president zelenskyy and that country's desperate need for more weapons, while talking tough about another leader, israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu who's losing support globally over the mounting civilian casualties in gaza. among other things. meanwhile on capitol hill, house republicans are doubling down on partisan politics, with a vote today on an impeachment inquiry into president biden, it comes as the president's son in standoff with house republicans over a public versus a private hearing and we're keeping an eye on wall street ahead of fed's expected decision this afternoon on the future of interest rates. good morning and welcome to "morning joe." it's wednesday, december 13th. with us we have the host of "way too early" jonathan lemire. james stavridis. president emeritus on the council of foreign relations, richard haass. >> we have so much to talk about today. i mean, willie, i xwot the say, we also have a poll by the way, these polls go back and forth. we have a poll showing that joe biden leading in the swing states that he won last time. we'll get to that poll in just a minute. i wonder if people are going to obsess with this for all the polls that are bad news for joe biden. in the times report yesterday, republicans standing back, j.d. vance, why do we support -- russia, here are the numbers, russia started the war and you know these numbers 360,000 troops. they have lost 315,000. of those 360,000 troops. that means they'reavg to go into prisons. they're having to scrape people off the streets, they're having to fight with peoplet have never fought in war before and you even look at whatre fighting with, their tanks, 3500 tanks, they'vet two-thirds of them,y lost about tanks, they're going to have to go back the surplus and salvage tanks that are 50 years old to throw out there. here you have a country that considers itself america's enemy, vladimir putin considers america its enemy and ukraine is completely decimated any, any belief that russia is a major military power. and it's gutted their military. it will take them decades to recovernd yet, republicans, the party of ronald reagan, doesn't see the value of continuing to support freedom fighters. and letting them fight this war against russia instead of us. not one american has died in this war. the toll in russia has been overwhelming. >> yeah, we knew the war was going badly for vladimir putin. this is an american intelligence report that was made public perhaps not by accident as the biden administration's trying to rally congress to support billions and billions of dollars more support here. and admiral the numbers are just staggering, as joe said, putin is having to empty the prisons to send people out to the front lines and to die here and i think the case that the pentagon, the case of the biden administration's making to congress you have the ability to help ukraine win this war, they have putin on the ropes. he needs us now. he left probably a little bit disappointed but what he heard in caucus meeting from republicans zelenskyy did, the case is clear without the united states russia could make progress in a way it hasn't in over the last two years. >> let's start with those numbers, if i started the war as a supreme russian commander right about now i'd be a corporal in the russian army, it's been a disaster of leadership, military operations, lgistics and to what joe laid out a moment ago, probably 500,000 young russian males of draft age have now left russia, so you can add that to your casualty list and i bet most of those aren't coming back and news flash, those are the internet savvy ones, the smart ones, the ones who had some resources to get away from vladimir putin is creating. now, in the midst of this, good news for zelenskyy, i just strike one cautionary note, russia is reaching out to north korea, they're reaching out to iran to replenish these military stocks, they have a population that's tripled that of ukraine, they're still manpower albeit as you point out, increasingly depressed capabilities coming out of prisons. i'd tell you what, i don't like the russian hand of cards militarily, i think where this leads is a probability static set of military lines between these two sides, i think it's rising at this point rather than falling. >> yeah, agreed. agreed. which again suggests at some point there needs to be negotiations to bring this war to an end. i think it would help zelenskyy and it would help the ukrainians to send that message to lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. we're not going to keep fighting this war for three, four years. we'll have to go to the negotiating table, because this is not a forever war, so as we're finding. but, you know, richard, we should look at the republicans, the republicans holding support for israel hostage, holding support for the ukrainian soldiers hostage, we should look at through the lens of what donald trump told zelenskyy, he said i'm not going to send you any defensive weapons until you get dirt on my political rivals. so they're impacting -- donald trump is impacting u.s. foreign policies for his own personal purposes. you have republicans who claim they want to support israel and ukraine but they're holding it hostage for border security. here's the rub, biden has let them know he wants the deal. he's gng to get tougher on border security. he will meet them more than halfway and the republican response, we're not going to do a deal. we're going to make it impossible for joe biden to get a deal done by the end of the year, all for just naked political reasons and they're willing to leave israel and ukraine hanging out there. >> look, if that's the case, joe, i's bad for border security and america's reputation in the world, bad for america's security. i was with j.d. vance yesterday, when he spoke about ukraine, his whole emphasis was really on isolationist, we got to do do more at home. and the familiar stuff of bashing the allies. what ukraine needs to think about, there was a big story yesterday in "the new york times" about it, i think they've got a much-compelling story if they focus on survival and maintaining what they've got. i think the idea even if they got the idea they can roll back the russians and regain the other 20% of the country i think is a real long shot. russia's putting out a lot of orders. they can produce more stuff militarily than we can which is another conversation about what happened to our manufacturing base. let's put that aside. i think ukraine has a much stronger story, we need this help to keep what we've got. new relations with nato and the european union. harder and harder to make the argument if you give aid to ukraine they'll be successful in liberating the rest of their territory, i don't think that's a credible argument a. at some point president zelenskyy will have to pivot for the near term we won't be able to accomplish through military means. >> let's talk about that aid supplement a before chrimas seems unlikely. with senator mitch mcconnell said yesterday practically impossible to get a deal done. jackie, let's talk about this proposal from republicans, zelenskyy was making the case to congress yesterday that he needs the aid. it sounds like the white house may now be open to something on the border to talking to senate republicans about a deal that would get this aid to ukraine. where does that stand this morning? >> i will say that conversations were more productive yesterday than they were last week, after we saw republicans storm out of a meeting on border security, and having president zelenskyy ultimately cancel his scheduled zoom with lawmakers to try to convince them to continue to aid ukraine and send $61 billion to kyiv as part of this bigger, $100 billion foreign aid package, but that is not to say that there's optimism that a deal will get done prior to the christmas holiday and as we have been saying for weeks now and our sources have been worried about, but zelenskyy did visit capitol hill yesterday, his pomp and circumstance around his visit was congruent that he received from gop lawmakers, is that they still did not see his argument as richard was noting sufficient for why the united states should still continue fund them militarily. zelenskyy tried to make the case that warfare is going to turn increasingly brutal and bloody if the u.s. doesn't continue to aid them. but, the remainder of those details of a game plan going forward were, again, no particular time clear enough for leaders to decide, at least republican leaders they were going to continue this. however, the biden administration has privately have been trying to encourage democrats to engage in these border conversations and secretary mayorkas went to the hill for a meeting to hash out more details about a package that the senate and certainly house republicans are not going to support ukraine aid unless they get more assistance when it comes to the border, but these tenants and some of the things that lawmakers are discussing bringing back these title 42 policies aren't going to be popular with progressive democrats. >> jonathan, the white house has calculated that in, they want a deal, they want a deal because they actually care whether vladimir putin gets to kyiv, they want a deal because they actually want israelis to be able to defend themselves and what the u.s. to get involved and they want a deal on the border because it's in their best political interest to get a deal on the border. this negotiating and everyone circling around each other, but this is sort of remind me of debt extension talks. here, we have a lot of people squawking we don't want to help the ukrainians, we don't want to help the israelis, it's all about border security -- >> do they have a border security plan? >> yeah, they do. >> my point is, they're going to get to a deal, the republicans can play tough all they want, are they going to be the ones that putin is going to be thank ing when tanks roll into kyiv. are they going to thanking mike johnson and house for gutting support? no. talk to what you've heard in the white house they want a deal. they want a deal not only for israel and ukraine but they want a deal on the border where they can be tougher than their progressive base want them to be and we could about do anything about it, because this funding fight. >> yeah, there are a few things at play here, joe, first the border, we heard president biden directly that he's open to a deal putting significant measures and changes at the border. the white house knows this is political vulnerability. they it's a far greater risk to not doing anything at the border, a weak spot since the president's first day in office, they haven't had a good plan there and their efforts to this point haven't worked. i talked to senior officials yesterday, there's a little bit more optimism that deals can come, timing is important here, there does seem unlikely to happen now or before the winter holiday, therefore, this will spill into january, fights looming ahead about government funding, a possible shutdown, and there will -- the lack of aid will be starting to feel. the number of russian losses, a sense right now that putin has a little bit of momentum, despite all that, because the ukrainian counteroffensive failed and russia has been able to resupply and there's a sense among international security officials that russia is going to launch ans onnive if ukraine runs out of supplies and ammo. >> every day this goes by, admiral, what kind of message does it send to our nato allies, to our european allies? katty kay said yesterday that the word in europe is that putin is winning. chairman mccaul said, all you're doing is helping president xi here. >> yeah, in a phrase the world is watching. and what's going to occur in ukraine will have effects in decisions in beijing by president xi about taiwan, effects in venezuela about whether they decide to roll tanks into neighboring guyana and certainly appropriate 11 billion. congress needs to realize that and point to back to the conversation richard was having with j.d. vance, hey, i would say, senator vance, you're a veteran, you understand what supply and lgistic change mean to force in the fight. you can't choke it off and think, it's okay, in 60 days we'll turn the spigot back on, that gap plays its way through in real combat. third and finally, let's do the numbers for a minute here, the total package we're talking about and i support all four of those initiatives, they're all four legitimate security concerns, $110 billion, i mean, it's a lot of money, our defense budget guarantees our national security is $900 billion, the portion of that's dedicated to ukraine is well under 5% of that defense budget. what are we getting for that money, we're breaking the -- of the russian military. pretty good trade-off at the end of the day. last point, the europeans are in the game. europe has spent more on ukraine than the united states of america. 20 european countries are spending more on per capita basis on ukraine and total european contributions all-into ukraine, exceeds those of the united states. our allies are with us on this. >> add to that, nobody said this was going to be a few weeks and it would be over. from the get-go, it was going to be a long haul and here we are. in one minute, we'll move from ukraine to israel, where some say president biden's biggest problem is benjamin netanyahu. >> netanyahu appears to be biden's biggest problem in the eyes of biden right now. >> we're back in one minute. on. hey, you should try new robitussin honey medi-soothers for long-lasting cough and sore throat relief. try new robitussin lozenges with real medicine and find your voice. you know? we really need to work on your people skills. the first time you made a sale online with godaddy was also the first time you heard of a town named dinosaur, colorado. we just got an order from dinosaur, colorado. start an easy to build, powerful website for free with a partner that always puts you first. start for free at godaddy.com still in power after the most greatest intelligence failure since -- >> since 9/11. >> he was trying to take the judiciary with all of your right-wing -- >> you did see the paper today. >> i worked in israel, i've been there, 60 people in knesset can do whatever they want, why is he still there? >> they're in the middle of a war. >> you know what they do to an incompetent general in world war ii? fire them. >> president biden offered his harshest criticism yesterday of prime minister netanyahu warning that israel is starting to lose international support because of its military campaign in gaza. he made those comments during a fund-raiser in washington yey. suggested support from europe and the united states is waning indiscriminant bombing.te he described netanyahu's government as the most conservative in israel's history, saying the prime minister, quote, doesn't want anything remotely approaching a two-state solution, adding that netanyahu needs to change. meanwhile in israel, shortly before the president'sremarks, netanyahu sai he would block biden's post-war plan to have the palestinian authority take over gaza, in a statement netanyahu id, quote, after the great sacrifice of our civilians and our soldiers i will not allow the entry into gaza of those who educate for terrorism, support -- if you're so sure of that, mr. prime minister, why were the gates left open for these terrorists to run in and wreak havoc all over israel and it took eight hours for you to respond if you were so clear on hamas wanting to kill jews, 365 days a year every minute of every day, why in the world weren't you ready? it makes on no sense. to carville's point, i just question at this point, what would he do to stay in power because he's done a number of things in his government leading up to the war to stay in power that are naked moves that are just completely corrupt to stay in power. now he's in power, you can't move him now because we're in the middle of a war. >> exactly when they need new leadership. they need new leadership and the white house knows this. because you have a guy whose politically existence has been centered around security. a guy who oversaw the greatest failure of intelligence in israeli history, led to more deaths because of his intel failure of jews at any time since the holocaust. he knew that this attack was coming. for a year. they had the plans. in his government. for the year. written down. how hamas was going to do it. they knew this was coming for a year. not only did they do nothing, they had a meeting in doha, netanyahu's people in doha in september, less than a month before these attacks took place, and the qataris asked netanyahu's government, does netanyahu still want us to send money to hamas? and netanyahu's government said yes. >> come on. >> yes, please keep sending money to hamas. keep funding hamas. israelis, the netanyahu government had been on doha funding hamas. we sit back and we're like, oh, my god, what in the world is qatar doing? they're supposed to be our ally and then we find out in "the new york times" two days ago that actually it's netanyahu who's telling hamas to keep funding -- israel to keep funding hamas. by the way, we still haven't gotten answer from anybody in the government on why after 9/11 it took three minutes for our first responders to get there after a school shooting in nebraska it took three minutes to lock down the school. ten minutes to shut down the entire town. that's the story across america. they have no answer. this whole thing, is this what we keep getting told, a guy that was so incompetent that he allowed the worst killing of jews since the holocaust. he knew the attack was coming for a year and did nothing about it. he told qatar to send hundreds of millions of dollars to hamas weeks before the attack. and then when the attack came he didn't do a damn thing for eight hours while women were getting raped. while concert-goers were getting butchered. old women were getting taken hostage. >> live on facebook. >> young boys were seeing their parents shot dead. and this is netanyahu's government. richard, this whole security argument doesn't work. and james carville is exactly right, it's something that i keep asking myself. we can't do anything until after the war. you have a guy that allowed this to happen, it was on his watch, he asked doha to fund hamas, his government waited eight hours to go down and answer the calls of women being raped and children being gunned down. and he's saying, we got to get true through the war, no. he's incompetent. the israelis want him out. when are they going to get him out and bring in responsible leadership that the united states can work with? >> the sooner the better, not necessarily soon, it's one of the incentives that netanyahu has to continue the war, he continue to make the argument we can't change forces in the middle of it -- >> but, we're here. >> he's trying to stay out of jail. >> i understand, joe. if i said i burned down my house and then i go -- i burn down your house and as it's burning down, i'm throwing buckets, let's get the fire department. richard, richard, let's take care of your burning house first before we call in the fire department. >> but joe, right now he's got a majority in the israeli knesset, and these people agree with him on one big thing they don't want a palestinian state, they want the settler movement to continue. they like the status quo. what they want to do is avoid a two-state solution, they want to continue to populate the west bank, they don't want in any way to meet the palestinians halfway, so what was interesting about yesterday, is we ripped the band-aid off a little bit the biden administration and netanyahu essentially it's clear. we see things fundamentally diff