history today by saying dante be on the presidential ballot there. it seems like a really fast 24 hours ago that you and i were having our first discussion of what nikki haley said when asked about the cause of the civil war. it really exploded since then. it is truly incredible that she, the governor of south carolina, cannot even talk about this issue without tying herself up in knots. it s truly astounding. we have your pressure david whyte with us tonight. oh he s perfect. originally booked of course as history professor as an expert on what caused the civil war, as are many high school students jean robinson s with us too, he s also an expert on what caused the civil war. but we will also get a chance to talk to professor blight about the 14th amendment, which is what is being used to knock non-trump off the ballots. he s very much an expert on that. and so much to come. lawrence, if you do me a favor, could you ask professor blight what he thinks frederick dou
good morning. happy new year. welcome to a special new year s day edition of morning joe. we re on tape this morning with some of our top, recent conversations. we begin with a discussion about donald trump s increasing use of authoritarian language in his speeches and social media posts. in recent months, trump has repeated fascist rhetoric, including saying immigrants are, quote, poisoning the blood of our country, and referring to his political enemies as vermin. we pledge to you that we will root out the communists, marxists, fascists, and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country. the threat from outside forces is sinister, dangerous, and grave, more than the threat from within. donald trump echoing the words of 20th century authoritarians at a rally earlier this month. joining us now, national affairs analyst john heilemann. special correspondent at vanity fair and host of the fast politics podcast, molly jong-fast. and co
ineligible to appear on that state s 2024 republican primary ballot, because he incited an insurrection at the u.s. capitol on january 6th. almost three years ago. with her ruling, they ve now become the second state to say that trump is ineligible to appear on the 2024 republican primary ballot. the bell s decision comes a week after the colorado supreme court issued a similar ruling. that ruling is now being appealed by both sides, the nation s highest court. the nine justices of the supreme court are being petition to settle the issue of whether trump is barred from serving as president under section three of the 14th amendment, which bars any candidate from holding the office who engaged in insurrection. in her ruling tonight, the secretary of state wrote, and i quote, i have little trouble concluding that the events of january 6th, 2021 were an insurrection within the meaning of section three of the 14th amendment. to the record establishes that mr. trump over the course
friends. it is wednesday, december 27th, i m willie geist. joe and mika have the morning off. a lot to get to including israeli forces shifting military efforts to southern and central gaza with officials warning the war could take many more months. and hours from now, antony blinken and alejandro mayor kas are set to meet with mexican president obrador. plus donald trump continues to claim he should be immune from any prosecution surrounding his efforts to overturn the 2020 election. we ll have the latest there. also ahead, bus drivers across the country increasingly under attack on the job. we ll dig into an alarming trend and what officials are doing about it. with us this morning, jonathan lemire, susan paige, and retired four star navy admiral james stavridis. good morning to you all. let s begin together with israel expanding the ground invasion in gaza. this as the united states continues to urge israel to protect civilian lives and shift to a more low intensity oper
at stake. the republicans have only a three seat majority in the house of representatives. the democrats have only a one seat majority in the united states senate, with democratic senators facing difficult campaigns in ohio, michigan, and nevada. democrats will be running on a 3.7% unemployment rate. unemployment has not been, has been below 4% for 22 months. that s the longest stretch since 1969. president biden was at an infrastructure event at the carpenters international training center in the battleground state of nevada on the day the final jobs report for 2023 was released. folks, all this project stands in stark contrast to my predecessor. it was talked about infrastructure week. [laughter] for years infrastructure week. but it failed. he failed. on my watch instead of infrastructure week america is having infrastructure decade. [applause] decade. trump just talks the talk. we walk the walk. [applause] look, he likes to say america is a failing nation. frankly, he d