good morning, to our viewers in the usa and around the world. i m john avlon. it is monday, december 18th. it s 5:00 a.m. here in new york, noon in tel aviv, where the u.s. defense secretary is scheduled to meet now with his israeli counterpart. secretary lloyd austin s mission is to press israeli officials on specific milestones for progress in israel s war against hamas, as civilian casualties climb. here s democratic senator chris van hollen talking to abc this sunday. we do have unacceptable levels of casualties. we see loose rules of engagement, way looser than anything that the united states would exercise. we would not drop a 2,000-pound bomb on a refugee camp to target a hamas commander. a senior defense official tells cnn that austin will, quote, want to hear very clear articulation of the israeli self-assessment today. that same official has confidence in the israeli military and so he s there to ask questions and learn more about their plan. elliott gotkine
i understand it. in fact, trump made the republican party the party of working americans in a way that probably hasn t been true for almost 100 years. yeah, because in 100 years, there hasn t been a politician who said, i m going to make this for third graders to understand what i m talking about. talking on that level? that was newt gingrich encouraging ron desantis to get on the level of third graders. i m not joking. you know, kind of like donald trump does. wonder what he means. this is a tough hurricane. one of the wettest we ve ever seen from the standpoint of water. rarely have we had an experience like it, and it certainly is not good. oh, my god. one of the wettest we ve had. good morning. welcome to morning joe. hope you ve had a good week. it is friday. friday, may 26th. let s bring in with us the host of way too early, white house bureau chief at politico, jonathan lemire. the host of inside with jen psaki, jen psaki. she s a former white house press
i will stay with it until we can get it done. the negotiations we re having with speaker mccarthy is about the outlines of what the budget will look like, not about default. house speaker kevin mccarthy and president joe biden remain on the same page about not letting the u.s. default on its debt, but time is really running out to get a deal in place before the deadline. we ll have much more on the negotiations and that time line in just a moment. plus, a federal judge sends a message to an insurrectionist handing out the longest sentence to a january 6th defendant to date. and also ahead we ve got new details on presidential campaign fund-raising for florida governor ron desantis including some questionable actions by his gubernatorial staff. good morning and welcome to way too early on this friday, may 26th. i m jonathan lemire, thanks for starting your day with us. with less than a week until the united states could default on its debts house lawmakers have left
democrats, senate republicans a time to work through the weekend in an effort to reach a framework agreement. our republican colleagues who have said action on the border is so urgent should have no problem with continuing to work next week. senate majority leader chuck schumer calling republicans bluff on border security. he s delaying the upper chamber s recess in hopes of hammering out a deal on foreign aid, which includes critical funding on ukraine. meanwhile, the biden administration put more pressure on the israeli prime minister to scale back the country s ground war in gaza. we ll have the latest developments from the middle east. also ahead how the biden campaign is trying to capitalize on the impeachment inquiry into the president. hey, everybody. good morning to you. and welcome to way too early on this friday, december 15th. i m yasmin vossoughian, in for jonathan lemire. there are signs this morning on a potential deal on immigration reform, which could pa
while answering questions about the negotiations. we ll have those comments for you in just a moment. and they come as president biden is busy with world leaders at the g7 summit in japan. we ll recap yesterday s events and preview what s ahead including a new round of sanctions for russia aimed at closing loopholes that moscow has been using to security previous attempts to hold it accountable for the invasion of ukraine. good morning and welcome to way too early on this friday, may 19th. i m jonathan lemire. thanks for starting your day with us. we ll begin this morning on capitol hill where it appears that at least some progress is being made on the debt ceiling. house speaker kevin mccarthy shifted to optimism yesterday on the negotiations saying a deal could now be made in time in order to avoid a default. i just believe where we were a week ago and where we are today is a much better place because we have the right people in the room discussing it in a very profes