♪ i got the month of may ♪ ♪ oh, i get -- >> the show ran eight years which he's the host of "america's funniest videos," saget's stand up was much raunchier than his image of squeaky clean dad. >> he joined us back in 2014. >> i was lucky to get "full house" and i play a character that hug people and work hard against sweater. he was a good man. my parents lost four children, i was the only surviving kids. two of them were younger than me and two older sisters passed away and my dad lost three of his brothers. every year there is a picture of me being nine in the back of the book. after that it was how are we dealing with death. my dad had a great sense of humor and we would say inappropriate things just to get us outside of the moment. >> saget's colleagues and stars spoke about the great comedian with glowing memory last night on twitter and instagram and all over social media. everybody just very shocked and very, very sadden by the loss of bob saget at the age of 65. with us, we have the host of "way too early," jonathan lemire and elise jordan, good to have you both with us this morning. a lot to get to today. >> yeah, a lot to get through today obviously. obviously as jonathan said at the top of the hour just a completely horrific, horrible fire in the bronx. we saw something similar, i believe it was in philadelphia a week or two ago. some really heartbreaking stories, we'll be getting to that. also, getting to just a build-up and tensions between russia and the united states and u.s. allies on whether russia really is going to move into ukraine with an invasion or whether they're playing a very, very dangerous hand? we'll get to all of that. also, mika, breaking news over night regarding tennis and crowe covid. >> yes, djokovic, australian has cleared the way. the judge this morning reinstating djokovic's visa and ordering his release from melbourne where the player had been under guard since thursday when his visa was cancelled. the australian government cancelled djokovic's visa because he did not meet criteria for a vaccine exemption. >> he argued he did not proof of vaccination because he was infected with covid-19 last month. australian medical authorities have ruled that a temporary exemption for the vaccination rule can be provided for people who have been infected within six months. pictures emerged on his social media of his unmasked appearance at a public event one day after testing positive. but djokovic could face deportation again and miss the major tournament. a lawyer told the judge after the ruling that austria's minister -- the top ranked djokovic is seeking is record. a lot of drama there. >> a lot of things over there if it's being played in waco, texas, or austria. a country that has locked people down. quarantine have gone by the strictest of protocol and to allow somebody in because they are a great tennis player and maybe the best in world right now when he's going against everything that the australian people been forced to do and just suggest that what they applied to their own people don't apply to tennis stars. there would be great repercussions beyond that. >> the waco open is not yet a grand slam tournament, you are right. melbourne has been in lockdown during this stretch and the site of the upcoming australian open, djokovic, he's the best in the world and he's one proudly unvaccinated. he's seizing on the reason why he does not need to be vaccinated saying he got immunity, saying that he got tested positive and the next day held an event with youth players. that's not great and at lowe's lowe's -- least not helping his case at all. i think we got a few twists and turns ahead in the coming days. >> i agree. the fact that it's politically unattenable for a country that's been in lockdown the way austria been in lockdown to provide for superstars who are not vaccinated first of all and secondly get covid and then go around and possibly put others in danger. >> it will be interesting to see how it develops. >> we'll revisit this. the country added 199,000 jobs, unemployment rate drops 3.9% to that number. the white house played up the year's overall record jobs growth and higher wages while calling critiques. biden's handling of the economy despite calling very similar numbers back in may of 2018 under then president trump without a pandemic quote, great news for our economy and our work force. what's going on there? >> breaking news hypocrisy. >> it's clear. >> can you hide your hypocrisy just a tiny bit. let's bring in dominic chu. good luck for anybody calling it 3.9% unemployment rate hard news. there are millions of different cross currents when these numbers come out. unemployment below 4%. but, still a lot of volatility out there in the job market. >> it certainly is. >> what it means to the point you guys were talking about of the situation in austria with the lockdown and melbourne and sidney and elsewhere. it means the shadow of the covid pandemic and this omicron surge is still looming very large. that's the reason why this commentary comes out frs anybody out there. it means a lot of noise and the data that goes along with it. the pace of the recovery has hit those bonds and slowed down. 199,000 jobs showing people still getting back to work. by the way, you guys mentioned the 3.9 unemployment rate, that's a still a pandemic's era low. you may recall the full effect of the pandemic were felt, we were at 3.5%. that was the lowest of five decades. there is a nuance how some of the data captured from this particular report is going to be reflected in the number you just read off. part of that report, a lot of the data used taken before the middle of december and we know that was before the big surge in omicron cases. the issue right now, guys, the coming weeks, we could be drag down by potentially slower jobs gain and data. joe, mika, that's the real issue right now is how uneven things are. >> last week txdot got beaten up really badly. investors seeing beyond the end of lockdown and the end of omicron and see beyond an end of an economy that's so dependant and online companies in general. do we expect rough waters for txdot in the coming weeks? >> you bring up an interesting point. technology stock that becomes known the most in the u.s. we are talking about names like apple and microsoft and facebook. many of those companies have some of the prices over the last couple of years because interest rates have been so low. in many ways, you can say interest rates as low as they were, you want to buy and invest in these companies because the alternatives is putting your money? if you look beyond covid and the economy gets back on track. things start to grow again a little bit more. the federal reserve may have to raise interest rates because things are getting back to normal. the problem when you do that though is when you raise interest rates, you take a little bit allure away from some of those txdot. investigators are figuring out how much a good economy mean for some of those tech dots. if you look at industries that are hardest hit, they were the ones that is did way better than technology stocks over the last year because many investors were banking on that big recovery trace. yes, you bring up a great point. those tech stocks are important to the market. they're the best returns in the coming months and years. >> dominic chu, thank you very much. we have a lot of news to cover here. 19 people are dead including nine children after a fire tore through an apartment building in the bronx in new york. does bs more are injured with 13 still in critical conditions. the door was left open allowing smoke to rise to every floor. joining us live from the scene with the latest, nbc news correspondent, isa gutierrez. >> reporter: good morning, we are seeing emergency vehicles throughout the area. we see police fire and sanitation workers out here. we are expecting to hear from city officials a little later this morning. the latest we know, 19 died in this fire in this apartment building. nine of them children. we did hear from the fire commissioner yesterday evening. they were able to determine based on physical evidence as well as accounts from residents what caused the fire. a malfunction with an electric space heater that spanned to the second and third floors in this building inside a bedroom. they also learned that the door of that apartment was opened, they said that is likely what caused the fire to be able to spread into the hallways of those floors and the smoke engulfing into the entire building. about 200 firefighters responded to the scene. they got the call around 11:00. they were able to contain the fire in a couple of hours but we saw them hoisting victims out of the buildings through the windows and down ladders and trying to get them to safety. here is what we heard from mayor eric adams yesterday on the first major tragedy during his time during office. take a listen. >> with 30 people in the hospital, 19 deaths, 9 of them are children, babies that we lost. we are all feeling this. we are going to be here for this community to help them navigate through this. >> reporter: over night we did hear from the building of the company that owns this apartment bidding. they said they were devastated bide the loss of life in this tragedy. there were no known issues with the fire alarm in the building and they said that the doors should have been up to new york city's fire code, they did automatically close. when we heard from the fire commissioner, they're looking for whether that was the case or not. again, we are hoping to expect to get updates from them later this morning. >> isa gutierrez, thank you for that report. a high-stake meeting is way in between u.s. and russian officials to deescalate the situation? ukraine, growing concerns that moscow plans to invade the country again. ahead of formal talks today, the two sides met for a working dinner. the u.s. made clear that washington would welcome genuine progress through diplomacy. anthony blinken says he's not hopeful of any breakthroughs. moscow is entering talks with a tough stance saying they'll not make any concessions under u.s. pressure. the two sides will hold talks again later this week with brussels and geneva. >> let's bring in our keir simmons. the united states and the west simply do not understand their views and their concerns for eastern europe. >> reporter: that's right. it's difficult to read this morning honestly joe. there is a flurry of news and different opinions. the foreign minister holding his word last night and coming out of that the russians did not seem optimistic. i think you can read that as kind of a form of negotiations and great brink manship if you would like. to hear him suggest they could reinstate some kind of treaty, intermediate treaty forces that was abandoned by the trump administration. that will got heavy push back straight away from republican like joe bolton. let's give you the picture of the challenges on the u.s. side if you would like. if there is some kind of movement with the russians. nato at the same time saying it's ready for conflicts. if you like on the western european, u.s. side there is tough talk, too. as i said, some confusion and some signs of a lack of unity, there are signs of a lot of unity between the europe and the u.s. including the u.s. trying to be clear. there are also signs of disunity. the french says europe should be involved, macron is trying to present himself as the leader of europe and he has an election coming this year, there are political issues there for him, too. as we say here joe and mika in this part of the world, they're kind of getting down to business here. those russian troops on the border. these are what they want but the question is whether they'll get what they want from negotiations. >> elise jordan is joining us. >> the russians said they are conceding nothing. is there anything the international committee would offer that would be powerful? >> that's a great question. we don't know what the thinking is inside the kremlin. we know what they have done. of course they put those troops on the border, they frighten people if you would like. they raise alarm bells. what putin plan to do is as billion dollar question and what kind of concession would be acceptable and on top of that even if you gave concessions to the russians, will they take those and led it down the tracks come back for more. clearly as you rightly point out there is no way that the west is going to be prepared to accept a condition on nato, the chance of ukraine joining nato is so slim right now. as you say the secretary of state did seem to appear would be negotiations. so there is going to be -- we'll see what comes out of it and whether the russians and here is it is crucial question. are the russians posing in the end or do they plan some kind of invasion or are they looking for something that'll satisfy them? we don't know the answer at this stage. >> bottom line -- >> we most likely will soon enough. keir simmons, u.s. for your reporting. the white house is back on its heels since the tragic retreat out of afghanistan. they understand they can't be seen looking weak with these negotiations. what are you hearing from the white house? >> the white house is outlining a series of what would be punishing sanctions, economic, financial technology, military sanction against russia here were this crisis to escalate and give the order to send troops into ukraine. this is something the u.s. has become central focus. this is something that u.s. officials is not convinced and going to end with diplomatic talks here and certainly not this week. it's very low from both sides that could be a breakthrough. today's negotiations are is where last summer when president biden and president putin sat down for their first to first. it's always a win russians believe if their leader can get a face time with the u.s. leader. that's something to look ahead. >> all right, we'll absolutely be revisiting this topic. still ahead morning joe, skyrocketing covid cases are expected to cause millions of americans to call out sick this week. a look at how staff shortages are playing out inside hospitals across the country and in chicago, the fight between the schools' system and the teacher union is stretching into the second week. the latest on the dispute as classes cancelled for a fourth day. also, ahead, georgia will be a major focus of vote rights this week. what georgia's secretary of state raffensperger is saying ahead of the visit from president biden tomorrow. you are watching "morning joe," we'll be right back. you are watching "morning joe," you are watching "morning joe," we'll be right back. -capsule! -capsule! -capsule! capsule saves me money on preions. capsule took care of my insurance. capsule delivered my meds to my doorstep. capsule is super safe 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the john lewis voting rights act because america - john lewis: we are not going back, we are going forward. you're a one-man stitchwork master. but your staffing plan needs to go up a size. you need to hire. i need indeed. indeed you do. indeed instant match instantly delivers quality candidates matching your job description. visit indeed.com/hire switching wireless carriers is easy with xfinity. just lean on our helpful switch squad matching your job description. to help you save with xfinity mobile. they can help break up with your current carrier for you and transfer your info to your new phone. giving you a fast and easy experience that can save you hundreds a year on your wireless bill. visit your nearest xfinity store and see how the switch squad can help you switch and save. get $200 off a new eligible 5g phone when you switch to xfinity mobile. talk with our helpful switch squad at your local xfinity store today. no, i don't think covid is here to stay. covid as we are dealing with it now is not here to stay. we have so many tools developing that'll contain covid and other strains of covid. we'll be able to control this. the new normal is not going to be what it's now. it's going to be better. >> president biden assuing the station this is not the new normal as covid hospitalizations, there are growing call of what is considered a covid hospitalization. first, nbc's sam brock reports on the millions of americans who are expected to stay home sick this week due to surging covid cases. >> reporter: the omicron variant may be spreading at the speed of light, it's slowing down critical services. >> we have over 500 employees throughout have come down with covid. >> reporter: at baptist health in miami, care center had been closed to reposition staff. >> we have plenty of equipment and we have plenty of medications. >> reporter: the crunch prompting change in california. >> it's major disaster waiting to happen. >> reporter: the hyper infectious variant leading to new state rules, healthcare workers testing positive and asymptomatic returning to work immediately without isolation and without testing. >> i think it's callous and it's putting our patients and ourselves in grave danger. >> reporter: the toll of sick outs on the transportation sectors also getting worse. portland and atlanta and washington, d.c. have all pulled back on routes, with shifting weak day service back to weekends. the ripple effect is enormous. >> the train transportation network is disrupting. we are all relying on that. >> reporter: parents are suffering from the sick-out, too. as the state of georgia just loosen quarantine protocols for teachers with more stores posting signs like this, "temporarily closed." >> reporter: as more hospital reports of spiking cases of covid-19, confusion is mounting as what actually counts as covid. anyone tested positive for covid is counted by cdc. half of those hospitalized for covid was there for something else. they ended up having covid because of the spread right now. >> it's possible for somebody to come in with a broken arm with a broken arm or hand and become a covid positive case. >> exactly. only 12 were hospitalized for covid illness. >> er doctor jean noble says before the vaccine most of those testing positive were in need of covid care. my job went from patients coming in from respiratory distress to now of january of 2022, the majority of people who would come in with covid, i discharge home quickly. >> she says today most severe cases are among the unva unvaccinated. children in the bay area appears to paint a dire picture than what they are seeing in the emergency room. we had 19 kids hospitalized for covid but only six were in-house, admitted patients because of covid. >> reporter: in marin county out of 20 listed covid hospitalizations last week, ten were admitted for covid. >> out of those 20 cases, covid-19 hospitalizations, three of them were women that were asymptomatic delivering babies? >> that's right. we may over estimate the burden of omicron. >> reporter: doctors calling on the cdc to specify how patients who test positive should be counted. >> we have been reporting patients who test positive for covid in one big bucket and those numbers go to the cdc. that's what we really got to change. >> yeah, you know it certainly understands of the number of the cdc. i look every morning and regularly and since the beginning of the pandemic. i look at infections and hospitalization and the number of deaths caused by covid. it's important to take two things out of that package and what we are hearing this weekend. this past weekend we got news out of new york city that over half of the people who are being listed as covid hospitalizations went to the hospital for reason it is other than covid whether they are having heart problem or a broken arm or whatever that problem was. in that package, two out of three people being hospitalized in california that reported of having covid went in for reasons other than covid so again that's why it's so important to keep in perspective of those hospitalization numbers especially when we compare it to what happened last year. the hospitalizations are approaching some of our peaks from 2020. well, they may be but perspective is absolutely critical here as we are trying to figure out how to move forward with omicron. coming up, the conservative majority looked poise to block one of president biden's key pandemic fighting strategy. we'll have the latest vaccine mandates. "morning joe" is coming right back. mandates "morning joe" is coming right "morning joe" is coming right back well, would you look at that? jerry, you gottahis. seen it. trust me, after 15 walks... gets a little old. i really should be retired by now. wish i'd invested when i had the chance... to the moon! ugh. unbelievable. hey lily, i need a new wireless plan for my business, but all my employees need something different. oh, we can help with that. okay, imagine this. your mover, rob, he's on the scene and needs a plan with a mobile hotspot. we cut to downtown, your sales rep lisa has to send some files, like asap! so basically i can pick the right plan for each employee. yeah i should've just led with that. with at&t business. you can pick the best plan for each employee and get the best deals on every smart phone. ♪ i see trees of green ♪ you can pick the best plan for each employee ♪ red roses too ♪ ♪ i see them bloom for me and you ♪ (music) ♪ so i think to myself ♪ ♪ oh what a wonderful world ♪ my mental health was much better. my mind was in a good place. but my body was telling a different story. i felt all people saw were my uncontrolled movements. some mental health meds can cause tardive dyskinesia, or td, and it's unlikely to improve without treatment. ingrezza is a prescription medicine to treat adults with td movements in the face and body. it's the only treatment for td that's one pill, once-daily, with or without food. ingrezza 80 mg is proven to reduce td movements in 7 out of 10 people. people taking ingrezza can stay on their current dose of most mental health meds. don't take ingrezza if you're allergic to any of its ingredients. ingrezza may cause serious side effects, including sleepiness. don't drive, operate heavy machinery, or do other dangerous activities until you know how ingrezza affects you. other serious side effects include potential heart rhythm problems and abnormal movements. it's nice people focus more on me. ask your doctor about ingrezza, #1 prescribed for td. learn how you could pay as little as zero dollars at ingrezza.com. to support a strong immune system your body needs a routine. as little as zero dollars centrum helps your immune defenses every day, with vitamin c, d and zinc* season after season. ace your immune support with centrum. now with a new look! look at that, mika -- >> they're starting to take down the rockefeller christmas tree. >> it's been quite a trip here. >> it's a christmas tree. >> and a for a while we follow the fox's lead, we call this thing the usa, christmas tree. >> i think we'll go back to this. it's a nice little sort of ring to comcast commerce. >> this is your last look at it. we hope the kids have seen it. it really is beautiful though if you look at it. it was also, this season was -- >> you are taking a little too long, joe. >> it's good but it gets painful. the joke ended about 30 seconds ago. >> anyhow, the tree comes down today. >> it has been a long time coming for mariah bell. she won the u.s. women's skating title. she's the oldest u.s. woman national champion in 95 years. >> how exciting. >> that's kind of cool. >> and did it at 25. >> still ahead, the longest nfl regular season ever ends with dramatic final new seconds of field goal deciding the fate of three teams. >> if you have not heard. the chargers will tell you why. we'll be talking to paul finebaum. he'll break down tonight's final game between alabama and georgia. what a great championship game that's going to be. 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instead of appealing and letting the chargers get in, they stuck the knife right in there, la chargers going home and the raiders advance. >> if these teams tied last night, 0-0, kneel down, kneel down and therefore no one gets hurt. they both go to the postseason. that didn't happen. once you get to ots, okay, it's probably a tie here. the raiders seemed content to run out the clock. they ran a couple plays and they kicked the field goal. now they go home. >> yeah, really stupid move. the raiders' victory along with the colts. a surprise loss with jacksonville had the steelers getting into the postseason. big ben expected retirement for at least one more game. with the steelers now to face the afc west champions, kansas city chiefs on sunday. in buffalo is going to host the patriots on saturday and just a second ever postseason matchup between those two teams. >> tell me what you think about it the dolphins had a hell of a second half of the season. they may be a team to watch out for next year. >> yeah, i believe eight of their last night, they narrowly miss the playoffs. they close strong against the dolphins. the patriots, mac, he was not great yesterday. he had a wonderful season, he was by far the best rookie quarterback this year. the pats going into the playoffs having lost 3-4 and not going much momentum here. it's long. first time ever 17 games. it feels like mac jones may have hit a rookie wall. the patriots did win buffalo and they get another shot saturday night. it will be a tough game. >> did you see the niners and the rams game? >> you were right, the niners looked like they're giving up for dead and garoppolo could not hit on anything. the rams were lucky that the cardinals lost as well because the rams still get to win the division. the niners get in. they got a fierce defense and their wild card, they fit that category of team you don't want to play in the playoffs. they get a fumble on this, the 49ers, cowboys. >> the niners going up to 17-0 and just looking dead. uninspired. what a second half they have. that's a niners team i do not want to face. >> the 49ers since the first time since '94. the seahawks helping the rams staying on the west. the rams will be facing off the cardinals. that should be a great one. tom brady and buccaneers are going to be in their title defense against the seven seeded philadelphia on saturday and the pats. the tennessee titans are going to have a first round bi clenching the afc. and of course as nfl gears up for the wild card weekend, the nation's top football teams are ready to play for the championship tonight, alabama and crimson tide. let's bring in paul finebaum. it's always great to see you. you know i get everybody asking especially my sons. who's going to win this one? at the end of the day, you know warren buffett always says he does not bet on companies, he bets on ceos, tonight i am going to bet on the ceos who are 4-0 against other ceos. >> joe, you would be broke if you are betting against nick saban. this is nick saban's ninth appearance and a title game for alabama. for a lot of people who are not heard what i am about to say. nick saban would not be in alabama without the host of "morning joe" because joe scarborough argued for change. you know what guys, people listen. you wrote an op-ed saying nick saban has to be the coach. i shook my head that night and people said $4 million a year. are you kidding? that's ceo money and you can't pay that to a football coach. and thank you mentioned warren buffett. he would make more than $100 million on wall street a year. that's how great this run has been. >> you can explain to everybody as well who thinks that alabama is just as always one. >> they won national championships between '79. part of the problem is the culture corroded because you had to talk to leroy jordan and you had to talk to alumni and you had to have all these people checking it off before you made any big moves. any argument then was you hired nick saban and you let him run the program and he answers to the president to nobody else and you need that kind of leadership. the sort of leadership that any organization have where you can't have anybody being the impact. even the fact that i wrote that 15 years ago, paul, i have been trying to figure out what separates this guy from so many other great coaches. what is the different maker because there are such parody that he's already as chief. he's in the land of john wooden's now. what celebrates coach saban from everybody else? >> it's his idea and his process and what we are talking about tonight. we have seen this in politics and history and in literature and arts. it's hard to copy someone and what makes nick saban unique is he's a joyless winner. if he wins tonight, coach, how do you feel? well, i got to get ready for the next season. i never forget, i congratulated him in his first victory in alabama, i said congratulations, coach. yeah, this is great but it's going to cost me a week in recruiting. what are you talk about? everyone else is out recruiting. he always looks for that edge. you have to look long and far in history to find anyone. you mentioned john wooden, if he wins tonight, we are no longer talking about the greatest coach in football, the greatest coach in any sport of all time. that's how great this run is now. >> so we have been talking a lot about alabama. the under dog. this is the second time alabama have been an under dog over the past month. i am a little surprised odds maker gave nick saban that hammer to use the last couple of weeks. georgia is an extraordinary team. that he had a great season other than their game against alabama. alabama could have lost five or six or seven games this year. they did not have a great season. a lot of interesting matchups and as coach saban would say depends on which teams showing up. what are you looking at? >> they have to figure out the quarterback position. this is a bad time of the year to figure that out of the final day of the season. their quarterback, his name is stenson bennett iv, he's at the university of georgia. he's facing the heisman trophy winner in bryce young. he's actually the best player in the field. he's not the heisman trophy winner. it's will anderson. a linebacker of alabama. keep your eyes on him. he reeks havoc and because of bryce young and nick saban, alabama wins the game. >> it will be a fascinating game. as always, love seeing you and good luck in chilling indianapolis and looking forward to seeing you soon. >> thank you, for being on. >> my pleasure, guys. >> thanks so much, show. >> espn's paul finebaum. paul is part of the wall to wall coverage of the college football playoffs in indianapolis. he'll host a special championship monday episode of "the paul finebaum show" at 3:00 p.m. before tonight's kickoff. >> it's going to be quite a game. >> george in alabama had some of the most exciting games over the past ten years. alabama have been fortunate coming out on the winning side o f that. >> coming up a republican senator shows his colleagues it's really not that hard admitting joe biden won the presidency fair and square. that ground breaking moment is just ahead on "morning joe." bres just ahead on "morning joe." with voltaren arthritis pain gel. my husband's got his moves back. an alternative to pills, voltaren is a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory gel for powerful arthritis pain relief. voltaren, the joy of movement. first psoriasis, then psoriatic arthritis. it was really holding me back. standing up... ...even walking was tough. my joints hurt. i was afraid things were going to get worse. i was always hiding, and that's just not me. not being there for my family, that hurt. woooo! i had to do something. i started cosentyx®. i'm feeling good. watch me. cosentyx helps people with psoriatic arthritis move, look, and feel better. it targets more than just joint pain and treats the multiple symptoms like joint swelling and tenderness, back pain, helps clear skin and helps stop further joint damage. don't use if you're allergic to cosentyx. before starting, get checked for tuberculosis. an increased risk of infections—some serious —and the lowered ability to fight them may occur. tell your doctor about an infection or symptoms or if you've had a vaccine or plan to. tell your doctor if your crohn's disease symptoms develop or worsen. serious allergic reactions may occur. it's good to be moving on. watch me. move, look, and feel better. ask your rheumatologist about cosentyx. it seems to me without your approval, it will make no sense at all. that's why i am asking for a clearest and possible statement of what your attitude is going to be. >> i appreciate that, doctor. it's almost in the form of the alma mater. >> not quite. all you have to say is good-bye. >> legendary film actor sidney poitier passed away at 94 years old. poitier was the first black performer to win the academy award for best actor which he won in 1964 for his role in "lillies of the film." >> i earned that money ten hours a day, seven days a week. >> where did you earn it? >> philadelphia? >> mississippi? >> what were you doing earning that kind of money? >> i am a police officer. >> poitier was a prominent civil rights activist and served as bohemian ambassador for japan. he was presented the medal of honor in 2009. >> poitier not only entertains but enlightens and shifting attitudes and brighten hearts and bringing us closer to together. a child of a bohemian tomato farm. he made us all a little bit better a long the way. >> let's bring in professor at princeton university, eddie glaude jr. president obama's worlds, the son of a the son of a tomato farmer in the bahamas. he used the silver screen to bring us all closer together. >> there was the kind of grace and dignity and excellence and courageous commitment to civil rights. as a young boy in mississippi to see the heat of the night and to watch the buddy film with bill cosby and to see him with harry fontae doing what they did not only on films but behind the scenes for civil rights. he was in every way a model of what it means to be committed to justice. >> well, talking about that commitment to justice and just what it meant for some one like sidney poitier and harry bellafonte and others. using their stardoms in culture that we watch them on the big screen would love to see them entertain white audiences but in certain parts of the country would not want them in their restaurant or in their homes. >> joe, there is this extraordinary moment in 1950s, an organization of snick and slc and core and all these naacp gathering together and they would try to put voter registrations. the government of mississippi decided to cut-off food. you saw dick gregory flies in thousands of pounds of food. poitier making sure as people are fighting for the vote, they would eat. you have these folks leveraging not only their fame but resources to help people fighting on the front line for justice. it was an amazing effort and example of their commitment to justice, joe. >> mika, let's get to some news today out of the supreme court. >> the supreme court's conservative majority signalled on friday will strike down the biden administration vaccine mandate for federal employees and large private employers. the court heard more than three hours of lively arguments of specific authority of occupational safety and health administration and the department of health and human services. conservative justices did not seem to think that osha has the legal power to require that businesses with 100 or more employees ensured they are vaccinated or unvaccinated workers wear a mask since a negative covid test results weekly. justice clarence thomas says you need to show a lot more. chief justice john reports suggested that the mandates where the responsibility of the states of congress, justice kagan offering a counter argument. >> why is this necessary to abate the grave risk? this is a pandemic which nearly a million people have died. it's buy far greatest public health danger that this country has faced in the last century. more and more people are dying everyday. more and more people are getting sick everyday. i don't need to be dramatic here, i am sort of stating facts. and this is the policy that is most geared to stopping all this. >> so jonathan lemire, we were talking before putting things in context, the fact where two out of three hospitalizations people got a covid case, they are hospitalized. this is has more of an impact to say whether this is a court case that came before the supreme court, let's say june or july of 2020 and also it's not really that much of a surprise that the robert courts would tell states, for instance, maine. if you want to require vaccines for people that work in your hospital and healthcare centers, that's fine. it's your business, go ahead and do it and we'll uphold it. that's one thing agreeing to a nationwide osha regulation that had not gone through congress that seems to be a step higher to the robert court. are you expecting them to strike down the mandate? >> states can do this, this is still al conservative majority court and the biden administration said they sort of saw this coming. they anticipate probably that they will lose this and won't be a national vaccine mandate here. its context is important. there are some hopeful signs in the northeast that omicron sort of plateauing now and maybe at its peak that things will start to decline, maybe this is the worse and a couple of weeks we'll be out of it. it's going so fast. that's putting the strains on hospitals right now. hopefully the thought is public experts say it won't be here in the northeast with us that much longer. of course the rest of the country remains as it spreads west and hitting the pockets. but it comes in this decision for the biden administration comes as they are trying to surge tests across the country and staying on this idea getting vaccinated and boosted. that's key to warding off this particular variant, coronavirus. >> this is not the last variant. we have been fortunate in many ways and this variant does not strike and it's not deadly as delta or the original variant was. we have to be preparing for the future and we have to plan for other variants to come and so whatever legislation that we are passing on the state or the national level or whatever regulations or approaches to have the proper number of tests, we have to assume they're going to be variants in the future and we have to be better prepared for those variants than with omicron. >> and continue the push to have everybody vaccinated. joining us now state attorney, david. >> good to have you at this hour. >> the robert's court says okay, if the state is going to do, the state wants to pass it into legislation. that's your business, we are the supreme court, we are not going to tell you what to do. that does define robert's view for the most part of where the supreme court sits in the scheme of things. same thing with regulations. you want to pass this as a regulation, we are a little more skeptical. if congress wants to pass the law, we are not going to get in your way. is that where the rubber hits the road here? >> you got it joe, not bad for a country lawyer. >> country lawyer at that. >> state and local vaccine mandates was constitutional. this is more about what the congress authorize executive branch agencies to mandate a regime of vaccinations and testing. it's going to come down to each individual justice's view of the role of federal government and why elections have consequences. all three supreme court picks of trump are poised to rule of the chief justices. joe, it's not a real mandate. it's a recommendation. if you don't get vaccinated, you get tested every week. it's ironic it's the same supreme court here that is also poised to overturn roe v. wade, the supreme court that seems to empowered states and restrict a woman's unreproductive rights. >> the thing that i find confusing if you leave it to the states, we'll have parts of the country unvaccinated. those who are unvaccinated die specifically from the coronavirus. i am having a hard time understanding why that are striking this down, dave? >> yes, well, this is political ideology. this is the conservative wing of the supreme court and it flexes its muscle. i think they are more likely to not keep the mandate as it applies to healthcare workers. that's the second case before them. it's not a total mandate but it's closer when it comes to healthcare workers. we are talking about 10 million workers, these are in healthcare facility that gets federal funding through medicare and medicaid program and along the history of the federal government saying if you want our money, you got to play by our rules. justice kagan won the day that says when you are a healthcare worker, the one thing to do is not to kill your patient. that pseudo mandate is going to stay. >> donny, i am curious as a new yorker, you know we look and we are seeing what's happening with omicron and obviously it's a crush for a lot of our hospitals but again in california, two out of three people that goes to the hospital with covid, don't know they have it. they go in for other reasons and they get tested and it's pretty mild. in new york, more than half of the people that are hospitalized that are being reported hospitalized with covid went into the hospital for different reasons. we are fortunate that this has been a mild variant but really let's face it and admit it. we dodged the bullet here. we were not ready for testing and not ready on a lot of different fronts even though we have been doing this for a year and a half now as a country. how did we let it happen? how are we stumbling through this as badly as we are as a nation. >> yes, the latest supreme court ruling is one more of an example of that. in new york it's rapid. it's everywhere. you can't go anywhere without seeing somebody or knowing somebody. the good news is people do not seem to be getting as sick. to politicize it for a second. there is an opportunity for democrats to attach this to a bigger platform. there seems to be this kind of real opportunity for the democrats to say we are here to protect every aspect of your life including your health and democracy and everything in between. so i just lift this up 10,000 feet out of omicron. a political opportunity for democrats. >> elise jordan, we criticize donald trump for a year, for not wanting to have a robust testing regime, if you tested somebody that were positive, it drove the number up. omicron exploded, we were equipped. there were lines all over new york city and all over the country. i must say it was shocking that the biden administration allowed it to happen. how do we make sure this never happen again? >> i still can't understand it was virtually impossible to go to healthcare office to go to an urgent care to get any kind of tests or even purchase a rapid test over the counter at a local drugstore and still today we can't get in so many places of the country of these critical tests. i don't understand how that was not a key part of the strategy to make sure that we have enough stocks that people didn't want to infect other people and who wanted to make the right choice could have some autonomy and some control over their movement based on their illness. i don't understand how that was not a critical part of the equation here, joe. okay, to this, the georgia secretary of state who defied former president trump's request to find enough votes for trump to win the state during the 2020 election has come out against measures in the voting rights package proposed by democrats. republican brad raffensperger explains why he opposes the legislation. for the freedom to vote act does promote a national standard for states that have an id requirement for in-person voting. why do you think republicans >> it does not have photo id, that's the most secure way to making sure you can identify who the voter is and they want the same day registration. that's difficult for any election official mandates. right now we need to restore trust where ever we can. >> senate democrats are pushing a pair of voting rights bill to expand voting by mail, allowing same day voter registration and prevent gerrymandering among the host of other reforms. president biden and vice president harris will head to georgia tomorrow to make their case for these bills. >> eddie, the freedom vote act is obviously a bit more controversial than the john lewis voting right act. i understand people want to debate what aspects you nationalize voting and which aspects you lead to the states. the constitution for the most part leads into state legislatures. the john lewis' voting rights act, that's an extension of something that every single republican voted for and reauthorized it in 2005 and 2006. i got to say that piece of legislation not getting through the senate which is shocking. >> to my mind it is. i have been saying this. it's a bit startling to admit. you know america is not a multi-racial democracy for long. we have been a multi-racial democracy since the voting rights act of 1965 and barely then. it took a while for that to be implemented. since 1965, we have tried our hand at you know ensuring that everybody no matter the color of their skin had the ability to exercise the franchise and where ever you stand on hr-1 or senate bill 1 or for. we know that voting is at the heart, it's the foundation of our democratic republic. it seems to me a no brainer that we ought to be committed to john r. lewis' voting rights bill. we know there are forces, forces that some way disagree with the idea that we should be multi-racial democracy. we are seeing those liberal forces at work, on the extreme and the so-called those who are not at the extreme. >> jonathan lemire, really just the devilution of the republican party just again 2005 and 2006 when republicans voted unanimously to reauthorize the voting rights act. the fact that we are here a few years after the report's court says if you want us to continue to apply the voting rights act, you guys are going to have to update it. they pass those instructions onto congress and republicans legislatively they're standing in the schoolhouse's door. they're not letting this legislation being voted on. they're blocking it using the filibuster to block it and i am just shocked there are not ten republicans that support the john lewis' voting rights act. the reauthorization of the voting rights act after the robert's court itself directed them to do so. >> joe, this is the right way to look at it to place the blame at the feet of republicans. democrats trying to fine ten republicans to help out. that will has not occurred. there are not republicans there and they are being obstructionists here and willing to not let this happen is on democrats themselves. that has proven difficult as well. we know the president and vice president head to georgia tomorrow and there are real pressure on them. we all remember president biden's fiery speech over last summer in philadelphia about voting right and said it would be the cause of his presidency. it didn't do much sense. now, eddie, there is a real push for them to do more. the president is expecting to go further in support of the filibuster to get things done, it's not clear if it's enough. senator manchin and sinema suggesting they won't support that without gop backing which seems it does not exist. we heard from civil rights groups, it's time to put up or shut up. we may stay home from the midterm elections. how do you see it play out? >> i think so. when we think of natasha brown and all of the organizations in georgia that made warnock and others possible, they are -- you can't out-organize folks who try to rigged the game. they are clear of democrats' failure in this regard. the president has to bring the full weight on its office to bare on this issue. it seems to me that senator manchin and sinema will hang in the ballot. the question of our democracy on the basis of bipartisanship here when joe suggested and said that we can't find one republican. if you can't find one republican who'll sign onto this question or to this issue around voting and yet you are going to in some ways put in jeopardy of our democracy in the name of some idealized version of bipartisanship then you become complicit. that's the first thing. the thing that we need to say out front. manchin and sinema are being complicit with those republicans. democrats have to fight, if they don't fight, they'll have to pay the price during the midterms and the election. it's not a threat, it may be a promise if democrats don't deliver. >> donny, let's talk about this. if i am pausing here and there, i must say, i am just -- i am still, i don't know how i am still shocked at my former party but i am. manchin and sinema, they'll support the voting rights act. you have republicans who are blocking a vote. they won't allow the vote. if you want to vote against this, vote against it for god's sake, that's your right. but to block the john lewis' vote rights act? to stand in schoolhouse's door and stop other people from voting for it. you don't have to vote for it. just let it get to the floor and debate it. not one republican, i heard something about lisa mucowski thinking about it. where is mit romney and where is susan collins? is she telling us that she is against extending the voting rights act that every single republican voted to extend in 2005/2006? where is vince sass? what does he not like about this voting rights act. again, if you don't want to vote for it as the people of nebraska are against extending the voting rights act that actually allowed to block americans, to guarantee to vote in this country safely? if people of nebraska are against it, vote against it but let the united states senate have an up or down vote. donny, here we are in 2022 for god's sake. 2022, joe manchin can't find ten republicans who support extending the voting rights act in the way the robert's court directed them to a couple of years ago. i am sorry, to me is beyond breathtaking and beyond depressing. it's indictment on the republican party. >> it's an indictment of what the future of the republican party is given the numbers that is are in the world. this is no difference than attaching to the big lies. republicans have figured something out that the more free we are, the more people are allowed to vote. the more people of color allowed to vote. they can't win elections anymore. the only way they can win now is prevention or life. that's it. the country is moving away from them. there is no game. there is no answer other than lets not play fair, let's cheat and block. we are a society that winning to a lot of people's mind justifies the means. they can no longer, you open this, they can no longer come to the field and play on an even field, this is one more example and as i said no difference than standing up there saying 60% of republicans saying joe biden did not win the election. so this is in that same play book of we can't win anymore as the fate of the country changes and this country by the year 2040, there will be non-white in this country. it's pathetic and goes everything we are as a country. >> elise, you know, i am the first to say let's do this in a bipartisan way. i am always overly optimistic of what can be done in a bipartisan way. for the john lewis' voting rights. we are keeping this discussion focused on the john lewis' voting rights and who believe hr-1 going too far is too expansive. let's limit it to the voting rights act. why can't manchin find 10 republicans? why can't sinema find 10 republicans? why can't chuck schumer find 10 republicans? again, 10. when i will say it one more time. in 2005 and 2006, every single republican supported the reauthorization of the voting rights act. >> i think democrats have made it easy for republicans to avoid any responsibility on voting for voting rights because they are so over focused on a huge spending bill and voting was not apart of the conversation throughout the fall. it came crunch time throughout the year and democrats are flaking a little bit, oh we have not done anything on voting rights. it keeps us in office and that's black voters. you look at this new year and i do hope that the biden administration starting tomorrow with their speech that they hammer the message of the importance of securing voting rights for all americans and they keep the drum beat up and they make every republican answer and be accountable. they have to be tough and keep it at the forefront of the conversation and not be distracted by other side issues. >> elise jordan and donny deutsche. >> schools ahead across the country are struggling to stay open as covid cases surge. we'll talk to the president of the national education association about what it takes to keep kids and teachers safe in the classrooms. plus, mark meadows who's facing contempt charges and asserts himself into donald trump's supreme court fighting the select committee investigating january 6th. u.s. and russian officials beginning a series of high stake-talks this week. the latest on that new effort to deescalate tension against ukraine. will it work? you are watching "morning joe," we'll be right back. u are watch we'll be right back. 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the hour, hospital beds are filling up and work forces are being hallowed out by the spread of omicron variant. joining us live from miami with more is sam brock. >> reporter: good morning, the consistent testing lines and eye popping infection number is leading to a reality that hospitals are seeing a major surge. they don't have the staffing to deal with this and relaxing schools from hospitals trying to boost the work force. >> reporter: after two years of caring for covid patients, nurses are fighting at the front lines. >> we are tired and exhausted and on the edge. >> reporter: hospitalizations jumped nearly 80% in two weeks with a seven day average for cases just under 700,000. at miami's baptist health about 500 workers are out due to covid. >> we have plenty of equipment and medications. it's established. records the staffing shortage apparently is so bad in california, the state is resorting to changing guidelines. who are testing positive and asymptomatic can return to work without testing. that decision sending shock waves. >> it's putting our patients and ourselves in grave danger. >> reporter: philadelphia announced they'll begin leading schools online because of omicron outbreak. >> we don't have enough staff to open. >> reporter: the state of georgia loosen its protocols for teachers declaring they don't have to quarantine after covid exposure after even if they are unvaccinated, as long as they wear masks and with no symptoms. in miami about half of the patients coming to the hospital with something else and then testing positive for covid. >> whether they have symptoms or not, it's all the precautions we need to continue to take place so that we don't spread covid throughout our own hospital. >> reporter: as for the difficult terrain of public schools right now trying to navigate in chicago. the nation's third largest school system the fourth day of disruption and the city government right now can't come to an agreement on covid protocols. >> sam brock, thank you. on that important note, joining us now the president of the national education association becky pringle. thank you for being on this morning. i know you have talked about how it's important to follow the science and listen to the experts and bring together people to talk about this, where do you stand on schools being open given omicron is different than the delta or covid when it first came out. >> it's good to be with you, wow, we are going on two years, and this is still raging and we know the pandemic and all the crisis have continue to impact our communities and neighborhoods and schools. i have been very consistent from the beginning, mika, you heard me say it. i taught science for over 30 years. we need to follow the science and listen to infectious disease experts and bringing educators and experts to talk about how to keep them safe. we were successful as we ensure every school could put in place those mitigation strategies. we don't know new variant of this virus will come upon us but this is what we do know. if we put in place those strategies, testing and vaccinations and ventilation, clean services and washing hands and making sure we wear masks, all of those together, we can stem the tide of those infection rates. that's the kind of discussion and work that our schools and parents and educators need to do together to make sure our students are safe. >> so one thing i didn't hear and i may have missed it in terms of following the science, yes, we don't know what variant may come next but we do know one thing that if you get your vaccine and a booster follow-up, you're potential for really having a severe experience with covid goes down drastically. what are you hearing from your educators about the vaccination rate and are there educators holding out and how many and what percentage? >> we fought hard at the beginning when vaccines were made available to ensure that educators were prioritized in getting those vaccines. we didn't stop there. we made sure to collaborate with the administration to raise those vaccination rates and right now our educaors not only are vaccinated at higher rate than most professions in our country. they also have gotten their boosters because you are absolutely right, those who are vaccinated and boosting are less likely to get severely ill and less likely to go to hospitals as you reporting just before i join you, our hospitals are overrun, we have to keep pushing and pushing. the fda has approved those boosters for young students and we'll continue our fight to make sure they are boosted so we can keep them safe. >> eddie glaude. >> hi miss pringle, it's wonderful to talk to you. hade a case of breakthrough covid, i have to admit it put me down. it took me 10 or 12 days and i am still coming out of it. what do you make of a demand for a robust testing regime. some of the things you talked about in terms of ventilation and mitigation strategies and the like, what are you making of their demand that the school system delays a little bit as we get past the surge. how are you thinking of what you are seeing in chicago and what you are seeing play out across school district and across the country. >> eddie, i am sorry to hear that you were exposed and got covid and your symptoms were not just mild. i also had breakthrough case. my symptoms were like a bad cold, and i was able to recover from them because i was vaccinated, and, of course, now i am boosted. but here's the thing. andly continue to say this, eddie. it's got to be that layered mitigation. we cannot pick and choose. so we have to have the vaccinations. we have to mask, and we have to do the teing. and we know that in chicago and in other places, too, they were not able to get the adequate testing or the testing program that they had promised they would put in place was not in place. we've got to have all those mitigation strategies in place, and then we have to collaborate, communicate, and the last thing i want to say, this is so important, you know this, too, we have to care for our educators. these people who have put their lives on the line in many cases. the people who have dedicated their lives to educating america's students, we have to care about the heroic efforts they are making pushing through fear, exhaustion, 80 students in a class, not getting lunch during the day. feeling like they've been through a spin cycle i heard one of them describe it all day long. we've got to care for them. if we don't, then we're going to have an even bigger crisis. >> president of the national education association, becky bringl. thank you for coming on the show this morning. we appreciate it. and still ahead, much of bob saget's standup comedy would never have made it past the censor in "full house". he was great in comedy and the family sitcom. we'll look back at the late actor's career just ahead on "morning joe." late actor's career just ahead on "morning joe." ♪are you ready♪ as a dj, i know 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organization behind the awards is reeling. instead of the glitz and the glam, the winners were announced in 280 characters or less. the top film honors went to "the power of the dogs", and "west side story". will smith for "king richard", and nicole kidman for "being the ricardos". seg fresh off starring in her high school's musical, her senior year. hbo's "hacks" and "succession" won television's top awards. next hour we'll be joined -- also ahead is the gop evolving into an authoritarian party? we'll dig into what the new york magazine's jonathan chate calls the most important development on the current political era. plus a look at how american voters are feeling about the events of january 6th. a little over a year after the attack on the capitol. we'll show you the surprising answers from both sides of the political aisle. next on "morning joe." political aisle. political aisle. next on "morning joe." and build an equitable, clean energy future, and in the process, create millions 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your name ♪ ♪ ♪and they're always glad you came ♪ it's the top of the hour. 8:00 on the east coast. a live look at the white house as the sun has come up over washington this morning. it's back to "morning joe." it's mopd, january 10th. we begin this hour with yesterday's massive fire that broke out in new york city. at least 19 people are dead including nine children after fire and smoke filled inside the apartment building. firefighters say it started yesterday morning with malfunctioning space heater in an apartment where the door was left open, allowing the smoke to rise through every floor of the building. many were rescued. some people were trapped in the stairwells. kathy park has more. >> reporter: the five-alarm fire ripped through this high-rise. flaming shooting out of the second and third floors. karen was making breakfast when it started. >> i just heard people screaming help, help, help. >> reporter: the smoke spreading quickly to all floors throughout this 19 story building with more than 100 apartments. >> this smoke extended the entire height of the building. members found victims on every floor in stairways, and were taking them out in cardiac and respiratory arrest. >> reporter: the emergency response was massive. roughly 200 firefighters, some pulling residents down ladders. others tending to the injured. >> i looked out my window, and it's flames coming out of the window. >> reporter: new york city's mayor calling it one of the worst fires in the city's history. >> the impact of this fire is going to really bring a level of just pain and despair in our city. the numbers are horrific. >> reporter: dozens were injured and transferred to five different city hospitals. it's the second fire with major fatalities in a week. just days ago 12 perished in this fire in a philadelphia row house. a painful and horrific for day for a community now in mourning. >> we're going to be here for in community to help them navigate through this. during the tragedy, we are going to be here for each other. >> that was nbc's kathy park with that report. dozens more are still injured with 13 from that fire still in critical condition. now to the latest with the house select committee's investigation into the january 6th attack on the capitol. committee member jamie raskin invited stephanie grich m to appear before the panel. he said the two had a candid phone call where she mentioned a lot of times during a conversation about january 6th. bennie thompson says the committee will also ask mike pence to voluntarily appear before the panel. former white house chief of staff mark meadows who was facing contempt charges for not appearing before the committee is asking the supreme court to weigh in on former president trump's request to shield his white house records from lawmakers. meanwhile, republican senator mike rounz of south dakota is are rejecting the claims of mass voter fraud in the 2020 election. >> as a part of our due diligence, we looked at over 60 different accusations made in multiple states. while there were some irregularities, there were none of the irregularities which would have risen to the point where they would have changed the vote outcome in a single state. the election was fair as fair as we've seen. we simply did not win the election for republicans through the presidency. >> we talked about this last week. the week of january 6th. that there were 93 senators that said joe biden was a winner on january 6th. who voted to certify that vote. the senator from south dakota a state that strongly went for donald trump reaffirming that again yesterday. trump judges across the country reaffirming that, and the dozens and dozens -- scores of court cases that went before them, even the united states supreme court, doing the same. so, again, i understand there are members of the house. i understand there are people especially running for office this year who are continuing to push the big lie. that, though, is something that certainly members of the united states senate, republicans of the united states senate especially are saying what the senator said there. >> yeah. respect for him for saying the obvious, because apparently in this climate, it's harder for a republican to do that. joining us now, writer for new york magazine, jonathan chate. his latest piece is entitled "conservatism and fascism are not the same thing". you can't stop authoritarianism unless you understand it. >> jonathan, thank you for being here. this piece struck a chord with me in particular. since the rise of trump, i've been hearing some of my center left friends saying well, the republican party has always been like this. the republican party has always been fascist. you go back, and you can see commentators on the left basically calling every republican nominee since nixon a fascist. >> yes. >> and yet, we look at -- we talked about voting rights in 2005. every republican supported the extension of the voting rights act. now we can't find one. obviously a big change. >> that's right. i think the way to understand this is that it's a long and slow evolution in the party where a right wing faction that's always been uncomfortable with democracy has gained more and more power within the party, and the party's really coming for a division for it as to what the identity is going to be going forward. is it going to be a party that works within the democratic system and accepts using elections or does it just change into a party that is just fundamentally unwilling to work within that system? you know, trump isn't the entirety of the problem. trump was produced by a change in climate of opinion within his party that made it more congenial for those beliefs to take root. and could outlive him. but, you know, it's a complicated problem, and it's not just about one man. so i think a lot of people within the party need to recognize the breadth of the problem. >> well, and it's not just about one man. the thing is when i was running in '93 and '94, it was post waco, post ruby ridge. you had a lot of militias, people that called themselves property rights activists who would -- of course, i'm all for property rights. i'm a small government conservative, but they would use property rights as sort of a vailed language to talk about violence against the federal government. they would talk about the militias in the same way. i debated against a guy in 1994 who when somebody talked about expanded background checks said you'll have to rip my gun from my cold, get hands. the difference between 1994 and 2022 is when those statements were said, everybody was kind of like backed away and said oh, okay. well, let's just push them to the side and keep walking forward. now so many of those voices are getting to the center and you're hearing people saying hey, when can ge get our guns? when can we start killing people? >> i think that's an interesting historical precursor. there's a lot of things you can trace. that's an important one people don't pay enough attention to. the broader lesson is how parties operate with their potential allies is a really important choice they have to make. when you have someone within your coalition who is making these kind of radical and dangerous statements, your choices to work within that person, do i overlook our differences and say hey, they're on our side? or do i say no, your ideas are unacceptable? i'm not willing to let you be part of that coalition? the choice, most of the actors within the republican party have made over the time is to say i'm going to work with these radicals because they're ultimately on our side, and when you make that choice over and over again, this is the position you find yourself in. >> jonathan, we've read over the past few decades, there was a time when william f. buckley and ronald reagan both had to make that decision on the onbirch society. do we continue to accept them into our party, into our movement with all the energy they bring, or do we separate ourselves and move forward without them. buckley and reagan both side you can be a member of our movement, but you're a member of our movement on our terms. >> for the most part, yeah. i mean, i think you can -- i've made an argument on both sides. you could say they both empowered radicals in some ways and set limits in some form or fashion, but they also empowered a lot of radicals and allowed them entry into the door in ways that maybe they didn't realize would allow them to eventually gain the upper hand. so i think you can look at the history of the conservative movement as in both terms, but i think it's set in motion a lot of long, slow processes that have really overtaken the party and changed the charkt. >> hey, jonathan. t jonathan lamire. good morning. great to see you. as you outlined here, there are a few voices that stand up to president trump and what he's espousing. we saw last week a vivid display with liz cheney and her father dick cheney being the only republicans on the floor in the capitol during that moment of silence for the january 6th. where do those republicans go from here? we know liz cheney faces a fierce primary battle. she's not alone. how do they try to chart out a different course for the republican party? >> i have nothing admiration for liz cheney. i agree with her on almost nothing, but you can't think of any interest she has in what she's doing other than principle. it's very difficult to see how her political career is going to survive, but she just doesn't care. she's doing what she has to do, which i think is to put the choice forward to her party in the starkest and clearest terms and saying we have to make a decision about whether we are going to be a democrat, small d democratic party going forward or not. i think so many republicans want to dodge that choice, but she's making that choice completely clear. and it's just totally admirable. >> well, it's kind of like eddie. you have absolutely no reason to admit that you're my friend. it goes against your interest academically. it goes against it professionally. it goes against it personally, and yet, you still go. god bless you. >> a little different. >> i know you have a question for jonathan. go ahead. >> i do, and joe, you are my friend, absolutely. let me ask you this question, jonathan. i read your article, and i found it fascinating for a couple of reasons. i'm going to ask two quick questions. one, what would it mean to be conservative around race issues in the context of the mid 20th century effort to desegregate the american society. the second question is obviously we have to make a distinction between conservative and fascism. you've conceded the claim that american conservatism laid the foundation for the fascism turn we're seeing. so talk a bit about the issue of race and conservatism and the way in which race is being mobilized in this current moment as we begin to think about the lie behind the big lie and what's going on in that way. could you help me understand this a bit? >> absolutely. so i think what you're implying with the first question is something that i agree with completely. which is that the history of the conservative movement was originated in opposition to desegregation, and in favor of white supremacy. that was what the conservative movement was organized about. that was what william f. buckley in national review and the conservative movement of ron goldwater were fighting over. the fact that the republican party mainstreamed was not ain't civil rights for their liking, and they lived you take over the republican party by taking a stronger anti-civil rights lie, and they believe they could move the republican party further to the right and they could find those additional conservative votes they lost in the center by picking up white segregationists southerners and move the party to the right -- >> who were democrats, by the way. >> that was their strategy. i think we're in agreement at that point. and i think that's one of the major things that a lot of conservatives are in denial over when they have a somewhat romantic view of the history of conservatism. that was one of the incredibly ugly things that the conservative movement brought into the republican party and they haven't come to terms with. is that the point you're making? i think we're in agreement on that point. >> yes. >> so in a way, i think what you get is a much deeper and broader question of how does the republican party incorporate its history when there is this anti-democratic strand that's so deep within it. because one of the choices they have to make is the united states hasn't really been a democracy except since about 1965, because such a large percentage of the population was excluded from voting. and it's only been sin 1965 that we've been something like a real democracy. how do you accommodate yourself to democracy in a lot of ways the conservative movement has been uncomfortable with democracy all along, because it was the democratization that drove them to the two-party system. >> jonathan, finally, though, you -- you're obviously completely right. i also want to say, though c that as we move forward through that time, you have examples, like, for instance, you were talking about liz cheney. george w. bush. a guy who could have done what donald trump did after paris, after 9/11. instead, he went to a mosque. he aggressively defended muslim americans and spoke out against bigotry there. even ronald reagan who yes, did some things that on race that obviously are terrible, said some things that were terrible. at the same time, when ronald reagan's farewell address to the country in his letter right before he left office, what did he say? he said if we aren't a nation of immigrants, then we lose our vitality. if we don't continue to keep open the door of immigration, and, of course, reagan castigated by conservatives for what they called amnesty. reagan said, then america would cease to be what it is. you could talk about bush saving 13, 14 million lives with pep for aids in africa. obviously it's not a straight line from 1965 to 2022. >> no, i agree with you on that. i think as awful as i think george w. bush was as a president in so many ways, he was trying to move his party to the center on race and move its party forward on race and craft a new and more inclusive identity. his republican chairman admitted that the southern strategy was a great moral mistake, and tried to repudiate that and move his party beyond that. but that forward movement seems to have been lost and been reversed more recently. you won't find republicans admitting the southern strategy existed let alone admit that there was a moral catastrophe and they wanted to -- they need to apologize for it. so i agree with you that george w. bush really deserves credit with his record on race and inclusion. >>on jonathan, thank you for coming on for this conversation this morning. as democrats in congress fiercely investigate the events of january 6th, what do their voters think? in a new focus group, some sympathize with the, quote, regular people that took it too far but were frustrated with the system. >> my overall opinion of the people who did it and the people who allowed it to happen has stayed the same, but i've also gained a more nuanced view of what led to that. with all these flawed systems put into place, what happens is everybody's got to find an enemy. and the responses from republicans may surprise as well. despite reports saying former president trump's grip on the party is strong, many in this recent focus group believe he should not run for reelection. >> a quick show of hands, how many of you would like to see president trump run again in 2024? okay. three of you. >> the show is over. we need new blood at the head of the country, and different types of leaders. i mean, this divide among the parties is getting really crazy, crazy. >> those are just some of the take aways from a new focus group series from the new york times opinion section. it's fascinating. >> yesterday my four kids and i did something that we've been doing since covid started, and we get on zoom, and we call it a bible study. we'll talk about a scripture, but we also just talk generally about what's going on. and it's very interesting that yesterday there was -- there's deep sympathy for those who charged the capitol on january 6th. well, of course we're all upset and think that people should go to jail, certainly, for what they did with police officers. even with children, old and young, there's a growing understanding that these are people who were used. these were people who were lied to. these were people whose frailties were exploited. and it really was my view as i went in to write an op ed this past week, saying wait a minute, we're focusing way too much on the attackers who obviously, again, there must be justice whether you're destroying things in portland, oregon or whether a federal courthouse in portland j oregon or attacking the center of american democracy. but again, you peel it back a little bit and look at the people who did that, and you understand that a lot of these people are having difficulties in their life that were exploited by politicians, exploited by media figures who saw -- who saw this as an opportunity to get more clicks, to make more money, to get more campaign contributions. >> joining us now, deputy opinion editor for the new york times, patrick hely, and democratic pollster and principal at dbgo strategies, margie omearo. she conducted the focus group and sat in on the one with the republicans. patrick, overall what was sort of the conclusion or the new information that you all discovered from these conversations on both sides of the aisle? >> i think that a democratic focus group probably surprised me the most. as you got up with the opening clip, sort of a degree of empathy that several of the democrats had for the protesters on january 6th. they did not agree at all with the big lie. they were horrified by the attack on the capitol, keerly. they thought january 6th was kind of a major moment, certainly that year. but they also took such issue, and they kept coming back to it again and again, with the system. with systems in america. that they see as having left folks like them, you know, really without a say in government, without an ability to change government. huge frustration to trump's inner circle is dodging subpoenas and still able to do the work that they do. and a real desire for reform. you didn't hear a lot of the democrats talking about the voting rights bill that is before the senate this month. they were looking for a much deeper reform like abolition of the electoral college and term limits and why does wyoming only get two senators when a different state might get fewer. on the republican side, like you got at, the willingness to defy trump and say that either they don't want him to run again or he could have stopped the attack at the capitol sooner, again, when you get away from the polarized kind of experts on both sides, or kind of academics and you listen to a lot of these sort of more regular americans, a lot of nuance comes out. that's what really excited us. >> both focus groups had very different responses when asked what one word comes to mind when they think about january 6th. take a listen. >> when i say january 6th, i want to hear what the first word is that comes to mind when i say january 6th. >> the first thing i think about is it's being way overblown. >> scary. >> scary? >> scary. >> misrepresented. >> how close we're coming to the end of a real democracy. >> lawrence, how about you? >> i would say shocking. >> and when both parties were asked about the health of our democracy, republicans were more optimistic. >> how many of you would you think our democracy is in poor condition? gayle, matt, josh. and then lorna. does anybody say critical condition? >> no. i mean, this is the united states. >> go for it. >> got it. so think about -- i mean, speaking of health care, think about our democracy as if it's a patient at a hospital or at the doctor. how would you characterize the health of our democracy? healthy, fair, fair condition, poor, or in critical condition? >> the icu. >> it's in a pandemic. >> critical condition. >> critical condition poisoned. >> i'm sorry. i got to laugh. you could have just come to our home and done this, because i would have been the one saying, like the conservatives, we're fine. we're the united states of america. >> you would not have said that about january 6th. >> we're going to get through this. this is terrible. and mika would say it's a pandemic. so i find that so fascinating. that's exactly what you found in your focus group, even with democrats running washington d.c. >> people, i think one of the surprises from this group is how democrats really felt unaided, concerned about january 6th, and concerned about the fragility of our democracy. i mean, it was pervasive. this isn't to say this is what democratic campaigns should talk about january 6th through november, but democrats in this focus group really felt it. and republicans called it just a day. they were not even sure if historians would ever write about january 6th. the difference in how they viewed the day and its importance, how they connected it to their thoughts about democracy was a really salient difference between the two groups. >> well, i mean obviously it's a massively important day historically. patrick, which is really stunning when somebody says that it's just a day when the center of american democracy is attacked. what i was speaking to more was the resiliency, and i guess that's the question. do democrats believe our democracy is far less resilient than, say, the republicans? >> i don't think it's far less, but joe, they see, again, kind of these systems and the way the two parties talk past each other as really troubling. you could tell almost viscerally during the focus group how much it bothered them when margie was digging in about the subpoenas being dodged. and that democrats felt that republicans, as well as some people in their own party weren't successfully holding accountable trump's inner circle as margie has said to that. and just that sort of degree, that feeling of kind of dispossession. parts of it did remind me of covering bernie sanders in 2016, and talking to some of the voters there who didn't want piecemeal reforms but wanted something really big. >> yeah. and margie, we've heard that these republican voters were a bit more skeptical of donald trump running for election again than we would have expected. how about joe biden? what did democrats think about joe biden running again? >> patrick asked about it. most of the group have voted for biden, and wanted to -- you know, were sort of thinking about what would happen for '24. i would say i looked at this as a group that was concerned about democracy and the country overall. they were concerned about obstructionism in washington. they were worried about the president being able to pass his agenda, given what we've been seeing in washington. those were the things the voters across different intensity of their democratic party were concerned about. >> margie, after listening to the focus groups, are you more or less optimistic about the direction the country is headed? >> so i actually felt optimistic after listening to the democratic focus groups. i felt these were folks who were engaged and paying attention to key issues who wanted to hear from a variety -- about a variety of different topics. i do think the optimistic point from listening and you were talking about this in the beginning, both republicans and democrats in both groups wanted to bridge the divide. wanted to bring voters together. wanted to give other voters the benefit of the doubt. regardless putting a pin in for a moment, a very big pin, in how they view leaders and culpability, they still want to get past the divisions that we have right now. >> patrick healy and margie omaro, thank you both for coming on the show this morning. we appreciate it. still ahead on "morning joe," the latest in the diplomatic efforts to deescalate the situation in ukraine now that russia has nearly 10 0,000 troops at the border. plus a legal victory for novak djokovic after australian border officials cancelled his visa, but his win off the court may not hold up. and wondering when the pandemic will end on tv? it already has. one of our next guest says some are finding it much easier to put covid in the past. "morning joe" is coming right back. 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-easy? switch your xfinity services to your new address online in about a minute. that was easy. i know, right? and even save with special offers just for movers. really? yep! so while you handle that, you can keep your internet and all those shows you love, and save money while you're at it with special offers just for movers at xfinity.com/moving. welcome back. we are following today's talks between the u.s. and russian negotiators with the threat of military conflict looming in ukraine. nbc news chief foreign correspondent richard engel is in the eastern part of this country and just filed this report. >> reporter: ukrainians are welcoming 2022 by preparing for a possible russian invasion. digging new trenches by hand in the frozen earth. lined by mine fields, the trenches already stretch for miles across eastern ukraine, defenses that have changed little since world war i. a ukrainian soldier says he'll fight to the end, but of the talks he says, my opinion is we expect our leaders will solve these issues. maria, a forward scout didn't see her four-year-old for christmas and may not for many months to come. hopefully on the other side c they love their families just like we do and don't want to see bloodshed and death, she says. russia has also moved in missile launchers, and this huge clearing vehicle that can cut a path through forests for columns of tanks. on sunday secretary blinken said he doesn't expect any breakthroughs ahead of key talks through russia. >> i think it's a fair prospect nato will reinforce positions along the eastern flanks. >> the united states is willing to make concessions. u.s. officials say they're willing to discuss scaling back military exercises near russia if russia resip rotates with its military drills. not deploying defensive missiles in ukraine and broader missile control agreements across europe. >> that was nbc's richard engel reporting from ukraine. coming up, a big development from the sports world. the top-ranked men's tennis player would compete in the australian open after all despite his standoff with the country over the covid vaccine. those details are next on "morning joe." e details are nex "morning joe." ♪ i see trees of green ♪ ♪ red roses too ♪ ♪ i see them bloom for me and you ♪ (music) ♪ so i think to myself ♪ ♪ oh what a wonderful world ♪ ♪3, 4♪ ♪ ♪hey♪ ♪ ♪are you ready for me♪ ♪are you ready♪ ♪are you ready♪ one of the top tennis players in the world may have another shot at the australian open. but before novak djokovic can win on the tennis court, he has to win in the legal court first. sara james has more. >> reporter: dramatic scenes after a court ruling with clashes between some fans of djokovic and police as the city reacts that the world's number one tennis player can stay and play in australia. the ruling clears the way for the nine-time australian open champ to take center court at the grand slam tournament which gets underway sunday. the judge ruled the government must release djokovic from detention at this hotel, but it's not yet game, set, match for the unvaccinated tennis star. the australian immigration minister could still decide to deport djokovic despite the court's ruling. there's been no word on any decision. it began wednesday when he landed in melbourne and faced a grilling from border officials. australia's strict immigration laws require visitors to be vaccinated unless they have a medical exemption. the tennis stars lawyers said djokovic who had a recent bout of covid-19 ticked every box and noted the two independent panels approved his request. but there are also questions as to why djokovic appeared unmasked at a tennis event on december 17th. the day after his lawyers say he tested positive. it's not clear if djokovic knew his diagnosis. his representatives did not respond to our request for comment. australia's deputy prime minister was unconvinced that djokovic had fulfilled all his requirements? >> the minister of health was absolutely black and white clear to mr. djokovic about what his responsibilities and the expectations were. >> reporter: the judge struck a sympathetic note. the point i'm somewhat agitated about is what more could this man have done, and ruled in favor of djokovic. the world number one can now turn his attention to his quest to be the first man in the world to win 21 grand slams. >> that was nbc news correspondent sara james reporting. and coming up, remembering actor and comedian bob saget who died yesterday at the age of 65. "morning joe" is coming right back. g right back an: what's my safelite story? >> vo: my car is more than four wheels. it's my after-work decompression zone. so when my windshield broke... >> woman: what?! >> vo: ...i searched for someone who really knew my car. i found the experts at safelite autoglass. with their exclusive technology, they fixed my windshield... then recalibrated the camera attached to my glass so my safety systems still work. who knew that was a thing?! >> woman: safelite has service i can trust. >> singers: ♪ safelite repair, safelite replace. ♪ [music: “you can get it if you really want” by jimmy cliff] facing leaks takes strength. so here's to the strong, who trust in our performance and comfortable long-lasting protection. because your strength is supported by ours. depend. the only thing stronger than us, is you. 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... ...can uncover clearer skin and improve symptoms at 16 weeks. tremfya® is the only medication of its kind also approved for adults with active psoriatic arthritis. serious allergic reactions may occur. tremfya® may increase your risk of infections and lower your ability to fight them. tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms or if you had a vaccine or plan to. emerge tremfyant® with tremfya®... ask you doctor about tremfya® today. ♪ it wasn't me by shaggy ♪ you're never responsible for unauthorized purchases on your discover card. see blood when you brush or floss can be a sign of early gum damage. parodontax active gum repair kills plaque bacteria at the gum line to help keep the gum sealed tight. parodontax active gum repair toothpaste how not to be a hero: because that's the last thing they need you to be. you don't have to save the day. you just have to navigate the world so that a foster child isn't doing it solo. you just have to stand up for a kid who isn't fluent in bureaucracy, or maybe not in their own emotions. so show up, however you can, for the foster kids who need it most— at helpfosterchildren.com i wish i had one more chance just to tell him how much "lost in america" resonated with me. >> oh, my god. he's a covid hoarder. albert brooks is a covid hoarder. >> he's a [ bleep ] covid hoarder. >> albert is a covid hoarder. >> are you kidding me? >> what are you doing in the closet? what's going on here? >> look at all that toilet paper. >> first responder could have used all that stuff. >> why are people in that closet? >> wait a minute. are you really a covid hoarder? >> what's wrong with you? did you know there was a closet full of [ bleep ] toilet paper? >> have you no shame, albert. >> shame on you. >> this used to be a cvs. >> i hope you really die. >> this was beautiful. come back. >> come on, jeff, we're out of here. >> this was a mistake. >> you disgust me. >> shame on you, albert brooks. >> come back. i've got flu shots. >> for those who don't watch that show, that was how albert brooks' memorial service ended which he decided he wanted to have a memorial service before he died. something he regretted later. but that was the extent of how much "curb your enthusiasm" was going when it returned from the pandemic break. hiding the ppe. most tv shows seem to be hiding the entire pandemic in their metaphor cal let's bring in chief television critics for "the new york times." he wrote about this over the weekend and he joins us now. i have to admit, james, i think "succession" had scenes where people were wearing masks. i was like i don't -- even though i am very conservative with a small c on masks and everything else, i didn't want to see it on tv. it looks like that's the calculation that a lot of tv shows are making now. >> you know, like everybody else during the pandemic, tv producers have had a lot of rough choices to make, you know, one of which was do you just ignore the pandemic as it never existed? do you lean fully into it and make it part of your show? i think what we're seeing now going into the second and then going on the third year of the pandemic is this kind of unsettling phenomenon where shows are sort of taking the standpoint of, okay, in the world of our show the pandemic did happen and it existed and it was a real thing and it was a big deal, but now it's over. it somehow got fixed, yadda, yadda, yadda, and the rest of you are sort of out on your own, which it often ends up being kind of a more unsettling thing than never acknowledging the pandemic in the first place. >> yeah. larry david -- i'm sorry. >> i will say "curb your enthusiasm" approach is worth it simply to heard jon hamm said it's a shonda on television. but there is this sort of, you know, cognitive dissidence that you get now where you see an example of a show like, say, ""grey's anatomy"" do a season that on the medical show is set in a pandemic and dealing with it and approaching it and it comes back and it's sort of, well, we have kind of done this long enough, we are now in a post-pandemic reality. good luck to the rest of you. >> sort of like "this is us" did. they obviously had mask wearing and had leaned into it until they didn't. just stopped. >> yeah, and, you know, i understand there are no great choices, you know, like a lot of things with the pandemic, and there is the argument, well, people want to watch television to escape, you know? but i think that people don't necessarily want to watch television to deny things, they want -- you want to be entertained, you want to sort of escape emotionally into a story, but, you know, you look at the history of television, "all in the family" for instance in the 1970s, that was not just some obscure critical darling that only critics liked, this was the number one show on television for years. it was totally about america's problems and the things that upset people and the arguments that they had at home and with their neighbors. it delved into it in an entertaining,emotionally affecting way. i don't think necessarily that tv entertainment and dealing with, you know, in this case the sort of big totalizing problem that's going on literally in the entire world for the past couple years, i don't think they're necessarily mutually exclusive. even though obviously it doesn't make sense for every show. different shows have a different level of reality to them. >> you know, you talked about "all in the family." that was a show that in the 1970s everything stopped in my conservative household on i think it was saturday nights on cbs. we would stop, we would watch "all in the family" all of us would be dying laughing and you take it through "the walltons" and mary tyler more. you had cosby show and other shows that everybody would stop and watch. in the '90s bob saget was part of a couple of shows that i think really were sort of at least in my life were sort of on the end of that appointment viewing where networks can say on this net and in bob's case it was abc, on this night everybody is going to stop and they're going to watch what we've packaged for them from 8:00 to 11:00. >> yeah, you know, i think what we're seeing in the emotional outpouring to bob saget's death, which, you know, i think affected a lot of people clearly very deeply is on one level i think that is sort of the -- the legacy of the tail end of this big network era of when millions of people sort of communed together and developed this attachment to the actor. what we have seen in television, i don't know if we will see it in the future now that we have the algorithm serving us up our custom tailored shows on netflix and so forth. >> good morning. you also wrote over the weekend about sidney poitier and his legacy, we also lost him in the last few days. give us a sense of how you believe he will be remembered in the decades to come. >> i mean, you know, i think he is a legendary figure in entertainment. not simply for being a great actor and not simply for being one of the first black actors to, you know, have widespread national and world recognition, but really for having, you know, created that legacy and that resumé of achievement within the strictures of what, you know, black male lead actors were allowed to do at the time that, you know, his career was at its peak. he was limited in the romantic roles that he could take, he was limited in the -- sort of amount of agency that his characters had, and yet was able to bring to them, you know, a real commanding presence and a real authority that both spoke to his ability -- and i think, you know, that inspired people, you know, beyond the screen out in the real world. i think that was, you know, one of those rare cases of, you know, sort of fictional artistic performance that really touches the larger world. >> really did. and broke so many barriers across the united states and the world. chief television critics for "the new york times." james, thank you so much for being with us, we really do appreciate it. coming up next, the united states is now averaging more than 700,000 new coronavirus cases every day and dr. fauci says he wouldn't be surprised if daily cases go over a million. stephanie ruhle picks up the coverage on that and much more right after a final break. right after one thing was a bit of a buzz kill, right? so she ordered sunglasses with prime, one day delivery. ♪♪ people realized she's actually hilarious once you get to know her. eugh. as if. ♪♪ well, he was asking for it. prime changes everything. biden: this is the challenge of our collective lifetime. and every day we delay, the cost of inaction increases. we have the ability to invest in ourselves and build an equitable, clean energy future, and in the process, create millions of good-paying jobs and opportunities around the world. there's no more time to hang back or sit on the fence or argue amongst ourselves. so let this be the moment that we answer history's call. your record label is taking off. but so is your sound engineer. you need to hire. i need indeed. indeed you do. indeed instant match instantly delivers quality candidates matching your job description. visit indeed.com/hire ♪ limu emu and doug.♪ and it's easy to customize your insurance at libertymutual.com so you only pay for what you need. isn't that right limu? limu? 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[a vulture squawks.] there he is. only pay for what you need. ♪liberty, liberty, liberty, liberty♪ ♪ ♪making your way in the world today♪ ♪takes everything you've got♪ ♪ ♪taking a break from all your worries ♪ ♪sure would help a lot ♪ ♪wouldn't you like to get away? ♪ ♪ ♪ sometimes you want to go ♪ ♪where everybody knows your name ♪ ♪ ♪and they're always glad you came ♪ ♪♪ hi there, i'm stephanie ruhle, live at msnbc headquarters here in new york city. it is monday, january 10th, and there is a ton of news to get to this morning, so buckle up and let's get smarter. this morning the nation starting to feel the crush of the omicron surge. hospitalizations are up nearly