good morning. welcome to morning joe. that s a look at times square. we re a heart of hours the ball the will drop and we ll turn the page to 2024. good morning. joe and mika have the morning off. a lot to get to this morning, including another state remove donald trump from the republican presidential ballot. we will have expert legal and political analysis on that big decision from maine s secretary of state. plus nikki haley s attempt at cleaning up her highly criticized answer on the cause of the civil war. also forces continue to strike refugee camps where it believes hamas terrorists are hiding. this comes as the biden administration is putting more pressure to protect civilians. plus we ll take a look at the stories that dominated 2023 from two wars overseas to chaos on capitol hill, as well as the former president s many legal battles as he enters the presidential election. a lot to go through. with us for all of us is nbc news national affairs analyst john heilem