everybody else up on the debate stage. that gig is like eight years old, right? that s elvis in 77 now. and i think chris christie s got his number, and he knows, hey, donald trump has a gut instinct, his political gut instinct is second to none. like he sees it coming, and so i just don t i think he s scared to death of chris christie and will not have the guts to go or the nerve to go on stage with chris christie anywhere. a person in trump s orbit a few days ago told me when the decision is not yet made if he will go to the debate, he said, well, an argument to not go would be chris christie trains his sights on ron desantis and maybe finishes him off. they re well aware of christie s strength on the debate stage and chris christie has not yet qualified for the second republican debate so if trump wants to sit this one out, maybe he can show up on a debate stage a few weeks later and not have
announcements from the administration shortly, cutting back on investment in china, that will further exacerbate these tensions. yeah, a major story line to fall. terrific analysis, as always, from retired four-star navy admiral, james stavridis. thank you and we will talk to you again a little later on morning joe. thank you, sir. and thanks to all of you for getting up way too early with us on this wednesday morning. morning joe starts right now. you know, they ll say, trump didn t look well. he was extremely wet. it s 104 or 5 degrees in this room, but we re okay with it, right? geez, we re not going to say he doesn t look well. we re going to say he looks like elvis in 77. the thing is, i think he was actually making fun of the appearance of other people.
stolen from him, that makes a lot of republicans roll eyes and say please, we got president biden on the ropes. his numbers are low. the wrong track number is high. inflation. we have all these things going for us. let s not talk about 2020. i think a lot of republicans that you talk to and i do too belief desantis could be forward looking and not look back at an election he claim was stolen. you look at his speeches. even the one this past week. they are all backward looking. and they re all the greatest hits from 2016 and not performed well with all due respect to the king of rock & roll. this is fat elvis in 77, huffing and puffing and sweating and bloated. like, barely being able to get you know, the scarves out from around his neck. i don t think republicans want this. again, there are, because as i always said and as you know, as
her crowds which are rivaling some of the trump rallies we ve seen. donald trump always talks about his crowds, these were the type of crowds that he 4,000, 5,000 in new hampshire before the new hampshire primary, he was very proud of that. he s proud of you know, he s had big crowds, 20,000, 25,000. but donald trump is a showman. no doubt about it. regardless whether you love him, whether you hate him, he puts on a show for people, that s what draws them. we talked about it before. it s elvis in 77. he sings the greatest hits. it s a happening event. elizabeth warren is drawing these crowds talking about policy. right. talking about the legislation
than george w. bush. if we want to go to the facts and be patriots and put the country first, we can look at the american recovery and reinvestment act. 10% of the $780 billion spent generated 35% of all the jobs. what are the pillars of a second term? for president obama? well first of all there is no pillar of his second term. he is, you know i use the example in 2008 he was elvis 1957. 2012, he s looking more like elvis in 77. he s singing the old hits, doesn t believe it himself. he president didn t bring up the stimulus act. if it was such a great boon for american workers, he would have brought it up. he didn t bring up obama care. he has no plan over the next four years, i agree with david. if mitt romney wants to win, he needs to come forward and tell people how he can get them back to work. we can talk about medicare reform, which i believe in.