to be seen. and then finally on monday, december 12th, just yesterday, news that law enforcement will bagged the hands of the victims to preserve them for evidence, suggest if there was defensive action, there might be evidence under their ir skin, whether or not they were able to defend themselves before ultimately they lost their lives. it s an incredibly sad tragedy, and mind blowing we don t know one month later where this investigation is headed. coming up, the state department now looking into creative ways to secure the release of american paul whelan from russia. former state department spokesperson morgan ortagus how the u.s. should be negotiating, next. oh man. always look for the grown in idaho seal.
good morning and welcome to way too early on this monday, december 12th. thank you for starting your day with us. wnba star brittany griner is on the road to recovery. she was flown into her home state of texas on friday, to receive medical treatment following her negotiated release from a russian penal colony. on saturday, griner s wife, cheryl, took to instagram to thank all of those who helped bring britney home. the couple started their journey to heal our minds, bodies, and spirits. in an interview yesterday, the u.s. presidential envoy for hostage affairs gave some insight into griner s immediately after she was freed. when she finally got on to the u.s. plane, i said you must have been through a lot over the
kremlin. what we re learning this morning about a phone call between president biden and the president of ukraine last anything. also ahead, the latest from capitol hill as lawmakers have just five days to find a deal to prevent a government shutdown. good morning and welcome to morning joe. it is monday, december 12th. with us we have former white house press secretary now an msnbc host, jen psaki, the president of the council on foreign relations, richard haass, author and nbc news presidential historian, michael beschloss, and the host of way too early, white house bureau chief at politico, jonathan lemire. thank you, all. richard haass, we re so sorry, but we have to start with what happened yesterday with the giants. i guess i should ask you, what happened with the giants yesterday? joe, we don t have to start there, just to be honest. it was, wow, they weren t even in the same zip code yesterday. probably the best team in the nfl against a team that had been
very tight timeline of a very busy few weeks, all of these secret meetings that is happened in a real hurry right after trump was elected but before he was sworn in. trump gets elected novemberth it, three weeks later on december 1st, that s when flynn and jared meet with the russian ambassador at trump tower and talk about the secret on going means of communication and also they should set up a meeting where they could have an envoy for trump meet with an envoy for putin. so that was december 1st. then everything starts to happen in a rush. monday, december 12th,less than two weeks later after the last meeting there, the russian ambassador comes back to trump tower. this time he reportedly meets with jared s assistant. that was monday, december 12th. tuesday december 13th, jared himself takes a meeting at trump tower with the head of a sanctioned russian bank, one who has a military intelligence background installed in his job by russian president vladimir putin.
and especially with what we just reported out in the last few days in the context of the special counsel s investigation, we got in phenomenal very tight timeline of a very busy few weeks all these secret meetings that happened in a real hurry right after trump was elected but before he was sworn in so trump gets elected november 8th. three weeks later on december 1 s that s when flynn and jared meet with the russian am basketball to ambassador at trump tower and talk about the secret on going means of communication and also they should set up a meeting where they could have an envoy of trump. that was december 1st. then everything starts to happen in a rush. monday, december 12th,less than two weeks later after the last meeting there, the russian ambassador comes back to trump tower and meets with jared s assistant monday december 12th and tuesday december 13th, jared