money payments to stormy daniels. remember that? now, that could come back to haunt him. his former attorney and fixer, michael cohen, says trump can t hide from the paper trail. calling the new grand jury convened by the manhattan d.a. his biggest legal threat yet. and there are many. meanwhile, the former president is suing journalist bob woodward for $50 million. we ll explain what that is all about. plus, more fallout and firings in the aftermath of tyre nichols death. we ll go live to memphis for the latest in that case. for the second time in three years, lawmakers on capitol hill are talking about police reform following a high-profile murder case involving officers. we ll look at whether these discussions have a real chance at being successful. and president joe biden announces a major policy shift on covid in response to strong opposition from house republicans. good morning. welcome to morning joe. it is tuesday, january 31st. joe will be back tomorrow.
we have only recently learned about the name and the circumstances surrounding the sixth officer is something that is frustrating to community activists as well as the attorneys for tyre nichols family. when we got the name of the officer yesterday, one of the first things those attorneys representing the nichols family said was, why didn t we know about this name earlier? we ve been asking for transparency from the memphis police department from the beginning. in their view, the fact they did not know who this officer was and he has not yet been fired shows, to them, they say, the memphis police department is not serious enough about being transparent as it relates to this case. interestingly, the name of that sixth officer really started to surface on social media first. local activists, as well as a local progressive outlet called the tennessee holler, they noticed the name of the sixth officer, preston hemphill, in an early affidavit, where it said in that that he had deployed hi
white nationalists for what happened in charlottesville. called them clowns. calling them clowns. and so now know that, okay, breitbart is going full throttle against this white house apparently? this is going to be a very bad time, i think, for the trump administration because now you have a break in your base. you have a break in the people who believe in, you know, the sort of white nationalism and white supremacy that brought you into this position in the first place. not everyone, but yes, and david gergen, to the point that, you know, of all places for steve bannon to be talking to, american prospect, this progressive outlet, to whom he whith whom he picks up th phone, has this conversation, makes the north korean news, which absolutely contradicts the president, do you think that was steve bannon strategic steve bannon planting the seeds in a pre-firing place? absolutely. i think it was in preparation for this departure. he s known it, and he s showing that he s go
we told you at the top of the show a video showing mitt romney telling supporters in private that 47% of americans pay no income tax was posted online by the progressive outlet mother jones forcing romney to address the matter in a news conference last night. though the figure is in line with the tax policy center s findings on federal tax payment, most households did end up paying some tax on their earnings. if you want to sound smart, tell your friends, according to the tax policy center. only 18.1% of households paid neither income tax nor payroll tax in 2011. of that 18.1% more than half were elderly who already paid in over the course of their lives and most of those who weren t elderly had income under $20,000. let s huddle up to watch