Toughest, most efficient, most effective Border Security bill this country has ever seen. So instead of Playing Politicwise the issue why dont we get together it and get it done . That was President Biden calling on trump in texas. Their message to voters was very different. Plus well go through some of Hunter Bidens testimony on capitol hill as new transcripts are giving us a better idea of what was said Behind Closed Doors. Also ahead the latest from gaza following a horrific scene yesterday, dozens of people reportedly shot and killed by Israeli Forces while trying to get access to food and other aid. Good morning and welcome to Way Too Early on this friday, march 1st. We made it to march. Im sam stein in for jonathan lemire. We start this in texas where President Biden and former President Trump both visited texas yesterday. They torpedoed a Border Security bill last month at the direction of donald trump. Meanwhile at eagle pass the former president spoke little of policy and talked about democrats and complained about the 2020 election results. I understand my predecessor is in eagle pass today, so heres what i would say to mr. Trump. Join me or ill join you in telling the congress to pass this bipartisan Border Security bill. We can do it together. The United States is being overrun by the biden migrant crime. Its a new form of vicious violation to our country. Theres no red state or blue state where i come from. Just communities and families looking for help. This Governor Newsom from california, what hes done is unbelievable. Instead of playing politics, why dont we get together and get it done. Horrible crooked joe is the blood of countless innocent victims. Thats how democracy works, how its supposed to work. We did much better in 2020 than we ever thought about doing in 2016 and lots of bad things happened. We work for the american people. Basically identical messaging there. Meanwhile President Biden reached utto senator Mitch Mcconnell yesterday after it was announced the Senate Minority leader would step down from his position. He express his appreciation for mcconnells years of service. Mcconnell will end his sten yr as the longest Serving Leader in u. S. History later this year. Mcconnells retirement is seen as a consolidation of power. During the border Trip Yesterday the president flexed that power even offer the position of Minority Leader to Texas Governor greg abbott. Its going to be not going to be leader and hes taken that step and a lot of people are calling me to politic for that particular job. Would you like to be the leader . I think id have to choose this guy. Id rather be the governor of texas. Its all going to work out and youre going to end up with a great leader. Now, the race to replace Mitch Mcconnell has already begun. Topping the list to fill his position are senators john cornyn, john thune, and john you guessed it barasso. Theyre all current or former deputies of mcconnell. Theyre all named john. All three have already endorsed former President Trump. His influence on who will take the job has risen sharply since mcconnells announcement. Republicans will vote for the next leader Behind Closed Doors in november and the winner will take over in january of next year. Meanwhile, a group of ten republican senators is calling for the conference to set rules ahead of the leadership election. Theyre asking to, quote, develop a Mission Statement and goals and to set a process to elect mcconnells successor. They want that meeting to happen this month. Joining us now to unwrap all of this is congressional reporter for politico, ursula perono. It is a pleasure to have you on the show. Thank you for waking up early. Some republicans are calling mcconnells decision a changing of guard. I believe thats fair. How much of this decision, honestly, was due to donald trump Who Mcconnell has had i would say a contentious relationship . You know, it is hard to ignore those optics. Theres been a lot of attention on mcconnell not yet endorsing trump. This came in the same week where we see trump again ascending closer and closer towards formally landing that president ial nomination. He hasnt formally landed it yet, but he is the presumptive nominee and also comes after we saw john thune, the last of the three johns to endorse President Trump endorse trump last week. Thune is number 2 in the senate right now, sort of mcconnells righthand guy. Theres a running out of Breathing Room for mcconnell happening right now on the trump issue. Every week hes getting asked about his relationship with trump. But i will say even enow as mcconnell is saying hes stepping down, weve still heard some Senate Republicans this week saying that mcconnell and trump need to find a way to patch up their relationship between now and the election, that there could be problems in how it looks and optics going into november if the leader of Senate Republicans who will be mcconnell through the end of the year as far as things are planned and trump himself are still at odds, not talking. But it could have implications how republicans present to voters but also on fundraising fronts and other crucial things like that, that typically president ial campaigns and Senate Campaign arms would sort of be walking step by step on. Yeah, weve been noticing mcconnell has not been speaking up recently about trump. Like i said a conteng s relationship. Trump notably wept after his wife in very personal racist terms. Lets talk about the three johns for a second. They obviously their the same first name, but what distinctions are there between the three men . What case do they make specifically and individually to be the partys next Senate Leader . Yeah, in a lot of ways they share similar characteristics in that theyve all been involved in some way in guiding this republican conference in the past few years. Thune is seen as perhaps the most trump critical of the bunch. He had been openly critical of trump as i mentioned earlier. He though has recently intorsed him, the last of the year. Barrasso is considered perhaps the most vocally protrump. He was the first to endorse him. Hes a bit bare knuckles. And then you see cornyn whos a really more offthecuff type senator than i think The Other Two here who speaks pretty, you know, freely. Hes got again that bare knuckles style but at the end of the day there are still Senate Republicans eyeing other options. There center been names floated like steve danes, other floated rick scott whos challenged leadership before. And were hearing there could be other names coming up in the woodwork and more people interested so we could be seeing plenty more than these three johns popping up in the next few months. Maybe there are johns that will put their name in it for the bid. Current congressional reporter for politico, thank you so much for joining us. Really do appreciate it. Were now getting a look at what happened behind the scenes during Hunter BidensClosed Door Deposition before two republican Led Committees this week. Yesterday the House Oversight and judiciary committees publicly released the full 229page transcript of hunters testimony as part of their impeachment inquiry into his father, President Biden. The document, which came with some redactions, addressed numerous topics including hunters laptop, his battle with addiction, joe biden, and Donald Trumps soninlaw, jared kushner. Hunter is trying to draw a contrast with what hes received from the committees and questioned why hes not Questioning Kushner for his own business dealings. When lawmakers asked hunter whether hed worked for foreign governments he responded, quote, i never worked for a country, im not jared kushner, end quote. Meanwhile harb at least one republicanen the Committee Said even though hunter made, quote, absolutely contradictory statement during his testimony, his performance under question would be, quote, read well. I think when the transcript comes out its going to read well for him, because they did a great job prepping for a read. But thats what the reality is. When you get down to it and start parsing the words your, oh, yeah, thats very interesting. All right, still ahead we expect to see former President Trump back in court today as part of his push to delay his classified documents trial in florida. Well have a preview of that. Plus Defense Secretary lloyd austin was in the hot seat on capitol hill. What he had to say about the lack of transparency about the repeat hospital visit. Those stories and a check on sports and weather when we come right back. Check on sports and weather when we come right back whos the chameleon . The most powerful, shape shifting, sorceress. Nothing like anyone youve ever faced. [ Evil Laughter ] i eat powerful sorceresses for breakfast. What is it youre holding . A cookie. Ah one last dragon warrior smackdown. Oh ah were not so different, you and i. Skadoosh. Stand back. Im gonna kick my butt. Violence, violence. We all need fiber for our digestive health, but less than 10 of us get enough each day. Good thing Metamucil Gummies are an easy way to get prebiotic, plantbased fiber. With the same amount of fiber as 2 cups of broccoli. Metamucil gummies the easy way to get your daily fiber. No, my dentures uncomfortable dracula, lets fight back against discomfort. With new poligrip power max hold comfort. It has Superior Hold Plus keeps us comfy all day with its pressure absording layer. Time for a bite if your mouth could talk it would ask for. Poligrip. Is it possible to count on my internet like my customers it count on me . R. It is with comcast business. Keeping you up and running with our 99. 9 network reliability. And security that helps outsmart threats to your data. Moaire dida twoo . Your data, too. Theres even roundtheclock customer support. So you can be there for your customers. With comcast business, reliability isnt just possible. Its happening. Get started for 49 a month. Plus, ask how to get up to a 800 prepaid card with a qualifying internet package. Dont wait, call and switch today former President Trump is expected to be in court later today in florida for a hearing that could determine whether his classified documents case would be delayed. Judge Aileen Cannon asked both sides to suggest new trial dates ahead of the hearing. Federal prosecutors proposed a july 8th start date. Trumps attorney suggested August 12thch The Trial is currently set to begin on may 20th but will likely be delayed because of numerous outstanding legal issues. While submitting their proposed trial date, Trump Lawyers also suggested it should be pushed back even further until after the election. Trump was accused of illegally hoarding classified documents in the maralago estate and obstructing the governments efforts to get them back. Hes pleaded not guilty to the charges. Alabama senator kati britt will deliver the republican response to the president s state of the Union Address next thursday. The Statement Reads in part, quote, its time for the next generation to step up. The 42yearold exceo has endorsed trump interest president. Shes the youngest woman ever elected to the senate and the first female senator to be elected in alabama. It was a combative hearing in congress yesterday when Defense Secretary lloyd austin was questioned about his recent hospitalization and his failure to disclose it to the president and others for days. Nbc news correspondent Courtney Kube has more. Reporter Defense Secretary lloyd austin in the hot seat. It was a failure of leadership. Reporter Hus Republicans Grilling Austin for not telling the white house he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. Concerned the secretary could be hospitalized for three days without anyone else in the Administration Even noticing. Either the president is that aloof or you are irrelevant. Which one is it, mr. Secretary . Its neither. Democrats were more forgiving. You want to know what accountability is. Accountability is to sit in front of people in their outrage and their drama. The secretary emphasizing someone was always in control. There was never a lapse in it and authorities are in command and control. Reporter but acknowledging a break down in the process. Although austin took responsibility he also said he assumed his staff would manage it. On monday the pentagon releasing a summary of a classified review that blamed the lack of notification in part on a lack of Written Guidance but also the review recommending more procedures. If any american did what you did, they would be fired. Reporter and the question still remains. Why did it take the pentagon three days to tell President Biden his Defense Secretary was in Intensive Care . That was nbcs Courtney Kube with that report. And still ahead we turn to sports with a big monumental announcement from College Basketball star Kaitlan Clark. Plus the nba Rookie Of The Year title was on full display last night. Well tell you who came out on top. We are back in just a moment. E n top. We are back in just a moment no, my dentures uncomfortable dracula, lets fight back against discomfort. With new poligrip power max hold comfort. It has Superior Hold Plus keeps us comfy all day with its pressure absording layer. Time for a bite if your mouth could talk it would ask for. Poligrip. Heres to Getting Better with age. Heres to beating these two every thursday. Help fuel today with boost high protein, complete nutrition you need. Without the stuff you dont. So, heres to now. Boost. You always got your mind on the green. Not you. You your Business Bank account with Quickbooks Money now earns 5 apy. thats how you business differently. Intuit quickbooks. Ugh nope try my old spice you can use it on your pits, chest, and even, your. Toes . [both] oh thats fresh old spice whistle score 20point game or better. He fires, he scores back to victor. Another three. Get out of here oh, my goodness. I just laugh because theyre so ridiculous. Two of the nbas top young scores squared off in san antonio last night. Victor wembanyama led the spurs to win over. 21 points, 13 rebounds, 7 assists, and five blocks. The dude is ridiculous, totally ridiculous and hes just getting started. This is such a fun, fun person to watch. Elsewhere in the nba the injury playing New York Knicks dropped another game last night. Steph curry and the warriors were in town, needed a big game. And curry finished with 31 points including 8 three pointers and also had 11 rebounds. Warriors won this one easily 11099. It is knicks fans seventh loss in nine games who finish the month of february with just four wins. Rough. So much promise, too. Now to denver in a Finals Rematch between the nuggets and the miami heat. Nikola nuggets never trailed in this game but the heat were able to make it close in the final seconds until he sealed the game. They needed overtime to beat the willful washington wizards. Combined for 71 points in the win. Lebron is now nine points away from becoming the first nba player ever to score 40,000 in their career. He can hit that mark tomorrow against the nuggets. Meanwhile, the loss extends the woeful wizards winning streak to 13 games. Yikes. Tough times in d. C. College basketball phenom Kaitlan Clark is going pro. She made the announcement yesterday in a post on social media. The Iowa Hawkeye Star thanked her teammates, coaches, and thousands of fans who have watched her play. Clark had one more year of eligibility, but lets be frank about it little left to accomplish. Shes expected to be the number one overall pick in next months wnba draft