frontrunners for the 2024 republican nomination, even though only one of them is officially in the race. ahead, a veteran gop strategist explains why desantis is stealing some of trump s thunder. meanwhile, election deniers are celebrating after three states pulled out of a program to protect voter rolls with two more states considering joining them. we ll explain this latest development. plus, we ll go through the changes norfolk southern is making following the derailment of two of its trains in ohio. and we ll ask transportation secretary pete buttigieg about the federal response to the disaster and how to prevent another one from happening when he joins us later this morning. and good morning and welcome to morning joe. it is tuesday, march 7th. we are live in abu dhabi, the crossroads of the world. it truly is, with our 30/50 summit, forbes and know your value has come together to create an incredible, cross-cultural, multi-generational summit that, really, t
that is not stirring up violence? he already stirred up violence on january the 6th. it s been one fascist talking point after another fascist talking point through the years. this is fascism. you can t round off the curves and try to make it look pretty. it ain t gonna look pretty. i am your retribution? i am your ret i ve got a question. is trump the retribution for losing in 22 or 21? is he the retribution for losing in 20 or 19 or 18? is he their retribution for like, seriously. this is, like, a guy who you think is going to go up and dunk the basketball, shatter the backboard. he stumbles, and he can t even make a layup. just call me retribution. no, you re a loser. you keep losing elections. yet, he pitches himself, jen, as
of an understatement. really, i mean, trump s message top to bottom was sick. again, it was all-out warfare on anybody who didn t vote for him, or people who voted for him who still won t follow him with the lie that led to the riots on january the 6th. the line that will be remembered from the speech is i am your retribution. i am your payback. to say he s been graded on a curve is saying it mildly. i wish i was graded in school by how some analysts grade donald trump. karl rove has backed ron desantis already, and he s not even in the race. there s always been the divide between the bush family and donald trump, even before 2016. paul speaker excuse me, paul ryan was also mentioned there, the former house speaker dismissing trump s chances again of winning the gop presidential nomination. he was asked about the race during the interview with new
the republican party is in the exact same place, except everything is smaller. cpac is diminished. they come off a disappointing 2022 midterms. this was a moment when a lot of the party did, for the first time, blame donald trump and say, you re the reason why we took the losses. didn t hold january 6th, helsinki, children in cages at the border, or charlottesville against him, but they held this against him. it wasn t enough to finish him off. a portion of the republican party still remains firm. now, that portion has shrunk, but it might still be big enough. at this moment, we would say he is favored to still be the republican nominee in 2024. i m sure, at this moment, the anti-trump forces seem to be coalescing around desantis. desantis is not a declared candidate. he s not been nationally vetted. there s no real sense, whether or not voters as they get to