early, what time is it? it s morning joe . dale rundown with chuck and savannah. president obama heads to arizona today to lead a memorial from saturday s tragic shooting. and the first pictures from congresswoman gabrielle giffords hospital room. there she is being comforted by her husband. and there s sarah palin. she released an eight-minute video this morning in response to the tragedy. we are better than the mindless finger-pointing we endured in the wake of the tragedy. and finally, spotlight on mental health. with so many warning signs, couldn t anything have been done before jared loughner bought his gun? it s wednesday, january 12th, 2011. i m chuck todd. good morning, everyone. i m savannah guthrie, live here in tucson, arizona. well, we re going to begin with the big memorial service tonight at the university of
who makes us very proud. thank you. good to see you. and a reminder, msnbc will air the memorial service in tucson. special live coverage starts at 8:00 eastern right here on msnbc. chuck? all right. thank you, savannah. the daughter of tucson, the first daughter of tucson. time now for our trivia question. why are flags flown at half-staff? it s a sign of respect in public mourning. it s also flown following the death of certainly government officials and times of national distress, on various holidays, and any other time instructed by the president or government. the exact origin of this tradition is unknown, but the earliest incident dates back to the 1600s when a ship commander was killed and his crew flew their flag at half-mast in mourning. we ll talk with the president of the u.s. chamber next. plus, sarah palin, 15 hours before the memorial today, she chose to release her own statement in reaction to the shooting. we re going to air another clip of it right after this.
and what you think, frankly, of sheriff dupnik s remarks, when he said, unfortunately, this area has become a mecca of bigry and prejudice. what do you think about that? i ll tell you, the history of our city goes back many hundreds of years. i think it is recognized as a wonderful community, very diverse, as the president indicated. we are a big city, but we have that kind of small city feel. we care about each other. i m standing in front of a candlelight vigil that was set up days ago. and it continues to grow. and that s what tucson is all about. it s a wonderful city, and we will recover from this. and i think that everybody recognizes we are and we ll continue to be a great city. all right. mayor bob walkup of tucson, dr. robert shelton, president of the university of arizona, thank you for hosting us right here on this campus. thank you for an being alumna
and, chuck, we heard one of the people i interview in the story describe gabby giffords as a tucson girl. that s how they talk around here. and they say, savannah, you re a tucson girl and i m proud of that. i learned something last night on nightly after you wrapped up your piece about linda ron stad and her connections to tucson. tell me, i love it. she s a tucson girl and that s a little piece of trivia you grow up knowing. and her brother was the long-time tucson police chief. this is a wonderful community with a lot to be proud of and i m honored to be sitting here today. that s it for daily rundown. i love the idea it s the unphoenix. i love that. offense should be taken, phoenix. well done, suvan aa. coming up on msnbc. chris jansing & co. chris is also in tucson, as
everyone here this week wants to send a message to the world, don t remember us for what you saw last week. this is the tucson people here wish you knew. a city of postcard perfect views nestled between the mountains and among the cactus. a town proud of its university, especially its basketball team. a thur ooily modern city that still loves to celebrate its old western roots. today a community nursing a selective wound. gabby is a tucson girl. that s why it hurts so much. they re us. they re one of us. reporter: at this cafe today, everyone said the same thing. tucson is the biggest small town you could ever possibly live in. you know, there s, i would say there s not even six degrees of separation between people. i just met you, but your sister comes in here every day. reporter: there is something about a place that has triple-digit temperatures five months a year. settled by the spanish, once a