Starts right now. Today was the deadline for Donald Trumps legal team to file their brief with the senate for trumps upcoming Impeachment Trial. And it looks like trumps lawyers will be arguing that the trial is unconstitutional because trump is no longer president. Im going to use this. Im going to use this next time a cop pulls me over. Im going to be like, well, im no longer speeding. I was. I was. Im not now. Therefore this ticket is unconstitutional. Good morning. And welcome to morning joe. It is wednesday, february 3rd, along with joe, will li and me, we have White House Reporter for the Associated Press, jonathan lemire, former u. S. Senator now an nbc news and msnbc political analyst Claire Mccaskill and politics and Journalism Professor at Morgan State University and msnbc political contributor Jason Johnson is with us. So Donald Trumps second Impeachment Trial kicks off next week. And according to the case against him, the former president s role in the capitol hill riot is, quote, unmistakable. We will get to that just ahead. Were also following new developments in the push to vaccinate the American People against coronavirus. The Biden Administration will begin sending them directly to pharmacies. Plus, the latest on the growing unrest in russia as Opposition Leader Alexei Navalny is ordered to prison. And theres a major shakeup in the tech world as amazon Ceo Jeff Bezos prepares to step down. A lot going on this morning. Were also following last nights meeting between House Minority leader Kevin Mccarthy and congresswoman Marjorie Taylor greene over her incendiary comments and embrace of Conspiracy Theories, according to the Associated Press, they spent about 90 minutes together in mccarthys office. Aides offered no immediate comment afterward. The house gop Steering Committee also met late last night. The Steering Committee headed by mccarthy is the grown up which picks which groups republican members sit on and can also take away assignments. Two sources tell nbc news that nothing was decided at last nights meeting regarding congresswoman greene. Willie . So congressman mccarthy is quiet so far but a growing number of Senate Republicans are speaking out about the congresswoman. I think we should have nothing to do with Marjorie Taylor greene. And think we should repudiate the things she said and move away from her. I think our party has to make it very clear that she does not represent us in any way. Our big tent is not large enough to both accommodate conservatives and kooks. She doesnt represent the party. I dont want her as the face of our party. I think this is a great time for us to really talk about what we want to see in the upcoming years and continue to build. We dont need people that are promoting violence or anything like that. That senator joni ernst there. Senator john thune a member of Republican Leadership spoke to cnn saying, quote, House Republicans will have to decide who they want to be. Do they want to be the party of limited government and fiscal responsibility, free markets, peace through strength and pro life, or do they want to be the party of Conspiracy Theories and qanon . Senator marco rubio of florida told cnn, quote, we shouldnt be making these Conspiracy Theory people famous. I think its undignifying, he said. Joe, you can add to that list todd young, the senator who said that this woman, this congresswoman is an embarrassment to the party. She is, quote, nutty. Obviously Mitch Mcconnell two days ago led the way when he called her looney and laid out why shes bad for the party. Se he sees what democrats are doing already, Rolling Out Campaign Ads making the Republican Party the party of qanon and the party of this Back Bench Congresswoman from georgia and the senate, the house isnt doing anything, the senate is trying to put a stop to it. Theyre trying to separate themselves from her, but you know, its interesting that its really its legitimate attack against the House Republicans, at least, that Kevin Mccarthy cant separate himself from her. The Steering Committee refuses to move on this. Theyre talking about punishing liz cheney. But afraid to cross this woman. And lets just be really clear because people like to talk about jewish space lasers and all these other crazy theories that shes had, but lets break this down where it actually threatens people inside congress. She endorsed the assassination of nancy pelosi, putting a bullet in Nancy Pelosis brain. Liked that tweet. She said that people needed to be patient if they wanted to ensure that barack obama was lynched. That people were getting in place for the lynching of barack obama. People were getting in place for the lynching of hillary clinton. That if everybody was careful they could make that happen. And liberal judges wouldnt get in the way to stop it. So, willie, its all, you know, this house, Kevin Mccarthys house, is legitimately, legitimately a proper political target. You know, they the republicans spent an entire campaign trying to attach aocs politics. Aoc has never actually threatened to kill a republican, but republicans have spent the past several years attaching aocs politics to everybody in the Democratic Party from nancy pelosi to joe biden. Thats illegitimate. It just is. I mean, because you look at the politics, you look at nancy pelosi was mocking her caucus years ago on 60 minutes. So thats actually not as accurate as democrats who are now attaching this woman to a republican conference who wont criticize her, who wont take away her committee assignments, who wont rebuke her. Kevin mccarthy is still scared of her. Willy, i just wonder whether joni ernst, john thune, Mitch Mcconnell had to answer questions about the stupidity and the asinine tweets of donald trump for four years, theyre just saying, no, no. Were off this train. Were not mitt romney, no. You know what, im going to actually, actually try to pass a bill without people having to ask me about an asinine, violent statement that a republican made somewhere. It certainly seems the republican senators, at least, are getting there, willie. Yeah. Well, House Republicans, though, remain on that train. They want to be on that train. Kevin mccarthy went to maralago to signal he remains on that train. We dont know what that meeting with the Georgia Congresswoman was like over those 90 minutes last night. We should get some read out of it hopefully this morning. What is he going to do at this point . He stood by while she did and said all these things and its not like its new from her. This is who she was from the beginning and while she campaigned. Kelly loffler running in georgia in that runoff, campaigned with marnlry taylor green. She wanted her endorsement. This is a woman and this is a sector of voters that republicans clearly want to keep close to them. So, it will be interesting to see if Kevin Mccarthy actually is willing to cross her. The wall street Journal Editorial Board writing in a new piece about a House Republican reckoning. Quote, if the house gop punishes mrs. Cheney and says nothing about ms. Greene, it will deserve a longer time in the wilderness. The main goal of the House Minority is to become the majority. 2022 republicans should have an excellent choice but they will squander it if they percentage serious members like liz cheney and let themselves be confined by Conspiracy Theorists and parkland truthers. Claire, you watched this play out among your former colleagues in the senate, Mitch Mcconnell came out and had seen enough of this and more republicans falling in yesterday. What do you make of it . And what do you think House Republicans will do . Well, i find it really ironic, willie. Marco rubios quote was, we shouldnt make conspiracy people famous. Guess who the most famous conspiracy person is, guess who is the guise that for weeks was touting Conspiracy Theories on the tv about the election and dominion Voting Machines and all of these silly Conspiracy Theories, none other than donald trump. Who is the guy who is backing up this qanon lady . Donald trump. Why is Kevin Mccarthy afraid of her . Because hes afraid of donald trump. So, i find it ironic that the republicans in the senate are fine speaking up against the qanon lady but they have not been able to find the ability to speak up forcefully against the Conspiracy Theories that were fomented and that caused an insurrection in the nations capitol by none other than the former president of the United States. I think really its unfair to the qanon lady. It should be both trump and the qanon lady that are being called out by these guys. Wel, you know whats interesting is, jonathan lemire, Mitch Mcconnell has actually called out not only the qanon lady, the republican qanon congresswoman, but hes also called out the lies that donald trump lies. Did it started on january 6th. Its almost like a light switch went off for him. Oddly enough, Mitch Mcconnell has been one of the few republicans that have come out and spoken out against donald trump that clearly. Kevin mccarthy tried and then he went back inside of his shell. Im enjoying the nomenclature of qanon lady. Thats appropriate for the congresswoman today. But youre right about mcconnell. Lets be clear. He allowed the Conspiracy Theory of a stolen election to prosper from the white house, among republicans for weeks. Fueling a lot of what happened after that. But mcconnell did indeed eventually come around, suggested that donald trump lost and joe biden won. And we saw him just hours before the capitol was sacked forcefully denounce the Conspiracy Theories and certainly floated by trump and certainly he has not shown any signs of wavering. But i dont know that the Republican Party can be said about that as a whole. We know the qanon lady, congresswoman Taylor Greene is supposed to meet with President Trump at maralago in the coming days. We saw she has already spoken to him by phone. We know she has support from at least some republicans in congress. That puts them in a difficult bind. And now there are reports breaking this morning that mccarthy is looking for ways to perhaps strip her of her seats on the education and labor committees. But its unclear exactly how that will play out, whether she would step down willingly or try to fight it which would make this mess all the greater for republicans. But theres no question, joe, a week from now were heading to the trial, we can break down the former president s legal theories later in the show, but as that looms and now the republicans have to deal with this mess, too, this is not where they want to be as they enter this new chapter in washington. Mika this is not also, this is just so speak watching at home understand this and theyre trying to figure out how Kevin Mccarthy sorts through this, this is not a difficult decision. Its really not. When you have someone who has really called for the lynching of a former president of the United States and called for the lynching of a former Secretary Of State, called for the lynching of a former first lady and told everybody to be patient, that they needed to work through it so they could kill them and lynch them and like posts talking about putting a bullet in the brain of the speaker of the house. A woman who after the january 6th Terrorist Assault on the u. S. Capitol, the next day said she would do it again. She was glad that it happened. That, it had to be done. She wouldnt change a thing. Kevin, this is not hard. This is not hard. Youre standing at the abyss. And youre looking over the cliff. And there is no future for you, and there is no future for your party if is a future for someone calling for the assassination of top constitutional officers in the United States government. There is no future. No future for you. Unless you move quickly. And mika, thats something the Wall Street Journal editorial page, something that Mitch Mcconnell, thats something that john thune, thats something that other republicans, other conservatives, conservatives understand. Well, and its not even a profile in courage to say, you know, we dont want this in our party. Its at this point trying to save the party from what has been ailing it for many years now. And there are still some republican senators that are not speaking out against the qanon supporting congresswoman. Republican senator Tommy Tubberville of alabama said he couldnt comment on the controversy surrounding greene because the recent Severe Weather has prevented him from reading the news . Willie geist, war eagle thank god he never coached at alabama. Thank god. I havent even looked at what all shes done, he reportedly told a cnn producer. I would have to hold back a statement on that. Travel in this weather its been a little rough. Looking at any news or whatever. Oh my gosh. See, this is not 1972. Yeah, tommy. There are cell phones. There are everybody gets the news all the time, sir. Thats unfortunate. Here is senator oh, boy. This gets worse apparently. Here is senator Lindsey Graham, sidestepping questions on the matter. I rode down with her going to georgia, very pleasant experience. Are these postings accurate . I want to hear from her before i judge what to do about her, i want to know what the facts are. If these are not accurate postings, theyve been manipulated, i would like to know that. If they are accurate, do you still hold these beliefs . Claire, lindsey, i dont know what can be said about lindsey again. This qanon lady, this qanon republican called for the hanging of barack obama. Does the current head of the Judiciary Committee not understand that . This qanon republican called for lynching of Secretary Of State clinton, former first lady, and liked a post talking about the assassination of the speaker of the house. What is lindsey afraid of here . This is to say this is despicable is actually a bit too kind of an assessment for lindsey. Yeah. Its once again its donald trump. Lindsey has lost his way. This is beyond donald trump. No. This woman called for the lynching of a former president , a former first lady. A former Secretary Of State, and the assassination of the speaker of the house. Donald trump was horrific. A threat to our country. This is actually one step above that and lindsey still cant call out someone calling for the murdering of former United States president s. And by the way, she promoted her candidacy with a picture of her with an ar15 with the words by her saying im going after the squad. I mean, this is how she promoted herself is with images of violence. And what she did in the way she referred to the victims at the parkland shooting. I mean, theres no question this is the next level. But the only thing that can explain Lindsey Grahams behavior is, if its possible to explain his behavior, over the last four years ive given up whats wrong with him, where he went and what happened. Right. The only thing i can say that actually explains it is that he knows that trump is loving up on her, that trump thinks shes great, that Trump Supporters think shes great. And that therein lies the problem. They have married this segment of their base in a way that makes divorce painful. And lindsey is not willing to divorce even the worst among them. And that is sad. Joe, in fairness Tommy Tubberville is still working through the three branchs of government and who and why we fought world war ii. He has to get to the papers maybe later today to hear these comments from the congresswoman. Listen the paper boy is pushing through that snowstorm, extra extra. Its hard. Joe, come on. Extra, get your news from january 8th. He gets it and wipes it off. Reads it. Where does tommy live . Like, Alabama We Made Fun of people on the planes, but good lord. What is there a time warp, 50, 60 years . Tough day for the s. E. C. In that clip between auburn and South Carolina with Lindsey Graham. But, Kevin Mccarthy, if he actually does something today about this congresswoman from georgia and strips her of assignments, the education committee, for heavens sake shes on. She denied that School Shootings ever happened, a couple of the most famous ones. If he does it its been under duress. Hes taken two, three weeks and tolerated everything weve seen and heard. We know how he really feels. We knew he flew to maralago. We know he worries about her and her voters. So whatever he does today, it will be meaningful insofar as she wont serve on a committee perhaps, but we know where his heart lies. Yeah. And hes taken far too long. Im really, really surprised that the leadership is so stupid. That theyre attacking liz cheney and embracing this qanon lady, this qanon republican. Clearly so disturbed. Because youve got anybody in any party at any time in American History would say youve got to put this behind you. Youve got to put this behind you. Get it behind you. Get it in your rearview mirror. There is no downside to this. And there is no downside to this. None. Because people the next Conspiracy Theories against the Republican Party in two weeweek three weeks. Theres no loyalty attached to these people. So, what does kevin think he can ride this . You cant do it. All right. Lets put this aside for a second and get to well come back to it. Theres another big story were covering this morning for the business, tech and media worlds. Jeff bezos announced yesterday he will be stepping down from his role as Chief Executive Officer at amazon, the company he founded 27 years ago. Bezos will transition to the role of Executive Chair in the Third Quarter of this year. An executive of Amazon Web Services will take over as ceo. He is a longtime amazon Employee Dating back to 1997, and is responsible for building the companys Cloud Service business that now accounts for 60 of its operating profits. In a memo to employees, bezos said the transition would allow him to focus on other ventures that hes passionate about, including the Bezos Earth Fund and the Washington Post. Lets bring in senior Media Reporter for nbc news and msnbc, dillen buyers. Tell us what this is going to mean on many levels and how this came about . Yeah, sure. Look, in one respect it doesnt mean a whole lot, at least for amazon. Jeff bezos has positioned this company for incredible strength for a very long time. This company has never been stronger. He started it almost three decades ago as a bookstore online bookstore at a time when many people were dubious about what the internet was. Now its a 1. 7 trillion company. And you know, raise your hand on this panel or for anyone watching if you dont have an amazon Prime Account. More than four out of every five americans now have an amazon Prime Account. Thats an incredible relationship this company has with the consumer. Its positioned for strength right now. And if youre jeff bezos, youre coming out of a pandemic that has only accelerated the growth of your company and made a necessary part of everybodys lives and at a time when washington is getting ready to crack down on big tech. You want to go to space. You want to expand your media empire and get more involved in philanthropy. I dont think by making this move that jeff bezos is separating himself from amazon. I think well see more of him. Its a very convenient time for him to look back at everything hes achieved and step back from the day to day operations of this wildly Successful Company and expand his horizons. You know, willy, it doesnt obviously because im old, it doesnt seem like that long ago i was reading articles people wondering whether amazons brilliant concept would ever start making money. That he was throwing everything that he made back into the company. And, you know, we all i certainly have, talked about how steve jobs changed our lives more than anybody else. Its hard to say that anybody changed the way we live more than jeff bezos. And now, of course, people concerned about monopolies, all the things that happened when youre this wildly successful. But, its been an extraordinary arc of his career. Its an incredible build, as dylan kind of just laid out. It was an online bookstore. Think of what it is today. If you can think of anything you need, where do you go first . You go to amazon, book, food, bicycle, it can be whatever you want it to be. And its delivered to your door. We take so many of these things for granted now, but in terms of how easy it is, in terms of the logistics he laid out, much in the way that fred smith did at fedex, revolutionizing logistics, getting things to our door, anything to our door. Its an amazing story. Dylan, the interesting next question given how smart and how visionary jeff bezos has been is what next for him . I know he likes to focus on this Space Company thats sort of an outgrowth of amazon. What do you see on the horizon because hes not a very old guy . No, hes not. And again, i do think hes going to stay involved, and i do think well see more of him. I think definitely theres philanthropy. He could continue to expand the media empire. I think this obsession with space is very real for him. He and elon musk are not just in a race for wealthiest man in the world, theyre in a race really to own space, to own the next frontier. I think thats somewhere were going to see him spending a lot of time. And then i would also just say stepping into the Executive Chairman role is not necessarily meaning that youre not going to be involved in the really landmark decisions that amazon has to make. You know, you think about Larry Ellison at oracle, Bill Gates At Micro Soft and bob iger at disney, theres the opportunity to continue to think about the direction of the company and run the company, youre just not running it day to day so much as youre running it decade to decade. And i would say that well while so many people have an amazon Prime Account, willie, you mentioned the ability to get anything in two hours just watching the opening of your show, seems like Tommy Tubberville might benefit from an amazon Prime Account so he can get things a little quicker. This is true. We could help him. Well let him know. Nbcs dylan byers, thank you very much. Still ahead on she show, a look at President Bidens latest round of cabinet. Plus, democrats are pushing ahead with the president s Coronavirus Relief package, even if it means going it alone. Well speak with Democratic Senators, joe manchin and dick durbin. Youre watching morning joe. Well be right back. 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Sources in the white house and on capitol hill tell nbc news that democrats hope to have an by the way, can i interrupt for a second . Yes. Are you still having a hard time getting adjusted to sources in the white house . Yes. Not being like a caddy or something. You hear sources in the white house and you like flinch. I know. Wait, is this a caddy . Is this a White Nationalist . And so when you hear its still kind of strange. Still kind of getting, you know, getting adjusted to the fact that sources in the white house. Yeah. Whether it was from a Republican Administration in the past or Democratic Administration in the past. Actually probably people who have spent their lives trying to understand how to make this country better. You say sources in the white house, a lot of us still flinch. I flinch. Oh, wait a second, you actually have people there who are intelligent enough they can do their job and communicate to the hill with republicans, people in the other party and actually try to get things done. Any way. And theyre not in an emotion mind because theyre gripped with fear every second of the day as to what might happen on twitter. When youre in that place in your brain and scared, its hard to think. Youre not a good source. Watches cable news. Melts your brain. Hope to have an Economic Relief bill passed by march 14th. The day that extended Unemployment Benefits will run out for millions of americans. President biden hopes to get more republicans on board, but a senior white house official says it seems increasingly likely that democrats will use reconciliation to pass the bill without republican support. Key democratic senator joe manchin helped lay the ground work for that yesterday. Voting with his party to proceed to a budget resolution. However, he also warned that he wants the final bill to be targeted to those who most need relief. Manchin also came out against raising the minimum wage to 15 an hour, which sin colluded in the biden plan. Telling reporters that hes supportive of something thats, quote, responsible and reasonable, like 11 an hour. Senator manchin will be our guest later this morning. The Washington Post reports that on a call with Senate Democrats yesterday, President Biden urged them to, quote, go big on his nearly 2 trillion stimulus proposal a day after he met with Senate Republicans on their much smaller plan. Jonathan lemire, whats your reporting on this . First of all ill say that, yes, it is as an adjustment with sources of the white house and they have far fewer Exclamation Points these days. Sort of wrap my head around that as well. What were hearing here is a growing momentum that as much as the president is interested in some sort of bipartisan solution, joe, that the sense is this is likely going to have to be the democrats going it alone. Now, 1. 9 trillion is a certainly huge number and theres a sense that the white house may be willing to come down on that some, but the 600 billion the republicans floated in that monday meeting is a nonstarter one senior white house person put it to me, it was sort of laughably small. Doesnt mean there cant be some Common Ground but the republicans have to give a lot more than that. Manchin is not alone in floating the idea that some of the relief should be more targeted to only americans who really need it, but yet theres some in the white house who are baffled that republicans seem to be opposing these direct payments, which are so politically popular and point to georgia those two senate races that had so many ramifications. But warnock and osoff said that was a winning issue and democrats are surprised that republicans dont want to stand up for that. So we got some time here still. But there is, of course, an urgency from the white house to get some sort of constructive path going here. But there is a belief that reconciliation may end up having to be the final solution that the republicans simply wont get on board in a meaningful way to make this bipartisan. Claire, even if there is reconciliation, republicans obviously can still vote for it in the end and there are examples in the past where reconciliation has been used as an approach and you had 60, 70 members of the senate vote for legislation. I think, though, democrats in the white house are focussed so much and have been focussed so much on republicans and what theyre not going to do with the republicans that maybe they overlooked until yesterday joe manchin, Kristen Cinema, perhaps senator hickenlooper, others who are going to hear from constituents that they want targeted relief. And that they dont think the bill needs to be close to 2 trillion. It may be 1. 4, 1. 5 trillion maybe a little more reasonable. Theyve got to get to 50 votes. To get to 50 votes theyre going to have to convince some conservative to moderate democrats in their own caucus. So far this white house has been very smart because they have been focussed on policies that are widely popular, that have wide bipartisan support in this country. The president s covid plan in a poll yesterday morning was supported by more than two thirds of americans. So when you have that kind of policy thats so popular, it makes it easier to not focus on whether or not you have politicians that are bipartisan supporting it. I actually think, though, joe, youre right. I think they end up with getting all of the democrats for this program and if they get all of the democrats, theyll get a few republicans, too. Theyll end up having it bipartisan because if some of the more moderate democrats are for the package, if it becomes more targeted, if they phase in the minimum wage over a slightly longer period of time, i mean, those are the kinds of things that theyll talk about, i think theyll not only get the manchins and the cinemas and the other moderates and the democratic caucus, theyll also get a handful of the republicans that know this is something thats really popular where they live. Lets bring sam stein into the conversation, hes the white house editor for politico. Sam, good morning. Hey, guys. President biden has said tall right things. He held that meeting in the oval office with the ten republicans, signaling at least hes open to debate and negotiation here. If you listen to Chuck Schumer and Senate Democrats, they say were ready to go. Well go with reconciliation if youre not on board with the 1. 9 trillion plan. The train is leaving now. We gave you a chance to get on board. Do you see any room in here for negotiation. What would democrats give, perhaps . First off, are we just going to ignore claires macgyver chiefs flag in the backdrop and that delicious looking cake . I cant compete with that backdrop. Its impossible. Thank you for finally noticing. I thought that joe would give me trouble with it at the top of the hour, but go chiefs. It was so subtle, claire. We didnt notice. The way the flag is pinned in there by the cabinet. I almost forgot your question. Hold on. Yes. So what is joe biden thinking here . Look, here is the deal, the Vantage Point in the white house is what jonathan is saying which is theyll get 50 votes. They might have to come down from the total price tag of 1. 9 trillion. They may have to reduce the minimum wage from 15 an hour raise to 11 or 12. But theyre going to get 50 votes. And the question is whether any republicans will recognize that this train is leaving the station and that they should offer their votes, which are immaterial at some point in exchange for taking the political benefits of getting 1,400 checks to a lot of families. Not going to be every family. Theyre going to have a cap on income who gets it, theyll phase it out. Do republicans want to be part of this process where people will get money in their pockets. Thats a huge political winner. Everyone knows that from georgia. The question is do republicans want to be a part of it . In some ways were going through a little bit of a show here about how much is he reaching out to republicans . Will he entertain their ideas . But theyve been very clear at the white house that what was happening with republicans on monday was a talk, not a negotiation. They wanted to hear out their proposal. They wanted to entertain their ideas but they werent necessarily going to move off of their plan because ten republicans showed up. Here is the key, its not just that they can get one or two or three republicans. If theyre going to negotiate they need to get ten. Do you stick with a huge plan which is politically popular or do you negotiate off of it just for the sake of you may in fact get ten republicans. Theres no one i talked in democratic circles who thinks its wise to move off this plan when its so politically popular, when you can get political benefits in addition to the policy benefits one last thing i know ill shut up after this, they dont want to have do this in three months time. They think it will help the economy. They dont want to be back at the Negotiating Table in the summer because they didnt do enough in the first go around. Jason johnson, we got your tech issues worked out. So is there any value in doing a deal with getting ten republicans . If you had to make an argument for the value of that what would it be . I mean, the value is that you can claim, i guess, if its going to make joe manchin and Kristen Cinema feel better that you involve republicans. Its ridiculous. You have a man daytoday for a reason. The democrats dont just have a mandate, but they have a very special specific mandate because after the election is over, the people in the State Of Georgia Awe Stens Bli A Red State until 15 weeks ago we want to make sure democrats can go big and go bold. I dont see why any of the republican concerns need to make a difference at all under any circumstances. They dont negotiate in good faith. But ill also say this and i think its a ridiculous argument on the part of manchin and cinema, any other sort of conservative democrats, what could be more targeted than two grand a month to families that need it . Thats as targeted as you need. People are hurting across this country. And the idea of slicing and dicing because you got one group of people in the suburbs and one group of people in the country want to make some other group of people not get money they dont deserve, its that sort of selfishness both in policy and attitude that left this country in the damaged position were in economically during this covid crisis. Manchin can talk all he wants about this. I dont think thats helpful for our body of politics and the democrats need to do this in reconciliation and keep moving. The train has already gone. Theyre on amazon. Theyre on ebay trying to find other tickets because theres no way theyll catch up with what the democrats need to get done. So, jason, you heard a lot of the stories from the first Big Covid Bill of people who made hundreds of thousands of dollars getting relief. Other people who needed the relief being shut out. What is the damage in trying to make a package more targeted so people who dont need the money dont get the money and people who do need the money do get the money . I mean, and of course we understand thats going to happen in any bill thats 1. 5 trillion to 2 trillion. There are going to be Horror Stories about people who have private jets and we heard Stephanie Ruhle tell a lot of these Horror Stories, people who had private jets and had yachts they got money from the federal government that was intended for people who were truly disadvantaged. It does seem like wouldnt it be good idea to really drill down here and make sure that this relief is targeted . Yes, but joe, i think the issue here is, yes, we can talk about kushner and ivanka and kanye west and tom brady hope the bucs lose we can talk about the wealthy people who managed to get money last year who didnt get it. We can also talk about the fact that large numbers of minority businesses got almost no money out of the previous package. I also think that was a result of republicans in the senate and that current administration. That they werent paying attention to how the money was being distributed. That they didnt cross all the ts and dot the is. I dont have as much of a concern in this administration about that level of graph as i do in the last one. And i also think quite frankly, look, osoff and warnock, 2,000 checks are coming. If you want to show youre a party of strength, you want to show that you are a strong, and bold in your agenda as the Previous Administration was, you dont start off by cheating people. You start off by giving people exactly what was promised and two most important seats that you just got that allowed you to have your majority. Again, i dont think if you want to argue about minimum wage, 15 versus 11. Those are people who havent had to live on minimum wage any time recently. I dont think that that should be caught up out of some concern that some celebrity is going to get some extra cash. There are people out there, regular people, who every single week, every single month this is delayed over ideological reasons theyre suffering, getting kicked out of their homes, starving and in positions they shouldnt be in. Sam stein, youve got to look at some political Morning Consult polls on how President Biden is doing. Give us a sense of what you found. Well, im supposed to out the these polls as revelatory and big newsy polls, theyre not. Theyre pretty boring actually. Its the standard stuff m. What a competent man you are. Good job. Its sort of like reverse im trying to reverse Engineer Interest in it by down playing it. But any ways, biden is up at 58 Approval Rating which is where hes been in a lot of these polls. Its a shocking contrast, of course, to donald trump who never broke 50 in these polls. People think hes doing fairly decently on the handling of the economy. You know, theres some general appetite for him to work more with congress. But its not overwhelmingly so. It looks to me through these numbers that there is an imperative for him to get the economic issue right more than there is to work with congress. Now, people on the right track, wrong track number they generally think the country is going in the wrong track, but its not as bad as it was under trump. Thats primarily i guess because democrats have gotten more optimistic. Its sort of what happens when your party takes over power. You suddenly feel better about the direction of the company. You look at these numbers and say, yeah, these are good numbers for joe biden and certainly good numbers if he wants to sell this bill to the American Public that says hes popular. He has an imperative to work on the economy and people trust him. So, you know, overall, fairly bland. But interesting and important numbers for biden. Well ill take bland. I like bland. Bland is good. Willie, if youre looking at numbers in the high 50s, that actually is fairly extraordinary in these times. You dont usually have president s in the high 50s unless were at war or have been attacked. But i wonder how much of that is simply because things have gotten more quiet in washington, d. C. There was just the daily deluge. Actually hourly deluge of chaos and tweets and Breaking News and insults. Fire hose for four years. I wonder how much of these numbers are just people saying, you know what, i like a return to normalcy. I like being able to have dinner and sit around dinner and not talk about politics. I like to be able to talk about other things. There was just this all consuming conversation going on that even exhausted some of Donald Trumps fiercest supporters. Yeah. I think thats exactly right. How many times have you heard people say in the last couple of weeks its nice not to hear from the president. We heard from the president every minute of everyday and if he was quiet he would make sure to fill that space with something, anything. A Conspiracy Theory, a threat, a taunt. And i think people are settling into some normalcy, as you say. But the fact remains, those numbers on right track, wrong track werent going to flip overnight with the election of joe biden. Were the middle of a terrible Public Health crisis. Terrible time. Were still dealing with theres the right direction, 43 . Were also dealing with the fallout from january 6th that remains and what it revealed about our country and what congress is going to do about it. So, i think with the economic pain that has come with the Public Health crisis and there still is that chaos and the residue of the chaos in washington, youre not going to see a right track number up in the high 50s flip like that for some time. Jason johnson, since we got your tech going here, were asking all of our guests who they want to profile, recognize for black history month. Who do you choose . I choose a little known but amazing figure at American History, general david fagan. Basically imagine a filipino and africanamerican version of Dances With Wolves fagan was born 10, 12 years after slavery in 1875 in tampa, florida. He joined the military, where of course it was segregated and africanamerican officers were abused not just by their generals but often by their superiors and he fought in The American Filipino War in 1899. Well, after seeing the abuses of the United States who basically betrayed the filipinos and began to attack them, he switched sides and became a rebel leader for the fill pea knees and one of the most powerful and influential Military Minds in the world at that particular point, taking out american soldiers, taking out american and protecting the indigenous population that had been betrayed by the United States. The u. S. Was so concerned about him they put out a bounty. They could not catch him because he was so sophisticated and gained so much knowledge of the local terrain that they were never able to capture him. Eventually after two years of a serious search someone claimed to have caught david fagan by going to the u. S. Generals and providing a sort of decompose severed head. But two years later he was leading indigenous resistance, married a local woman and lived the rest of his life in relative peace in the philippines. I think its not just an example of an american hero, but its also an example of africanamericans recognizing that we often have solidarity with other abused people on this planet and our need to sort of resist imperialism in the face of White Supremacy and violence. Jason, thank you very much. And still ahead, the latest on the growing unrest in russia as Opposition Leader Alexei Navalny is ordered to prison. Richard haase joins us to weigh in on that new development. Morning joe will be right back. Ning joe wille bright back le design makes it beautiful. State of the art technology, makes it brilliant. The visionary lexus nx. Lease the 2021 nx 300 for 359 a month for thirty six months. Experience amazing at your lexus dealer. Research shows that people remember commercials with exciting stunts. For thirty six months. So to help you remember that Liberty Mutual customizes your home insurance, heres something you shouldnt try at home. Insurance is cool. Only pay for what you need. 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Sicknick died from injuries suffered during last months violent siege. I want us to stop for a second and i want us to take a look at this ask ourselves why r is lying in state this morning. And if your answer is any answer that does not directly implicate politicians and Media Hocksteres who spread lies about a stolen election, who spread lies about a secret conspiracy, who spread lies about this election being stolen, if you cant look at that death and not understand that those politicians that spread those lies for so long and spread those lies with their votes even after his death, you cant come to the conclusion that they are responsible, well, then youre part of the problem. And who knows. Maybe youre responsible, too. President Joe Biden Astended the somber ceremony to pay his respects. His attendance was not announced until his motorcade departed the white house. First lady jill biden, nancy pe low and Chuck Schumer would also be seen among those in attendance. Sicknick is the third Capitol Police officer to lie in honor at the capitol. A congressional tribute will be held this morning before a ceremonial departure to Arlington National cemetery. Our thoughts and our prayers are with his family this morning. And also with our country, that it is never pushed to this point again internally from people who were spreading lies and spreading Conspiracy Theories and may Law Enforcement officers and judges and judges move as aggressively as possible to make sure this never happens again. Meanwhile, House Speaker nancy pelosi yesterday sent a letter to democratic colleagues detailing the efforts to sure up capitol security and calling for a 9 11style commission to investigate the january attack on the capitol. She also called for adding for additional funding to meet security needs. On the senate side, incoming Judiciary Committee chairman dick durbin and Ranking Member Chuck Grassley formally requested answers from the Justice Department on Security Failures during the insurrection. They also announced the committee will hold a hearing with fbi director Christopher Wray on march 2nd. So, willie, i heard some bizarre statement from Lindsey Graham which is nothing new, but said Something Like if democrats call witnesses then hes going to make sure the fbi gets involve and digs in to who is responsible for all of it. Its what we want. Yeah. Call the fbi. Bring them on. Dig in as deep as possible. I really disagree with rushing an Impeachment Trial until we have all of the information. So, yeah the more the better. Talk to the fbi. Talk to the agents. Dig through all information. Dig through all material. Were still finding out who is responsible. For funding this rally that led to the riot. So, yes. Yes. Call the fbi. Get them involved. And i love the idea of a 9 11 inquiry, style inquiry, into this riot. Into this insurrection. We need it. Its amazing, isnt it, to hear such prominent people say move on, literally, many republicans have said weve got to move on. One said leave this man alone, talking about donald trump. We cant move on. Look at the picture you just showed of Officer Sicknick. We cannot move on an from a Terrorist Attack on the United States capitol, the seat of our government. Were not going to move on. Theres going to be an Impeachment Trial. There will be an investigation. Will will be witnesses called. We will learn exactly what happened. We will learn why it happened. We will learn about who perpetrated it. That picture right there is somber. It is sad, of course. But its also maddening when you stop and think about what happened on january 6th and who allowed it to happen, who encouraged it to happen. And its people like Officer Sicknick and people like officer Eugene Goodman and those brave men and women who were overrun that day because they werent prepared by their commanders, they didnt have all the tools they needed to protect the capitol, he gave his life. He was killed by terrorists inside the United States capitol. He gave his life. Lets be clear, he gave his life so that it wasnt much worse. People like him, people like officer goodman put their lives in between those rioters and the leadership of our government. Can you imagine where we would be this morning if some of those people had done what they hoped they were going to do . We heard the account from congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio Cortez the other night who said i was locked in the bathroom of my office while someone was pounding on the door saying where is she, where is she. We know some of those people were looking for the senate chamber, officer goodman led them away. This was not coincidental. These people didnt stroll in to the capitol with good intentions to take a tour. They were there, were learning more and more everyday, with very bad intentions, with deadly intentions. And people like the hero who is lying in honor this morning, officer sicksick, are the reason it wasnt worse and the reason were not the middle frankly of Something Like a civil war. So joe referenced what senator Lindsey Graham said earlier this week. Here he is warning his democratic colleagues about calling witnesses during the Impeachment Trial. Do you anticipate witnesses being called and then being crossexamined . I hope not. They didnt call any in the house. I think we know what happened that day. But if you open up that can of worms well want the fbi to come in and tell us about how people actually preplanned these attacks and what happened with the Security Footprint at the capitol. You open up pandoras box if you call one witness. I hope we dont call any and we vote and get this trial over next week when it starts. So he just Claire Mccaskill, help me understand your former colleague. You will find out who planned this insurrection if you open up and look into it. What is wrong with that . Whats going on . Yeah. I think more information is important. I think for people and repetition matters. People need to remember this. I mean, that image that we just saw, that somber image of those Police Officers filing past the remains of this officer that was killed protecting the members of congress, we should never forget that. And as an aside, mika, i was shocked last night that the this moment of this Officer Lying in the rotunda was not covered by fox. It was not even shown. When it occurred last night. To me, this is something the nation has to unite behind. A trial that gets all of the facts in front of the American People does nothing but give us an Insurance Policy that maybe, just maybe, we never allow someone to go this far that has the levers of power in this country from 1600 pennsylvania avenue. I think its really important that all the information come out. I think lindsey wants to move on because all of them know that they bear some responsibility for not speaking out against all the lies and especially the big lie. Yeah. I mean, again, you know, i hate to but if this had been protesters for black lives matter, i wonder if he would be saying the same thing. But of course they wouldnt do that. Lets bring in longtime Media Executive editor at large at news week and cnbc founder and contributor tom rogers. Tom, you have a new piece posting for news week this morning that seems to be a pretty controversial take. Its entitled the mob that stormed the capitol versus the mob that stormed the capital rioters versus redditers. Whats the argument youre making here, tom . Good morning, mika. It may be outlandish to compare the rioters to the redditers as we mourn the death of a Capitol Hill Police officer, but there really are some real similarities. They both came together on social media. They both wanted to take down the establishment. They both believed in false narratives. The rioters believed the big lie. The redditers believed some crazy valuation for gamestop. They both involved social mediacoming down hard, facebook and twitter blocking trump from their accounts in the case of the redditors, robinhood basically restricting trading. There are obviously some real differences. Theres no comparison between loss of life and loss of money. Theres no comparison between breaking the law and people having the right to spend their money any way they want to even if it involves a lot of lawsuits. The big difference between them was the role of donald trump. And how he incited the mob of rioters. And in the column i pose this hypothetical, what if the chairman of the securities and Exchange Commission had cheered on the redditors and said he voiced his strong support for what they were doing, taking on the hedge fund and disrupting the market, that if he said only through strength can we take down the wall street dwimt, that people need to take control of the stock market and he continued despite the carnage that this might involve for the small investor, and even as he saw that his words were creating a situation that were infecting a whole bunch of other stocks, he said nothing else. And he just let it be. Ill tell you what would happen he would be asked to resign. And if he didnt resign he would be impeached and convicted like any president ial appointee could be. And if you have any doubt about that, when was the last time you saw aoc and ted cruz both coming out on the same side of an issue expressing outrage about how all this activity with gamestop was going to affect the small investor . And i think if you look at that, it tells you a lot about how Donald Trumps conviction ought to be handled in the senate. Yeah. And again, im going to underline this again for anybody who came into the middle of the argument and also is looking at the lower third, you were saying theres a huge difference between the rioters and who you call the redditors. I guess one similarity has to be sort of a dismissing of objective facts, a dismissing of experts, a dismissing of, you know, just rationality that people are able to get on the internet. People are able to get on facebook. People are able to get on reddit. And there are no editors. You know, there was a time when you and i were growing up, we had three nightly newscasts and three, four, five, Six Major National papers and there were editors all over the place. And of course we celebrated the fact that news and information spread, but and that there are billions of outlets now, but part of the problem is that there is there are no editors. There is no one protecting people. You know, there are certain things if i say certain things, i can get sued on this network, broadcast reporters can get sued. We will be taken to court. You do it on the internet, nobody gives a damn because the internet has been able to make their own rules. And this is what we see happening when you have a wild west where the Tech Companies have been able to make their own rules. And this all gets caught up in very bad arguments about the First Amendment and, of course, donald trump is putting forward as a defense here his First Amendment rights. Can you imagine under the hypothetical that i pose that the s. E. C. Chairman said, yeah, i was doing all this to disrupt the markets, but i have First Amendment right. Does anybody think for a second that would keep an s. E. C. Chairman from being impeached and convicted . Of course not. And so, it really when you look at it against this kind of light how ridiculous it is that these defenses are being put forward to prevent trump from being convicted. All right. Tom rogers, thank you so much for being on this morning. Thank, tom. Find his piece in newsweek. We want to move to the Big Development overseas as russian Opposition Leader alex si navalny has been sentenced to more than two and a half year in prisz for violating the terms when he left from germany to recuperate from nerve agent poisoning. Yesterday in Court Navalny called russian president Vladimir Putin a, quote, poisoner. Saying, i have deeply offended him simply by surviving the Assassination Attempt that he ordered. They about 650 people were arrested. Yesterday, Secretary Of State blinken tweeted in part, quote, the u. S. Is deeply concerned by russias actions toward Alexei Navalny, we reiterate our call for his immediate and unconditional release. Joining us now, president of the council on Foreign Relations and author of the book The World A Brief Introduction richard haase. Very different tone being taken toward Vladimir Putin by President Biden for one. But explain to us exactly what is happening here. Good morning, mika. What happened is that Vladimir Putin essentially decided it was less dangerous to put navalny away in jail for several years. Hell get criticized for this as he has, but it was less dangerous politically for him to do that than it was to allow navalny to continue to essentially lead a Political Movement that was gathering momentum across russia. And its almost that simple. And i think what putin has decided is that if he can decapitate this movement, which is what hes trying to do, he can essentially survive it. So richard, what is a Movement Like this look like in modern russia under Vladimir Putin . People out in the streets in support of navalny. Obviously putin wants to squash that movement and crush it. But the numbers are growing. And navalny is a martyr now as he heads off to prison for a couple of year. What are the next few weeks and months look like . I think what we have seen every sunday, were going to continue to see, people out in the streets. Look, willie, history suggests that Political Movements like this tend to fail if two things happen. One is the leadership keeps its nerve and two they keep the loyalty of the Security Forces. So thats whats critical here. Think about 1979 in iran, ultimately security the forces would not turn on the people. You had the islamic revolution. But in hung gary in 1956, they mowed people down, they kept their nerve, they had help. 1929 te enman square, the establishment stood firm and killed people. This will play out over coming months or years. Putin is vulnerable in large part because the economy is doing so badly. Covid has exacerbated it. One thing we the United States as welcome as these words are from the Secretary Of State they wont make a difference. We had better be prepared for the possibility that Vladimir Putin might be thinking about his version of wag the dog. Might he try to change the narrative to show himself as the leader of a nationalist russia abroad. This would be a really good time among other things to sure up nato. Richard, point well taken. Tee enman square in 1989, obviously what happened in the soviet bloc in 56 and then again in 68. But we are in 2020 right now. 2021 thank god. 2021 right now. And every beating in the street, every thuggish move by the Security Forces is going to be picked up and going to be sent Around The World instantly on social media. Im wondering how Vladimir Putin survives in this interconnected world if hes brutalizing and beating people in the streets every week. Look, joe, you may be right, but think about it. We just marked the tenth anniversary of the arab spring. What happened, amid social media people came out in places like Tahrir Square in Downtown Cairo and the authorities came out and beat them. And you saw what happened in syria and weve seen what happened elsewhere. So i think Vladimir Putin is basically willing to pay the price of social media, willing to be condemned by the United States saying, look, theyre still going to want a Nuclear Arms Control agreement with me, the europeans are still going to need our energy. I think hes willing to basically hang tough. Again, what matters i think more than anything is whether this Security Forces stay loyal to him or whether one day they basically get tired of killing their own people and arresting their own people. That will be the Turning Point if it happens. And do you have any read coming out of russia . Any reason to believe that were anywhere near that point . I dont think we are near that point yet. Putin has essentially been the institutionalization of authoritarianism. The one thing where he is weak is that loyalty is somewhat fragile because of this sense that hes made so much personal wealth. Think about it, what navalny has done is made russians understand that putin is corrupt and he and his cronies this is a clep toksy that essentially he has portrayed putin and those around them as not being patriots but in it for their own personal good. Thats putins big vulnerability. Thats the one reason theres a chance this could actually lead somewhere. Richard, Jonathan Le Mere with the a. P. Is with us and has a question for you. Jonathan . Hey, richard. Good to see you. We hit at the top of this segment about the new tone coming from the Biden Administration. Sharp turn from the warm words we often heard from donald trump. What sort of things, mechanisms does this administration have when dealing with russia . We know biden has been clear he wants space for diplomacy with the arms deal. Sanctions raised really high. Outside of some rhetoric from biden and his team, what else can they do right now to sort of nudge things along within russia . And what will they be looking out for here . The sad honest answer is not a whole lot, jonathan. Yes, there are some more sanctions against the cronies who are close to putin. But, weve got to keep a little bit of distance. We dont want navalny, who is seen for better or worse as a real Russian National patriot, we dont want to any way hurt his reputation as being too close to the United States. As you say, we want diplomacy and we want the nuclear deal. Russia Still Matters with north korea and iran. What this is typical of is two things going on in the world, we saw it with myanmar. Theres limits to what we can do to be a promoter of democracy Around The World. In some ways we just lack the tools. We clearly you were just talking about january 6th, our model shall we say to be gentle is tarnished. And in all these cases say like china or russia, we have a whole range of concerns. And we cant its almost like betting. We cant put all of our chips on black 36 because weve got to think about arms control or Economic Issues or weve got to think about Nuclear Proliferation or climate change. So theres limits to what the United States can do. Theres limits to what we should do. So i think, yeah. We can use our voice. We can be a model if we get our own house in order. But i dont think we can be decisive in these situations. So, richard, unlike donald trump and the entire Republican Party over the last four years you and i have been concerned about the growing deficit, the growing debt. You and i talked about it over the past 20 years. I think ive been far more hawkish on it than you have. But still youve written books about part of concerning americas future. And youve talked specifically about growing debt. With that in mind, curious what your thoughts are about this 1. 9 trillion plan and efforts by republicans to strike a compromise. Do you think a compromise needs to be struck . Or do we need this 1. 9 trillion cash infusion into the economy right now . We need an infusion. We do not need a 1. 9 trillion infusion. I think its in some ways a political symbol. I think its a learning of the wrong lesson from 2007 and 2008 where a lot of people concluded that what the Obama Administration did was too modest. Were in a very different position here now. This is a very different kind of recession. You have seen tall reports. Youve talked about them on the show from the cbo and elsewhere. The economy is going to come roaring back. So right now what i would think we need targeted help for those for relief to get them through the next six or nine months. What we do not need is massive stimulus. We dont need we already got a debt thats more than 100 of our gdp. We want to keep some of our powder dry. Also, joe, a word that hasnt been used a lot in recent years is inflation. Why do people think the Business Cycle has somehow been erased from history but this combination of low Interest Rates of massive debt, massive stimulus, why do we think that the United States or the world is somehow immune from the possibility of inflation which among other things could cause or lead the fed to rethink its position on rates and it could also there could also be pressure on the dollar down the road. So i just think we need to take a pause and say how much do we really need to navigate through the next six months . And my guess is we could do considerably less than 1. 9 trillion. I agree it needs to be targeted. And just a word to viewers, just because republicans in washington, d. C. Have been raging hypocrites about the deficit and the federal debt, doesnt mean that the United States moving beyond 100 of its gdp in debt and continuing to move upward doesnt mean that we dont face possible political fallout from it in the long run. We most certainly do. All right, richard haass, thank you very much. Thank you all. I wasnt sure if that was a question or a comment. Richard, great to have you on board. Thank you very much. And just ahead, well speak live with senator joe manchin who will play a key role in the covid negotiations. We have a lot of questions for him. Also ahead, in new filings democratic prosecutors and former President Trumps legal teams are laying of the that you are arguments ahead of next weeks Impeachment Trial. Well talk to the incoming Majority Whip dick durbin. Youre watching morning joe. Well be right back. Dry, distressed skin that struggles . New aveeno® restorative skin therapy. With our highest concentration of prebiotic oat intensely moisturizes over time to improve skins resilience. Aveeno® healthy. Its our nature™. Obsession has many names. This is ours. The new lexus is. All in on the sports sedan. Lease the 2021 is 300 for 359 a month for thirty nine months. Experience amazing at your lexus dealer. Go pro at subway® for double the protein on Footlong Subs and new protein bowls. And if you want to go pro like marshawn, you got to feed virtual marshawn, too. Thanks for the footlong, irl marshawn go pro and get double the protein for just 2 more. Serena its my 4 10, noexcusesongameday migraine medicine. Its ubrelvy. 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Formulated to help you body really truly absorb the natural goodness. New chapter. Wellness, well done. This morning were getting a look at how the public views the start of the biden era. New polling from politico and Morning Consult puts the president s Approval Rating at 58 . Meanwhile, President Bidens cabinet continues to take shape with the Senate Confirming Pete Buttigieg as transportation secretary and alejandra mayorkas. As for the republicans last night, House Minority leader Kevin Mccarthy met with congresswoman Marjorie Taylor greene over her incendiary comments and embrace of Conspiracy Theories. According to the Associated Press they spent about 90 minutes in mccarthys office. Aides offered no comment afterward. The house gop Steering Committee met last night. The Steering Committee headed by mccarthy is the group which picks which Committee Members sit on and can take away any assignments. Two sources tell nbc news that nothing was decided at last nights meeting regarding congresswoman greene. Joining us now we have msnbc contributor mike barnicle, professor at the lyndon b. Johnson Public School of affairs at the University Of Texas Victoria Defrancisco sew toe and tim miller previously served as Communications Director for jeb bush and spokesman for the Republican National committee. Tim, lets read from your latest peace for Rolling Stone entitled the view from the republican rebels and you write in part, quote, this insurrection was a clarifying moment for any republicans who were hoping in vain that things might go back to normal after trump decamped to maralago. For four years this Shrinking Cadre of Normy Republicans fed the conspiratorial insanity that led to the insurrection in ways big and small because they believed thats what was needed in order to survive. As someone who was in their shoes not too long ago, to me, the choice is simple, after all the pain that trump has caused with his lies, after the party has lost the white house and both branchs of congress, after a mob of his creating literally charged their workplace looking for blood and screaming for hangings, isnt the only answer to fight . Tim, continue with your thought. Where does this go from here . Why is it so hard to say Marjorie Taylor greene, what you have to offer is not what we need right now in the Republican Party . Look, mika, the question the piece i was trying to figure out is what do these republican, these very few, small number of republicans who see reality do from here . You have Adam Kinzinger calling the caucus to fight back, to stop accepting this. You see liz cheney out there speaking out for truth and saying we have to hold the president accountable. But the vast majority of the Republican Caucus wants to continue business as usual. You know, there was that brief moment, as i wrote, maybe 24 hours, 48 hours where Mitch Mcconnell and Kevin Mccarthy were out there saying no more of this. Even Lindsey Graham said he had seen enough of the president. That now increasingly they are all starting to go back to their old posture, which is that liz cheney is the one who is problematic. Theres a vote today in the house conference to decide whether or not she should keep or lose her job. The sources that i talked to in the republican rebel caucus of the ten who supported impeachment dont know what the whip count is. They dont know whether she will hold on to her job. Isnt that crazy . I mean, even if she wins her vote today, isnt that insane that liz cheney, whose only crime was speaking about the reality of what happened with the insurrection at the capitol might be the first person to be punished . Not the people that spurred it on, not the people that voted to overturn the results of our democracy and to make donald trump an unelected auto cat . None of them have suffered anything . Marjorie Taylor Greene and her conspiracies hasnt suffered anything . Her call for nancy pelosi to be executed, that liz cheney is on the Chopping Block today . Even if she survives it, i just think that reality shows the state of where things are in the party and thats why if you are a cheney or a kin sink ger or romney, your only choice is to fight back aggressively right now otherwise youre going to be eaten by the qanon base just as jeff flake did. Tim, we had Congressman Kinzinger on here yesterday and effectively said we may have to lose a couple elections to save the soul of our party. We might if we cross Marjorie Taylor greene, we might lose some house seats and might lose some house elections but lets look at the longterm, he said. Do we want to be the party of Conspiracy Theories and qanon or talk about small government and all the things you used to talk about and jeb bush used to talk and still talk about that have been pushed to the back by this other movement. So how do you save the soul of this party if only ten members oft Republican Party caucus in the house were willing to vote for impeachment on something that was plain for most americans to see . Yeah. I mean, look, to their credit that ten is double the number of members of congress who have ever in history voted to impeach a president of their own party. In that sense its something to start from, right . I think that adam, Congressman Kinzinger is exactly right on this. Look, i think the only path forward is through an aggressive fight within the party that might cause some of the members of the maga base to cleave off. Look what happened in georgia. This is already happening whether or not the fight is instigated. Those two seats in georgia were lost basically because maga voters who were who believed the dominion insanity Conspiracy Theory didnt show up to vote because they didnt think their vote mattered. I think his calculus is right. You have to take on this basically ten, 20 of the party. You have to call it out. Some of those people might leave and support the patriot party. Some of them might stay. Maybe you can win some of them over. Jamie Herrera Butler also voted for impeachment is voixed on winning some of them over. Then and only then might you win back some of these suburban voters. Here is the problem, willie, only one guy in congress is saying we should do this, then its not going to happen. Right . So i think that kinzingers job is to recruit more of the realityseeing republicans to his side. But its a big, big uphill battle. Thats probably an understatement at this point. Victoria defrancisco sew toe, you have the Biden Administration and President Biden himself with a fairly good Approval Rating coming in trying to deal with this type of opposition. I feel like, you know, even in covid relief its a struggle to follow through with President Bidens mandate to be president to all people, but at the same time, there are some people who are still behind the insurrection at the capitol. And i dont think we can consider them as part of the equation. How does he move forward . So mika, when im looking at that fight for the soul of the Republican Party, im looking at very much from the state level. Here in texas, im ground zero for what was the tea party, which were the seeds for the trump maga movement. So i think that the Republican Party in trying to find its way back to that small government, Ronald Reagan conservativism has to do what it did a decade and a half ago was build its farm team at the state but now doing so with the focus on moderate republicans instead of those far right conservative republicans. So, putting in the time, putting in the money, putting in the energy in those statelevel gop parties who, as we saw recently with arizona, have been overtaken by the fringe. So, its doing the work. And there may be a lag in terms of how that gets back up to the federal level. But you have to start at home. You have to start on the ground. And another thing im going to throw out there is thinking through how we form our institutions to push us to a more moderate, more conciliatory phase. For example, what about the possibility of having primaries that are open, general, like we see in california . Because we know that primaries this goes for both parties, tend to have folks running to the extremes. In the republican case in particular, if you want to win an election, youre going to try to go as far right as you can and then you get to the general and youre bringing that baggage with you. You get elected and you take it to d. C. So in terps of how do you do the work in reforming the Republican Party, you can try to have folks fight it out, which you need to do, but you also need to go down to the local level and you need to think about the institutions that propitiate this extremism. Mike barnicle, youre plugged into this white house. What is your sense of how theyre feeling about these two tracks . On the one hand you have the 1. 9 trillion package they want to get through or at least close to that with some wiggle room with republicans who may be willing to negotiate with them, and then on the other track impeachment, which is going to start not long from now. In all my interactions with the white house, both on tv and off, they have tried to change the subject away from impeachment. They recognize the senates duty to perform that trial. But also would like to focus on that big problem in front of them. Yeah, willie. I think thats absolutely correct. I think they would prefer there be no Impeachment Process because its getting in the way of the process of rebuilding this country from what the country has endured for the past four years. But reality is reality. And theyre going to have to sit through the Impeachment Process. Timing is the big issue i think in the Biden Administration. They want to get the bills that they will end up getting and outlining, they want to get it enacted as quickly as possible because there are hundreds of thousands of americans who desperately need that help. But you know, the root of this what were talking about right now and what tim was talking about in his piece in Rolling Stone, fighting for the soul of the Republican Party. I think theres also a feeling within the white house among some white house staffers, that what is the soul of the Republican Party . Isnt it a soul that has been corrupted slowly over the years and might not now be worth saving . They have to rebuild the entire process. Look, there are 2011 republicans in the house of representatives. 147 of them voted to overturn the legal election of the president of the United States. That just happened. 147 out of 211 republicans voted to overturn the democratic process. And today theyre in caucus in washington, d. C. , led by the coward esz, thats the only way to describe it, of the Minority Leader of the house Republican Party, Kevin Mccarthy. And their biggest concern is theyre very upset about liz cheney, a congresswoman from wyoming. Theyre incredibly upset about what she did. What did she do . She said she would vote to impeach the president of the United States, donald trump. Theyre upset about that. They are not as upset about ms. Qanon who is just totally crazy. That is the soul of the Republican Party that theyre dealing with that the democrats are dealing with right now. Make no mistake about it. All right, mike. Tim miller, thank you very much for coming on this morning. And coming up, President Joe Biden takes Executive Action aimed at reversing the Trump Administrations hardline immigration policies. Morning joe is back in a moment. We made usaa insurance for members like martin. An air force veteran made of doing whats right, not whats easy. So when a hailstorm hit, usaa reached out before he could even inspect the damage. Thats how you do it right. Usaa insurance is made just the way martins family needs it with hasslefree claims, he got paid before his neighbor even got started. 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What im doing is taking on tissues that 99 the last president of the United States issued executive orders i thought were very counterproductive to our security, counterproductive to who we are as a country. Particularly in the area of immigration. This is about how america is safer, stronger, more prosperous when we have a fair, orderly and humane Legal Immigration system. And with the first action today, were going to work to undo the moral and National Shame of the Previous Administration, literally not figuratively ripped arms from the mother and fathers at the border with no plan, none whatsoever to reunify the children still in custody and their parents. President biden signed three executive orders yesterday addressing the u. S. Immigration system with the goal to reunite separated families. His actions establish a Family Reunification Task force for the children separated by the Trump Administration as part of its zero tolerance policy. To review Trump Administration policies with respect to migration at the southern border and streamline the Legal Immigration process. Joining us now, executive director of care in action and chair of families belong together, jess morales riceto and president and ceo of the National Immigration forum, ali nirani. Ali, ill start with you. Is President Biden taking the correct steps so far . What else is needed . And im personally interested in how we get these children back with their families. Well, you know, if theres one thing thats sered into the mind of voters across the country particularly as you were talking with tim earlier, suburban, Republican Voters is the fact that the Trump Administration ripped apart thousands of families in 2018. So for President Biden to sit in front of the bust of Caesar Chavez and sign an executive order that says we as the Biden Administration going to work across agencies, cabinet level to reunify families is a remarkable step forward for the country. And to really be able to throw the full resources of the federal government at this problem, make sure that the families reunited, understand what the options are for them to be able to, you know, be joined back together, whether its here in the u. S. Or in their home countries, im not sure if theres anything that could be more important in the context of immigration for suburban, conservatives as well as other latino voters and others. This is something thats incredibly important for the entirety of the country. Victoria, you can take the next question to jess. So, jess, what we saw in these executive orders, its an important first step. But its not really any actionables, right in its about forming a task force, its about reviewing the nppp protocols and title 42. So its a lot of kind of the planning stage. What are you hearing from the folks that you work with, the folks who are in the shadows who are living in fear, how are they feeling about this first step, which is important, but not really actionable . Yeah. I dont want to gloss over what a relief it is after four years of relentless attacks to have this moment. Especially so early in the biden presidency. Its a new day. And that is definitely a little bit of a sigh of relief that all of us who do this work day in and day out are feeling. But, to your point, at the end of the day, the only way to ensure that every family is reunited is to end the remain in mexico policy. Every single day the remain in mexico policy is still in effect is a day where families are separated, people arent getting the medical care they need and are not able to reunite families. That has to happen immediately. But you know, i think the prevailing feeling from advocates on the ground is that were ready to do this work. Shelters, ngos, lawyers, regular folks who have up ended their lives because they are so passionate about reuniting these families have been the ones who have been passionate about reuniting these families are the ones that have been filling in the gap for the government. And we are continuing to do that. Of course we are ready to work extremely ready with this new task force that the Biden Administration put forward to make sure these families are reunited. And we will continue to do that until the government is ready to do what were doing. And i think thats really the story of this tamly separation policy. Yes, trump put this evil policy forward. But americans resoundingly said that they do not support this and they will work years of time at this point to make sure we reunite these families. We will definitely not let anything step us. Thats why it is important this is swift and urgent and that the Biden Administration continues to act in urgency. This is the first real test of whether or not they can be the leaders we need in this moment, and that means bold action. So what does this look like as a practical matter to reunite these families . We know from our own news reporting a couple of months ago that a lot of these children dont know where their parents are. So where do you begin with the work you do and the work jess does . Where do you begin to put these families back together . I think it was really important that the head of Homeland Security chairing the force and the vice chair, the embassies and the consulates can be deployed to finding these families ft over the past few years, they have the federal government deployed their resources to identify the families. And then also i think we have to understand that a lot of these families are pretty terrified of the u. S. Government. They have had a pretty lousy conversation to say the least. How does that conversation happen between the consulate and the family and what are the opportunities the family will have to get parole in place in the u. S. So they could be in the states here with their children. These are the thorny policy questions. We often forget that integration processes at the end of the day are about people. I just want to throw a shout out to our friends at the border who have been working with lawyers on either side to help these families through and they are speaking with a moral urgency through these policies that we have to remember. This is about people who are separated from their children. Again, i just think that having a department of state, being in a position to identify these families and then working with dhs to understand what are the policy opportunities that can be put into place so they can be reunified, that was a big part of what was missing over the last few years. Thank you both so much. And victoria, thank you as well. Still ahead, will washington have to choose between a big bill and a bipartisan one . The senator to watch, joe manchin will be our best. And senator dick durbin will be our guest as well. Why cant he schedule a confirmation for bidens pick to be the next attorney general Merrick Garland . How republicans are still able to stone wall democrats even in the minority. Morning joe is coming right back. Research shows that people remember commercials with exciting stunts. So to help you remember that Liberty Mutual customizes your home insurance, heres something you shouldnt try at home. Insurance is cool. Only pay for what you need. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. My plaque psoriasis. The itching. The burning. The stinging. My skin was no longer mine. My psoriatic arthritis, made my joints stiff, swollen. Painful. Emerge tremfyant™ with tremfya®, adults with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. 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Fauci was just on the today show and said he expects the Johnson Johnson vaccine to get emergency authorization in the next couple of weeks. He also said we cant have super bowl parties outside of our immediate families. But how is this going in terms of getting this vaccine out quicker than its been getting out . The Biden Administration knows the covid relief bill which we have talked all morning and this, the vaccine distribution. There is a lot of pressure in the last ten days or so to really ramp this up. They realized that goal of 100 million doses in the first 100 days, that wasnt enough, so theyre pleased with this step, the distribution to the pharmacies. So many rely on their local pharmacies for their medications. Theyre also boosting the distribution of the states by 5 so thats an important step, too. But they know this is the ball game in many ways, and theyre going to keep pressing and theyre pleased about the Johnson Johnson vaccine coming online shortly. Expect that to be expedited as well. All right. Still ahead on the heels of Mitch Mcconnell calling out, quote, looney lies and Conspiracy Theories, a growing number of republican senators are starting to speak out against the republicans qanon supporting congressman. Morning joe will be back in one minute. Alright, okay. Hows that . Is that how you hold a mirror . [ding] power e trade gives you an awardwinning mobile app with powerful, easytouse tools and interactive charts to give you an edge, 24 7 support when you need it the most and 0 commissions for online u. S. Listed stocks. Dont get mad. Get e trade and start trading today. When you drive this smooth, you save with allstate the future of Auto Insurance is here youve never been in better hands allstate click or call for a quote today today was the deadline for Donald Trumps legal team to file prior brief. It looks like trumps lawyers will be arguing that the trial is unconstitutional because trump is no longer president. Im going to use this. Im going to use this next time a cop pulls me over. Im going to be like, well, im no longer speeding. I was. I was. Im not now. Therefore, this ticket is unconstitutional. Good morning and welcome to morning joe. It is wednesday, february 3rd. Along with joe, willie and me, we have jonathan la mere, former u. S. Senator, now an msnbc political analyst. Well start with last nights meeting between Kevin Mccarthy and congresswoman Margery Taylor green. They spent about 90 minutes together in mccarthys office. Aids offered no immediate comment afterward. The house gop Steering Committee met late last night. It is the group that picks which Group Republican members sit on and can take away sources. Two sources tell nbc news that nothing was decided at last nights meeting, including congresswoman greene. A growing number of senator republicans are speaking out about the congresswoman. I think we should have nothing to do with Margery Taylor green and think we should repudiate the things she said and move away from her. I think our party has to make it very clear that she does not represent us in any way. Our big tent is large enough to both accommodate conservatives and cooks. She doesnt represent the party. I dont want her as the face of our party. I think this is a great time for us to really talk about what we want to see in the upcoming years and continue to build. We dont need people that are promoting violence or anything like that. Thats senator ernst there. Quote, House Republicans will have to decide who they want to be. Do they want to be the party of limited government and fiscal responsibility, free markets, peace through strength and pro life or do they want to be the party of Conspiracy Theories and qanon. Senator marco rubio said we shouldnt be making these people famous. I think its undignifying. You can add todd young, the senator, who said this woman is an embarrassment to the party. He said she is, quote, nutty. Obviously Mitch Mcconnell led the way when he called her looney and laid out why she is bad for the party. Democrats are Rolling Out Campaign Ads, making the Republican Party the party of qanon, if this house isnt doing anything, the senate now is trying to put a stop to it. Well, theyre trying to separate themselves from her. But, you know, it is interesting that its really its a legitimate attack against the House Republicans, at least, that Kevin Mccarthy cant separate himself from her. The Steering Committee refuses to move on this. Theyre talking about punishing liz cheney. Yes. But afraid to cross this woman. And lets just be really clear because people like to talk about jewish space lasers and all these other crazy theories shes had. But lets break this down where it actually threatens people inside congress. She endorsed the assassination of nancy pelosi, putting a bullet in Nancy Pelosis brain. Like that tweet, she said that the people needed to be patient if they wanted to ensure that barack obama was lynched, that people were getting in place for the lynching of barack obama, people were getting in place for the lynching of hillary clinton, that if everybody was careful, they can make that happen and liberal judges wouldnt get in the way to stop it. So willie, its all this house, Kevin Mccarthys house, is legitimatically, legitimately a proper political target. You know, they the republicans spent an entire campaign trying to attach aocs politics aoc who has never actually threatened to kill a republican, but republicans have spent the past several years attaching aocs politics to everybody in the Democratic Party from nancy pelosi to joe biden. Thats illegitimate. It just is. I mean, because you look at the politics. I mean, nancy pelosi was mocking her caucus years ago on 60 minutes. So thats actually not as accurate as democrats who are now attaching this woman to a republican conference who wont criticize her, who wont take away her committee assignments, who wont rebuke her. Kevin mccarthy is still scared of her and i wonder whether joeny ernst, Mitch Mcconnell had to answer questions about the stupidity and the asinine tweets of donald trump for four years. No. No. Were off this train. Were not mitt romney, no. You know what . Im going to actually try to pass a bill without people having to ask me about an asinine, violent statement that a republican made somewhere. It certainly seems the republican senators, at least, are getting there, willie. Yeah. Well, House Republicans remain on that train. They want to be on that train. Kevin mccarthy went to maralago to signal he remains on that train. We dont know what that meeting with the Georgia Congresswoman was like over those 90 minutes last night. We should get some readout of it hopefully this morning. He already stood by while she did all these things and said all these things. It is not like its new from her. This is who she was while she campaigned. Kelly loeffler campaigned with Margery Taylor green. She wanted her endorsement. This is a woman and this is a sector of voters that republicans clearly want to keep close to them. So it will be interesting to see if Kevin Mccarthy actually is willing to cross her. The wall street Journal Editorial Board writing about a House Republican reckoning. If the house gop punishes ms. Chaney while saying nothing about ms. Greene, it will deserve nothingness. Theyll squander it if they pursue serious members like liz cheney and let themselves be defined by Conspiracy Theorists and parkland truthers. Mitch mcconnell came out first a couple of days ago. He had seen enough of this. Now more republicans falling in yesterday. What do you make of it and what do you think House Republicans will do . I find it really ironic, willie. Marco rubios quote was we shouldnt make conspiracy people famous. Guess who is the guy that for weeks was touting Conspiracy Theories on the tv about the election and dominion Voting Machines and all of these silly Conspiracy Theories . None other than donald trump. Who is the guy thats backing up this qanon lady . Donald trump. Why is Kevin Mccarthy afraid of her . Because hes afraid of donald trump. So i find it ironic that theyre fine speaking up against the qanon people but they have not been able to find the ability to speak up forcefully against the Conspiracy Theories that were fomented and that caused an insurrection in the nations capitol by none other than the former president of the United States. I think really kind of its unfair the qanon lady. It should be both trump and the qanon lady being called out by these guys. Well speak live with senator joe manchin about the debate about covid relief. Plus, the incoming chairman of the committee, senator dick durbin. 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Bezos will transition to the role of Executive Chair in the Third Quarter of this year. The chief executive of Amazon Web Services will take over at ceo. He is a longtime amazon Employee Dating back to 1997 and is responsible for building the companys Cloud Service business that now accounts for 60 thats operating profits. In a memo to employees, bezos said the transition will allow him to focus on other ventures hes passionate about, including the Bezos Earth Fund and the Washington Post. Lets bring in senior Media Reporter for nbc news dillon buyers. Tell us what this is going to mean on many levels and how this came about. Yeah, sure. Look, i mean, in one respect it doesnt mean a whole lot, at least for amazon. You know, jeff bezos has positioned this company for incredible strength for a long time. This company has never been stronger. He started it three decades ago as an online bookstore at a time when many people were dubious about what the internet was. Raise your hand on the panel or for anyone watching if you dont have an amazon Prime Account. More than four out of every five americans right now has an amazon Prime Account. That is an incredible relationship this company has with the consumer. Its positioned for strength right now. And if you are jeff bezos, youre coming out of a pandemic that only accelerated the growth of your company. Maybe you, you know, a necessary aspect of everybodys lives and doing this at a time when washington is getting ready to crack down more on big tech. You have other pursuits. You want to go to space. You want to expand your media empire. You want to get more involved in philanthropy. I dont think we will see less of jeff bezos. If anything, i think we will see more of him. But it is a very convenient time for him to step back from the daytoday operations of this wildly Successful Company and expand his horizons. Nbcs dillon buyers. Thank you very much. Coming up, can biden and Congress Change Child Poverty with the stroke of a pen . His push to tackle a national problem. Plus the lonely century. How to restore Human Connection in a world that is pulling us apart. Those conversations are straight ahead on morning joe. Serena its my 9 12, nodaysoff migraine medicine. Its ubrelvy. For anytime, Anywhere Migraine Strikes without worrying if its too late, or where i am. One dose can quickly stop migraine in its tracks within two hours. Unlike older medicines, ubrelvy is a pill that directly blocks cgrprn, believed to be a cause of migraine. Do not take with strong cyp3a4 inhibitors. Most common side effects were nausea and tiredness. Serena ask about ubrelvy. The anytime, anywhere migraine medicine. Dry, distressed skin that struggles . New aveeno® restorative skin therapy. With our highest concentration of prebiotic oat intensely moisturizes over time to improve skins resilience. Aveeno® healthy. Its our nature™. 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To lead the more than 130,000 dedicated men and woman who work in the department to serve the rule of law is a calling i am honored and eager to answer. To everyone who watched yesterdays events in washington now understands, if they did not understand before, the rule of law is not just some lawyers turn of phrase. It is the very foundation of our democracy. That was President Joe Bidens choice for attorney general, promising to restore a commitment to law and order and the integrity of the nations top Law Enforcement agency. And pointing to the assault on the capitol as a consequence of failing to do so. Our next guest is urging his fellow senators to confirm Merrick Garland without delay, citing the vital need to protect the homeland from threats both foreign and domestic. Yet, he is facing opposition from the outgoing chairman who rejected a recent request to have one scheduled for next week. Joining us now, incoming chairman of the Judiciary Committee, democratic Majority Whip senator dick durbin of illinois. Well start right there. Why cant we call you chairman and why cant Merrick Garland get confirmed through the process . The negotiations went on longer than they should have. I have been waiting for the moment when i have the title and, more important, the opportunity to bring this nominee for attorney general before the American People. I wanted to do it as soon as next monday before the Impeachment Trial begins but senator graham who is still in the position of chairman officially objected and, so, we have to find another course. And what would the other course be . And what would be the reason that they would be, i guess, dragging this out is a good way to put it . I just dont know. When it comes down to the Security Team for the new president , every administration wants to put them in place first. The Secretary Of State, the secretary of defense, the key intelligence people and of course the attorney general. At this moment in history, facing the uncertainty of domestic terrorism and what we witnessed right in this complex january 6th, you would think that the republicans would share our sense of urgency. I wish they would have allowed us to have that hearing. It would have made certain that her reck garland will be in place to protect this nation as soon as possible. Senator durbin, im going to ask you a procedural question a lot of the audience is wondering which is why after the wins in georgia is Lindsey Graham still calling the shots and why is it not you . Boy, it is a convoluted answer, willie. It starts with the premise that the United States senate doesnt unlike the house, stays in session. And we just kind of change with the times. As the georgia results came in, it was clear we were going to be in a nominal majority of Kamala Harris casting the key tie breaking vote and then we had to move the senate into this new mode of the democratic majority, the 50 50 senate. That takes more time. The house is much more decisive and much more on a schedule of happening quick. In the senate, not so much. Senator, lets talk about whats before you. There is a lot in front of you, actually, but specifically about impeachment coming up here in the next week or so. How do you expect that trial to look . Will it be a prolonged trial . The white house is privately and im sure you heard this more directly hope it will move with some pace so they can move on to their agenda and not have impeachment be the focus of the nation right now. How do you expect this to play out . I have two mixed feeling on that. One is of course i want to make a record. To think that 40 of trumps followers still believe that it wasnt his followers that stormed the capitol, that it was a left wing organization, 40 of them still believe that madness, i want to make a clear record for history, for the people of this country as to what did occur and i hope that the house impeachment managers lead this effort. Secondly, though, i have to tell you. On capitol hill today, one of our own, the Capitol Hill Policeman who was killed by this mob on january 6th is lying in repose in the United States capitol, and we are all going to pay our tribute to him for giving his life for us on that day. But what a reminder it is that that did happen when we were here. Were not just jurors. We were eye witnesses to the occurrence. So in that respect there are certain elements that dont need to be proven to us. We saw it. We ran from it, to escape with our lives and we know what happened to valiant heroes like all the other policeman. Over 140 of them who were injured by this insurrectionist mob. Yeah. We were just looking again, senator, while you have been speaking of a live picture of the Officer Lying in honor there in the capital. Senator, Mike Barnacle has a question for you. Mike . Senator, obviously you know, everyone knows, we are only two weeks into the new presidency, the Biden Administration. But there has been some difficulties, even though they ramped up the logistics and vaccination of the vaccine. I assume you know about what the Biden Administration found out about the prior administrations plans for the vaccine when they came in. Can you tell us what you know and does that impact the current plan to try and ramp up what they were left with when they came in . I can tell you, to give credit where its due, it went the scientists, the researchers, the doctors sat down with financial incentives to get it done in a hurry, and they did. And i congratulate them on that effort. We needed to have that same level of commitment when it came to distribution. Instead the Trump Administration took their usual course, as they have throughout this pandemic, and said to the states and the governors do your best now. We have done all we can do. See what you can do to distribute this. The amount that being produced just wasnt there. Joe biden has been on the job a week and a half there. He is trying to put it together and hes getting progressively better. 16 more vaccine coing to the states than they anticipated. We werent anywhere near where we have to be as a nation. Weve got to get americans to stand up and roll up their sleeves and to make sure that this vaccine is being administered across the nation. Secondly, let me just add this. After we take care of americans, we must do this first. This is a global pandemic. It started in a remote place in china and spread to the United States very, very quickly. We have to understand this is a global effort to stop this pandemic. We want to bring into the conversation the ceo of the robinhood foundation. A Different Foundation than whats been in the news lately. You are focussing on an issue that you say President Biden and congress can fix with the stroke of a pen. What is it and then you can take it to the senator . Yeah. The issue is Child Poverty. The issue is the fact we have more than 12 million American Children right now living in poverty. You know, in my home city of baltimore, 30 of families with children are living in poverty, almost a third. And when we can make adjustments to the Child Tax Credit but making it fully refundable but also making it permanent, we can put Child Poverty in half with the stroke of a pen. Think about what that means in terms of the long it have term changes. It addresses the longterm chronic pain of Child Poverty. We just penned an oped focussing on what this could actually mean, that we could make these adjustments in Child Tax Credit where we could make it permanent and basically leave help children who are too poor to qualify. So i guess, you know, a question i have to the senator is, as were having all these confirmation hearings, we still see a situation where we have republican senators, collins, romney and murkowski who are supporting a package that leaves out the Child Tax Credit, that would thats something that would cut Child Poverty in their states by half. How exactly do we get the senators who say theyre looking for forms of compromise, looking for forms of support for the most vulnerable in their states to understand that the Child Tax Credit is the most effective and immediately way to address the things their population says is most needed. Bless you for bringing up that issue. You are spot on, right on. The language that joe biden put in this rescue act would cut Child Poverty in the United States by half by the ways you just described it. Tax credits and refundable tax credits to the poorest of the poor. We make these speeches about income and equality. We say how much we love our children. We talk about the disparity of wealth when it comes to race in america. Here we have a finite chance to do it and to do it now. I applaud the republicans who step forward and say they want to be part of a bipartisan solution. If they are going to walk away from this issue, theyre walking away from a major moral challenge of our time. We can pass it if thats the way it has to go through reconciliation. I would love to have bipartisan support, and i feel many of these senators feel it is a worthy issue. Now is the time to make sure the money is there in the biden rescue program. Senator, it sounds like you are ready to go ahead with just democrats if thats the way it has to be. Thats what the president has said. Thats what Chuck Schumer has said. Wed love to have republicans come along on the side, but if not were going ahead. Are you prepared to use reconciliation to push through this package . Yes, i am. We have some deadlines were facing, not the least of which is the cutoff in the middle of march on Unemployment Benefits, help for renters that is absolutely essential, the need to get this money out for vaccinations as quickly as is humanly possible. We cant wait. There is an urgency to this. I applaud these senators. I respect them for stepping up, but they have to understand this has to be done and it has to be done quickly. So, senator, before you go, President Biden is working on executive orders pertaining to immigration. What do you think of them so far . What are you still hoping for . Well, the first thing hes trying to do is to reconcile the zero Tolerance Program where the Trump Administration forcibly, physically removed babies, infants and toddlers from mothers at the border and separated them, sending them off into a bueaucracy with no accountable. It took months, sometimes years, for us to locate them and its hard to establish where they came from, where their parents might be. Hes doing everything he can to reunite those families as quickly as possible. A nation of immigrants, we have to do this in a humane way and a just way, and we cant revert to the Steven Miller version of history which says that immigrants are our enemies. They are friends, part of americas past and will be part of its future. All right. Senator dick durbin, thank you very much. Well wait for you to become chairman and see when that happens and have you become. Up next senator joe manchin wasnt afraid to challenge the white house during the last administration, and that hasnt changed in the biden era either. The West Virginia democrat is standing by. He joins us next. He joins us next when you drive this smooth, you save with allstate the future of Auto Insurance is here youve never been in better hands allstate click or call for a quote today man whats my safelite story . I spend a lot of time in my truck. Its my livelihood. Rock music man so im not taking any chances when something happens to it. So when my windshield cracked. My friend recommended safelite autoglass. They came right to me, with Expert Service where i needed it. Rock music man thats service i can trust. No matter what im hauling. Right, girl . Singers safelite repair, safelite replace. Sales are down from last quarter but we are hoping things will pick up by q3. Yeah. Uh. Doug . Sorry about that. Umm. What. Its. Um. You alright . 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At this point in time in this nation, we need to go big. We need to quit counting the legs on the cows and count the cows and just move and move forward and move right now. We need to go big. And if we waste some money now, well, we waste some money. But absolutely, we got too many people hurting, and the economy is going to sputter, and we got to get ourselves out of this mess and its the way we need to go right now. West virginias republican governor jim justice voicing his strong support for the administrations covid relief bill. The states democrat senator joe manchin believes the stimulus needs to be more targeted and he joins us now from the capitol. Senator man chin, great to have you with us. So youre the man of the hour here. What is it going to be . Is this going to be closer to 2 trillion in this package or will it end up being more targeted . The worst thing we can do is put a price tag on it. We need to see what the needs of the people are and how we keep people basically ready for this economy to become roaring back. If its 1. 9 trillion, so be it. If it is a little smaller than that and we find a targeted need, thats what were going to be. But i want it to be bipartisan. If they think were going to throw all caution to the wind and just shove it down peoples throats, thats not going to happen. Chuck schumer said yesterday on the floor, this is going to be a bipartisan process. That means democrats and republicans will have amendments. We have many, many opportunities to make the necessary changes and make your point. And thats what its about. The process needs to work. Okay. You dont think the minimum wage increase should be attached to this . I dont and you dont think it should be 15 an hour where you and i are going to strongly disagree. But explain if you will. First of all, it doesnt fit within the rule. It has to be within budgetary items. But there is a rule on that. And you have said, well, you dont agree. The bottom line is i believe that anybody that goes into work in the morning, works a 40 hour week, a 2,000 hour year with two weeks off, basically they should be above the minimum wage as far as the poverty guidelines. That would be 10. 86. I just said dont you think its reasonable for it to have a flat rate of 11 and index it from there. The other states are already at 15. 7. 25 is not reasonable. It needs to be raised. I just basically used a formula that said here is what a family of three poverty guidelines should be above and thats where we should have it and index it so we never fall below that. It makes a lot of sense. If we go there, lets have a good conversation. This is not the place to do it. Okay. So well debate the number another day, but should it be attached to this . If you are willing to compromise and at the top of this interview you said it doesnt have to be 2 trillion. It could be 1. 9 or another number. Can you get other republicans to join in a compromise . Absolutely. I think theyre willing to. We have always felt that. We have a good group. We have a lot of good conversations. Its grown to 20. We have 10 republicans, 10 democrats. More people want to be involved because they want to get something done. Were there to support leadership. If leadership hits a roadblock, then basically we could help them a little bit. We did that in december. Common sense, no one thought they would go to 500. They went to 908. They will go forward. They know they have to. Senator, its willie geist. Good to see you this morning. Do you think its important that this is a bipartisan bill . Or is it more important to push through and get the money out the door just as quickly as you can as Chuck Schumer has suggested . Well, you know, i strongly disagree going down the path were going down. I spoke to reconciliation . Reconciliation right now. We should try everything bipartisan. Over 90 votes last year which totalled about 4. 8 trillion. You put the 900 billion we just passed, now were talking 7 trillion. So were not holding back. Were putting money out there keeping things going. There is still people hurting. There is people hurting with housing. There is people hurting basically because the pandemic is going on longer than what we thought. The vaccines and the breath of fresh air is having President Biden come in and put some destruction and supervision and leadership. Its been wonderful. So we know where were going now. He said basically i dont want to go down the path we went through in 09 where we had to do what theyre doing now. I says, fine, mr. President. Im happy to start this process, but im not going to get rid of the filibuster. We are going to work in a bipartisan way. He said i respect that and i understand. We have a great understanding. Lets see if we can make this bipartisan. Chuck schumer said it would be. I believe everybody. Well see what happens. Senator, where is the give . You will have to negotiate a little bit with at least those ten republicans who went and met in the oval office a couple of nights ago. Their plan, the 618 billion is too low for most democrats. They want to take out the minimum wage hike and money to states and to cities. What do you give up to get that bipartisan package . The minimum wage hike i dont believe will fit in there at all. We need a good discussion on there. You have got to find Common Ground there where we can start where states in rural areas dont get decimated by it and the businesses dont collapse. But the wages for restaurants, it would be hard for them, too. We need to have a big robust discussion. You already have 15 in new york, in the more metropolitan areas. So we want to make sure we dont have those poverty wages at 7. That needs to be robust. But there is places that they might not have agreed or might not have gotten into a discussion with the president. Theyre willing to sit down and say, lets see where they have a reasonable amendment. If they have something zero, it get no votes. Then the democrats will vote and move on. If they want to be reasonable and participate, there will be more for them. I want to make sure the process is open to both the democrats and the republicans, that theyre just not jammed because i have been in the minority when things are jammed and ill tell you, it is not the way this is supposed to work. To be clear what you are saying about here, senator, you would be willing to give up the increase in the minimum wage to get a deal with republicans. I wont even have a voice in that because i dont think it fits into the package, willie. It has to be the bird rule basically keeps you within the confines of the budget, of the finances of the budget, and it has to be budget reconciliation. Anything outside of that, thats not in there. But if the parliamentary would rule on that, well put in an amendment that makes common sense. I have no litmus test whatsoever. I want the money to be in there. I want the economy ready to go. I know it will be longer than just march or april. We will get into the Second Quarter and probably the Third Quarter before we have vaccinations for hundreds of millions of people. But were moving in that direction. This is a health crisis. We still dont have an economic meltdown. We have a lot of people at the low end of the totum pole in the lower wages. I want 1,400 to go out. I truly want it to go out as quickly as possible. The first thing that needs to get out the door is 160 billion for vaccine. 1,400 to help people get out of toughest times. Target that. The reason the democrats and republicans got upset before, we found out that people making 200,000 and 300,000 were making checks. It needs to be on the low end. Were not eliminating. Were making sure it goes. Some states need help. Some states dont. Lets target and find a metric where it works. Thats all. Just common sense. If you think you can throw money to it and fix it, it doesnt. Spend the excess money on intrastructure. I dont have cell service and broad band in most places in rural areas of West Virginia. That would be tremendous for us. Mike has a question for you. Hey, mike. How are you . Im well, senator. And im hoping youre well, too. So let me ask you about what you were just talking about infrastructure and the needs of West Virginia. You come from West Virginia. You get to go home a lot. You could drive home a lot. I drive home every night. Well, you have seen the devastation obviously that this pandemic has caused in america. You have seen how people are suffering under it. So 1. 9 trillion is a lot of money. Do you have a number in mind that you would be capped at . Is it 1. 9 trillion . Do you want it lower . And the other aspect that you just mentioned, checks went out earlier last year and youre right, people making 150,000, 200,000 a year got a check. Is there a way to cut this number down to a specific earning figure that people who get checks 125,000, whatever it is. Is there a way to do it . Yeah. Just go a hard cap on it. You dont do the calculations. They are working on that way. I think the president is receptive to that. I think democrats and republicans are both receptive in discussing this and trying to find a pathway forward. It is just basically getting it to the people that we know need it for daytoday expenses and basically having a hard time. Everybody were talking about a lot of people still have payroll. They still have a check coming in. Theyre still working. They can get through hard times. But the lower incomes are having a harder time and people have no incomes need unemployment assistance. We want to make sure thats extended beyond march the 14th. All these things need to be done because the pandemic. But make no mistake about it, it is the pandemic that is stopping this. It is the pandemic thats keeping our restaurants and businesses from opening back up. Thats whats causing the what problem. The most urgent thing you need to do, put your investment in getting people healthy again protected. And thats the 160 billion and not one democrat or one republican opposed 160 billion going out immediately. All right, senator, wes moore has a question for you. Wes . Sure. And you know, you mentioned that its the pandemic that is causing this measure of pain but the reality is 24 of people who lost their jobs due to covid19 were living in poverty before covid19. Ie, that was the working poor, the ones who were working jobs and still living below the poverty line. So i agree with you on the line being targeted in terms of support but people might be underestimating just how many people are vulnerable in our society right now. In fact, if you look at your state of West Virginia, 16 of the population are living in poverty, 20 of your children are living in poverty. If we look at things that could have a marked impact, the reconciliation they put together will cut things like cut down on child care support, keeping Unemployment Insurance at 300 a week knowing Unemployment Insurance on average will return 1. 55 to the economy for everybody dollar thats put into it. How do we make sure these kinds of elements are actually included in some form of reconciliation bill and make sure even though were talking about the importance of bipartisan, what people are looking for is to get something done and to get something done for American Families now. Thats the whole reason we have reconciliation, wes. We want to get something done. Youre correct, the people in poverty is who we want to get the money too. Somebody making 20, 30, 40, thats where we want to make sure the money goes to. As far as unemployment, we want to extend it and as far as lie lihep money, helping people pay for the heat. I think theres an awful lot things of that the agenda in that should be in regular order. This is anything along the budget line that will be in that package. Thats where we will have amendments to adjust it or increase it or decrease it, whatever. You make your decisions based on that. I can tell you nutrition for children, childcare, getting schools back open. All of those things are extremely important to all of us. I dont know how anybody with any common sense wouldnt see that. Bust just picking a number sometimes doesnt work. Wes, weve already put 5. 8 trillion, add 1. 9 to it and youre pushing 8 trillion now. Our budget is less than 4 trillion a year. Were at 107 trillion debt, 100 of gdp. We have to be cognizant of that. Were approaching the number of deaths more than world war ii. Were getting word President Biden and Vice President harris will be meeting with Democratic Senators this morning to discuss the rescue plan. Will you be participating that that meeting . I havent heard. I dont have it on skmij so i havent heard i was supposed to be there. Ive had good conversations with the president. Maybe these are other senators who vp the had that opportunity. I really dont know. I have not heard about that and its not on my schedule. All right, well, let us know, maybe its in your inbox right now. Senator joe manchin, thank you very much. Let us know. Thanks. And weve been talking about the Economic Impact of covid but the damage runs so much deeper than that. Amid lockdowns and social distancing, the coronavirus pandemic is taking a staggering toll on our mental health. The u. S. Census bureau last december found more than 42 of adults surveyed reported symptoms of anxiety or depression. In 2019 that number was 11 . Joining us now is economist norina hertz. Shes the author of the new book titled the lonely century how to restore Human Connection in a world pulling apart. We will start with your title. You say century, so i assume this has a lot to do with technology and the way our chirp are growing up now, which is staring at little machines they hold in their hands instead of into the eyes of individuals right in front of them. How do we restore this Human Connection . Youre absolutely right, mika. Technology is part of the reason why this is the loneliest century, even before the pandemic struck, one in five u. S. Adults were lonely, often or always. One in five millennials said they didnt have a single friend. And our friends are part of the problem because were distracted, not present with each other and also susceptible to all of the hate and vitriol that transmits on these platforms. But that isnt the only driver. The weigh we built our fitness, the way we organized our workplaces, all of this contributing to why this is such a lonely time. Of course, the pandemic has only amplified massively. Noreena, this is willie geist. This is such an important issue and such an important book because of it. How do you see this playing out . Weve been in this pandemic locked down for nearly a year now. Its impacted peoples jobs. It will impact the way we work going forward. Many people may never go back inside the office five days a week or ever to be around their colleagues. How do you see this if youre able to look out to the horizon affecting longterm loneliness in this country. What really worries me is we know loneliness really affects your health. Lonely people are 30 more likely to die prematurely tan people who are not lonely. We also know even short periods of loneliness and isolation is bad for our health. We know loneliness affects our economy. Lonely workers are less motivated, less efficient, more highly to quit. We also know too loneliness and the rise of right wing populism are linked. Thats something that came out time and time again in my research as i heard from trump voters across the nation how lonely, how isolated, how forsaken so many of them felt. Because i think we need to be clear, loneliness is political as well as personal. Its drivers are technological, but theyre often economic. Its not like we cant be lonely. Many of can and are or our friends and family are. We have to acknowledge some groups are more lonely than others, particularly those on low income, particularly those who dont have jobs, particularly those who lost their jobs to automation. I think what worries me on why we have to take loneliness so seriously, if we do want to reconnect, if we do want to coming together again, addressing this sense of invisibility, the sense of being unseen and unheard, that so many people feel will have to be absolutely central to an economic and political package moving forward. All right, noreena hertz, thank you very much. The new book is the lonely century how to restore Human Connection in a world thats pulling apart. Such an important book at this time in our history. Thank you so much for coming on. And as we close this morning, another live look at pictures from inside the capitol, where fallen officer Brian Sicknick is lying in honor in the buildings rotunda. Sicknick died from injuries he suffered during last months violent siege. And i just thought, wes, we would ask you for final thoughts this morning as we watch these pictures unfold. Of course, these are comrades of the fallen officer and members of congress and others paying final respects. So devastating and heartbreaking because, you know, this is an officer who at a time when our nation was under attack, you know, he stood his post and defended our democracy, as we are told as soldiers, against all enemies, foreign and domestic. He did his job and hes now laying in rest in a way not just our nation appreciates but frankly in a way was unfair to have to ask him to stand there in that duty at that time. Serves as an important reminder to all of us about our democracy. Yeah, mika, i think were losing wes wifi there a little bit. But profound words, as always, from wes moore. You wonder, mika, as some of the members of congress, senators who will pass through that rotunda today to see Officer Sicknick, if they will stopp thing for a moment as they move forward and how to come to terms with what happens january 6th. Anyone who thinks we should just move on and turn the page maybe should take a look at these pictures, talk to his family and think about our democracy just for a moment. That does it for us this morning. Stephanie ruhle picks up the coverage right now. Hi, there, im Stephanie Ruhle. It is wednesday, february 3rd, and we begin with Breaking News at the u. S. Capitol. All morning long weve been watching members of congress and members of Law Enforcement pay their respects to Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick as he lies in honor at the capitol rotunda. Hes just the fifth american ever to receive this honor. Last night we saw the president and first lady among those remembering sicknick, whos als