, six, seven years but its not at all unexpected given the fact that unemployment is much better than it was nine years ago well put it. Cnbcs dominic chu, thank you very much. Up next, being an accused child sex predator isnt the only troubling part of roy moores past. The reverend al sharpton joins us to weigh in on moores history regarding race and civil rights. Plus the reverends thoughts on the white house lecturing civil rights icon john lewis. On civil rights. Keep it right here on morning joe. When youre clocking out. Im the one clocking in. Sensing your every move and automatically adjusting to help you stay effortlessly comfortable. I can even help with a silent night. Does your bed do that . I dont actually talk, but i can tell you how you slept. Im the new sleep number 360 smart bed. Lets meet at a sleep number store. Nahelps protect eyesin blue from damaging blue light, filtering it out to help you continue enjoying your screens. Or. You could just put your phones down and talk to each other. [laughing] natures bounty lutein blue. Because youre better off healthy. Heres the story of Green Mountain Coffee Roasters sumatra reserve. Lets go to sumatra. The coffee here is amazing. Because the volcanic soil is amazing. So we give farmers like win more plants. To grow more delicious coffee. Which helps provide for wins family. All, for a smoother tasting cup of coffee. Green mountain Coffee Roasters. It was always our singular focus. To do whatever it takes, use every possible resource. To fight cancer. And never lose sight of the patients were fighting for. Our Cancer Treatment specialists share the same vision. Experts from all over the world, working closely together to deliver truly personalized cancer care. And these are the specialists were proud to call our own. Expert medicine works here. Learn more at cancercenter. Com Appointments Available now. We have been talking about roy moore inspe terms of the sel misconduct allegations he faces but the Alabama Senate candidate has made headlines for other controversial reasons. Britains the guardian sat down with him in august and part of the interview is getting renewed attention for what he had to say about Vladimir Putin. Take a listen. One thing ive learned in politics is not to think for somebody else. And as what Ronald Reagan would think, i just couldnt simply begin. He said that russia was the focus of evil in the modern world. You could say that very well about america, couldnt you. Do you think . Well, we promote a lot of bad things, you know. Like . Samesex marriage. Thats the very argument that Vladimir Putin makes. Well, maybe putin is right. Maybe hes more kin to me than i know. To break that down i think its pretty broken down. Roy moore said america is the focus of evil in the world instead of russia, which again goes into what i was asking natasha last hour about what is this fettish that some people on the right have with Vladimir Putin and russia. You see it. I named the names. I wont waste my breath naming their names again. But you see it from people on the socalled right and youre seeing it there with roy moore. And in september during a Campaign Rally in florence, alabama, he had this to say. You know that we were torn apart in the civil war. Brother against brother, north against south, party against party. Whats changed . Now weve got blacks and whites fighting. At that same rally he also responded to a question from one of the only africanamericans in the audience who asked when moore thought america was last great. Moore acknowledged the nations history of racial divisions, but said, quote, i think it was great at the time when families were united, even though we had slavery. They cared for one another. Our families were strong, our country had a direction. Joining us now, the host of msnbcs politics nation and president of the National Action network, reverend al sharpton. Also Washington Bureau chief for usa today susan page and the host of the podcast with friends like these, Anna Marie Cox back with us. Hey, al, how do you break down what roy moore said in that l. A. Times article at the speech regarding slavery, that that was the last time america was great because families were closer together. Whats disturbing about it, joe, he said this is the last time america was great and then you have the president of the United States, donald trump, who ran on make America Great again, going to pensacola today to campaign 20 miles outside of alabama. So hes really doing it for the man who said when america was great the last time. A man who has a history of racial intolerance. And then the president wants to go in the morning to the opening of the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum when he has tried to put many of the gains of the civil rights movement, Voting Rights and other matters, criminal justice and all, hes trying to take what we fought for in a museum and take it out and put it on public display. Were looking at the normalizing of a return to the america that is divided and institutionally supported in that racial inequality. And, susan page, after charlottesville, donald trump said there were good people on both sides. Seemed to preach moral relativism with White Supremacists and those who were protesting against White Supremacists. Just this past week hes retweeting fascist videos out of britain. So how does john lewis go to any Museum Opening with donald trump . And how do republicans and the white house criticize john lewis, who is being honored in this museum, for refusing to go with the president there . One of the remarkable things about roy moores comments there from the summer, is of course when people were enslaved, it was not a time when their families were together, it was a time when their families were being torn apart in the most horrific ways. It seems to me this is quite unhelpful for roy moore four days before an election. If youre looking to increase africanamerican turnout, it is comments and attention to comments like that that will do it. White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee sanders released a statement yesterday addressing both congressman john louse and Bennie Thompson skipping the event. She writes this. We think its unfortunate that these members of congress wouldnt join the president in honoring the incredible sacrifice civil rights leaders made to right the injustices in our history. Reverend al, even worth is that even i mean, the insult to that is that youre talking about rights like its past tense. Were continuing to fight. Good point. So here you have a Justice Department that has said were not going to deal with issues like criminal justice in terms of police misconduct. Were not going to deal with issues and we met with sessions, many of us in the civil rights leadership. But were going to go memorialize and even lecture people on what civil rights should be from yesteryear, while we try to reinforce some of the things that was forefront yesteryear and today. Thats why cory booker, reverend Jesse Jackson and others are in alabama now, fighting to get the vote out. Because if this man wins, it signals a return to nullification, and i dont now how you normalize that. I dont know if it signals a return. I think were in the midst of a return. John lewis has urged the right to do whatever he wants in my mind. I think him skipping this is fantastic in a way because im a little worried about the matter and antimatter problem of donald trump walking on to the campus of this museum. I think in a just world there would be some kind of invisable force field. And john lewis belongs there. Right. He is actually he is one of the fathers of the civil rights movement. He will be honored in that museum some day. So lets round out the conversation moving now to al franken. You tweeted no fellow senator stood on the senate floor to praise a. M. Franken after he announced his resignation. Thats unusual. Is this a watershed moment . Are you still asking . Yes, i think it is a watershed movement. Its not done. Its emerging. There will be bumps along the road. I think just in the past few months theres been a fundamental shift in attitudes towards Sexual Harassment in the workplace and were seeing it play out in politics and in the news media and all across the United States and it is going to be i think a fundamental issue politically and in next years midterm elections that will propel a Record Number of women to run for office. Well see if they end up winning office. If a Record Number of women win office, that is going to force this change to continue. Thats going to really help. Do you agree, susan . No, it definitely will. The turnout for next year, women show up, making a difference. That will send a message. It will certainly have them growing very scared in 2020. I wanted to ask reverend sharpton just something about being down there. The president was invited to speak. He was invited to attend this. It almost seemed like he was in a bad position no matter which way he went. What do you think his options were . I think his options were that he should from the beginning of his presidency, when he met with the congress am black caucus, and others, start having a real balanced conversation about civil rights. You know, he called me after the election. I said, well, i wont meet you a lone, im not doing the photo op red carpet thing. Meet with civil rights leaders, well bring them all in. He wouldnt do it. For him to go now is disenginious from his movement against barack obama all through his fights with congresswoman water, fredricka wilson. Hes had an oonty civil rights approach. So why would it be awkward for him to go now . Because it is incongruous with how he has had his presidency, for him to stand anywhere near, memorializing and exalting civil rights. Reverend sharpton, thank you. Well see you this weekend on politics nation here on msnbc. Were back in two minutes. Ry stp from the moment you decide to move your money to the instant your new retirement account is funded. Because when you know where you stand, things are just clearer. A little bit o soul, yeah because when you know where you stand, this s electricity. This is a power plant. This is tim barckholtz. Thats me this is something he is researching at exxonmobil using fuel cells to capture Carbon Emissions at power plants. This is the potential. Reducing co2 emissions by up to 90 . While also producing more power. This could be big. Energy lives here. And the wolf huffed like you do sometimes, grandpa . Well, when you have copd, it can be hard to breathe. It can be hard to get air out, which can make it hard to get air in. So i talked to my doctor. She said. Symbicort could help you breathe better, starting within 5 minutes. Symbicort doesnt replace a rescue inhaler for sudden symptoms. Symbicort helps provide significant improvement of your lung function. Symbicort is for copd, including chronic bronchitis and emphysema. It should not be taken more than twice a day. Symbicort contains formoterol. Medicines like formoterol increase the risk of death from asthma problems. Symbicort may increase your risk of lung infections, osteoporosis, and some eye problems. You should tell your doctor if you have a heart condition or high Blood Pressure before taking it. Symbicort could mean a day with better breathing. Watch out, piggies child giggles symbicort. Breathe better starting within 5 minutes. Get symbicort free for up to one year. Visit saveonsymbicort. Com today to learn more. We make sure youre in the loop at every step from the moment you decide to move your money to the instant your new retirement account is funded. Because when you know where you stand, things are just clearer. A little bit o soul, yeah welcome back. We continue the conversation. I want to pick up on the al franken conversation. I have heard over the course of this show from five women that im friends with, extremely powerful women, either in media, politics or business. And instead of, like, good dress or call me after the show, sort of their feelings about the me too movement or the al franken story. One said this. Are you concerned that the silence breakers movement will be diminished as the definition is moved beyond banishing men who use power and arrogant disregard to abuse and assault women to a lesser more nuanced misdeeds or now maybe something that never happened order happened differently . We could lose the moment, i fear. We women. And she goes on to say your guests are essentially communicating that this is all worth it. Mixing various behaviors up enough to diminish and confuse from the horrible assaults, from the misdemeanors, and then it evolves into a witchhunt with the accusers being ignored because we lost control and focus on the true crimes. I just fear were losing our audience by blending this all and making it the same. Thank you for trying to walk this very precarious line. So part of me flippantly wants to say lets go ahead and try the experiment of moving too far on this since weve never done it before in the history of all time. I think it has happened in the past. I could name some cases that no, as far as like a Cultural Movement where were like completely intolerant of any and all impropriety, i dont think thats ever happened. Weve never had women fully in power but do you understand the concerns . Let me answer more seriously. There is nuance. Losing your job is not the end of the world. Were the ones who have control of the nuance in this conversation. Al franken, as i said yesterday, i dont want him to disappear. I want him to remain on the national stage. I want him to be a voice. I want him to be a voice for women. I also think that of all the men that have been acused, whats happening with Harvey Weinstein or matt lauer is very different then whats happening with al franken. Well, al franken just lost his job. No, he resigned. Right. And hes still welcomed, for the most part, people congratulated him afterwards. I am going to talk to him if he ever wants to talk to me. I bet hes welcome on your show too. Yes. Okay, sure, and i think we get to have control over what the lasting ramifications of all of this are. As someone who has lost my job because of my own bad behavior in the past, i resent the idea that this is the same thing as, like, being banished from polite society. There are reasons that you can lose your job. One of them might be bad behavior. Are we the judge and jury . Is al franken a pervert . Yes, we are the judge and jury and we can say hes not, we can say hes welcome back on morning joe. We can say hes welcome to do a speaking tour about all of this. We can make the decisions. But hes Just Announced hes not welcome to be colleagues with all the people he resigned he resigned under pressure. Sure, sure. He just didnt decide to resign, he was forced to resign. Once the floodgates open more influent jobs on the planet and i think he can still be very powerful and influential. Hes a very wealthy man. You guys are arguing to not banish him. I hear that argument. I dont want to banish him. Its 9 00 a. M. And the conversation just got real. This is a great conversation. Thank you for your contribution, joe. Well, you know, i do sometimes know when to sit back and shut up. I agree and disagree with you and you today. And you, okay, no. Susan page. Susan page, you were amazing, we all agree with you. I think were at a Pivotal Moment but were also at a very dangerous time. Lets continue this conversation on monday. Stephanie ruhle picks up the coverage right now. Heres my proshgs gang, i just want to keep watching mika and joe this morning. Hi there, im stephanie ruhle, with a lot to hit today. Starting with the