thank you for getting up "way too early" on this tuesday morning. "morning joe" starts now. biden is back, baby! haters are talking their [ bleep ]. they are too old, too weak, can't make it. he won't be able to stand. i see you, haters. i know who you are. [ laughter ] >> good morning and welcome to "morning joe." it is tuesday, march 12th. we've got a lot to get to this morning. including donald trump's latest promise to his supporters who stormed the capitol on january 6th. ithungary's prime minister is revealing how trump would handle the war in ukraine if he wins another term. plus, we'll go through donald trump's flip-flop on tiktok. >> follow the money. >> the platform he used to ban -- well, he pushed a ban while he was president. it comes as the house is expected to vote tomorrow on a significant bill tied to the app's beijing-based parent company. along with joe, willie, and me, we have the host of "way too early," white house bureau chief at "politico," jonathan lemire. and pulitzer prize-winning columnist and associate editor of "the washington post," eugene robinson is with us this morning. >> it is something, willie. we'll get to the tiktok story in a minute. you know, we always say, follow the money. it's either about money, or it's about this anti-american sort of thirst for authoritarian power. you see it with orban, which we're going to be talking about today. but you see it in the top story. it is a story we've heard a little about before but not to this full extent. >> we're about to tell you four or five stories that in the previous universe of politics would have been disqualifying alone, each of them. let's start with this one. former president donald trump allegedly praised adolf hitler, saying the nazi leader had, quote, done some good things. according to a new book, "the return of great powers" by cnn's jim sciutto, retired general john kelly, who served as white house chief of staff in the trump administration, recounted several conversations where trump spoke favorably about hitler. from the book, quote, "he said, well, but hitler did some good things," kelly said of one conversation with trump." i said, well, what?" he said, "well, hitler rebuilt the economy." "what'd he do? turned it against the world. i said, sir, you can never say anything good about the guy, nothing," end quote. trump admired nazi loyalty to hitler. when i pointed out the german generals as a group were not loyal and, in fact, tried to assassinate him a few times, and he did not know that, kelly said. in a statement, trump's spokesperson dismissed kelly's comments and said he is suffering from a severe case of trump derangement syndrome. on the heels of this report, it is worth recalling, according to a 1990 investigation by "vanity fair," trump's late wife, ivanka trump, quote, told her lawyer, michael kennedy, that, from time to time, her husband reads a book of hitler's collected speeches, "my new order," which he keeps in a cabinet by his bed. again, the source material here, joe, is general kelly. >> right. >> a highly decorated general who served at the right hand of donald trump for many years. a guy with credibility, who recalled other conversations where donald trump called fallen soldiers suckers and losers, and now revealing he had fondness for adolf hitler. >> yeah. trump derangement syndrome? sorry, whatever idiot said that, we're talking about a man who dedicated his entire life to serving the united states military at war, in peace. gene robinson, decided to go in and work with donald trump even though he had some concerns. he did it for his country. ended up being donald trump's longest running chief of staff. this is not a guy with trump derangement syndrome. this is a man who was deeply concerned about donald trump calling dead americans war heros, suckers, when donald trump is sitting next to a man there whose own son sacrificed his life for his country in afghanistan. no trump derangement syndrome here. the problem is, and we see it over and over again, and let's keep going back to the famous saying, when somebody tells you who they are, believe them. >> yeah. >> donald trump is continuing to tell us. with more repetitive, that he is an autocrat. the worshipping of hitler's power, just like the worshipping of president xi, the worshipping of kim jong-un, just like this worshipping of vladimir putin, it all comes from the same disturbing place. he has an anti-american bent to authoritarianism. >> absolutely. donald trump has told us, like, 57,000 times who he is. we see clearly who he is. and what a sick, warped individual he happens to be. i mean, it's hard to look at him any other way. yes, you always follow the number with trump, but it's more than his lust for money. it is more than his narcissism. there is this authoritarian bent, this fawning over authoritarian figures. i know we're going to talk about it later, but viktor orban at mar-a-lago, are you kidding me? this is the great guy, the great leader he wants to praise? it's just sick. it amazes me, and i'm sure it amazes general kelly and amazes a lot of other people, that more americans, that all americans don't see this in donald trump and don't fear it and reject it. again, here we are. he's, you know, going to be the republican candidate, and there's a possibility he could be president again. it scares the willies out of general kelly, and it'll scare the willies out of all of us. >> scares the willies out of many people. he has a one in two chance of being president of the united states. we shouldn't overlook that. this is not an unfamiliar refrain for donald trump who praises these strong men, who phrases these leaders. go down the list. it is kim jong-un. it is viktor orban. it is xi jinping. viktor orban is of that trend for donald trump, even if it is not something he says publicly. it is instructive to ask as a preview as to what the next trump term would look like were he to be re-elected. not just that he'd side with all of these leaders, including with putin in the conflict against ukraine, but with trump in office again, facing no consequences, having gotten away with all these criminal indictments, having gotten away with fueling the january 6th insurrection, with not having to face voters again, he would be unchecked, unfettered. there would be no john kelly in the white house next time. it would only be true believers. there would not be guardrails, and i think he'd lean into the strong men tendencies, joe and mika. >> we can call it sick and disgusting, but the reality is, this is unbelievably dangerous for our country. somebody like donald trump who does what donald trump does, says what donald trump says, has done what he's done as president of the united states would be, in normal times, shunned. shunned completely politically or personally. in this case, you have people showing up at mar-a-lago and clapping and hooting and going to his rallies. you can't cast them off as uninformed or there for the show. if you read madeleine albright's book on fascism or any books on the rise of dictatorships, this is how it happens. >> well, you look at vaughn hillyard's interview, willie, with people who were in a rally last week, and, you know, i've been wondering, what do they think when he says he is going to be a dictator from day one? what do they think when he says he can execute with s.e.a.l. team six, that he can get s.e.a.l. team six to execute his political opponents and not face any repercussions? what do they think when he says he'll terminate the constitution? when he says he'll execute insufficiently loyal generals who aren't lackeys to him all the time? what do they think when he says all of these things that vladimir putin doesn't even say publicly? well, you listen to some of vaughn's interviews. they think it's great. they say if trump doesn't win this time, they think they should have a civil war and go state legislate -- >> this is real. >> i saw a video, and i'm sure you saw it, too, of a republican event in missouri. they had joe biden. people went up kicking joe biden. i'm telling you, in all my lifetime, in all my lifetime, if that ever happened at any republican event, if one person even talked about doing that, they would be surrounded, and they would be removed and the image of the president would be removed. i just -- again, there is a sickness. people say, yeah, we're going to violently take over state legislatures, violently take over the congress, violently take over whatever we have to take over if we don't win the election. >> even a few years ago, you could have perhaps rolled your eyes at that a little bit as idle talk or threats. we saw it happen on january 6th. >> yeah. >> a violent attack on the united states capitol. of course it can happen already. of course, we're hearing talk if donald trump loses, we're going to hear and see exactly the kind of things you described there. but the voters who go to the rallies, they go along for the ride. they laugh at the stuff they've been laughing at for the last eight years. they don't mind his authoritarianism tendencies. perhaps they like it. the question, i guess, is how many of those people are still there with him, and how many people have seen enough of the show? we'll find out in november. donald trump talking about strongmen says he will not fund ukraine's fight against russia if he is re-elected. that's according to hungarian prime minister viktor orban. orban was welcomed at mar-a-lago last friday. after the meeting, orban told hungarian state media sunday that trump, quote, will not give a penny in the ukraine/russia war. therefore, the war will end because it is obvious ukraine cannot stand on its own feet, end quote. trump previously pledged to end the war in ukraine. he says within 24 hours if elected. he's provided no details. the detail, joe, is he'll roll over for vladimir putin, and russia will get what it wants. >> exactly. >> well, there will be a new axis of evil supporting vladimir putin and supporting totalitarianism across the east, jonathan lemire. right now, it's vladimir putin and viktor orban who, again, holds out as much as he can. without the united states supporting him, he's out of luck. and you've got china, then you will have donald trump doing their bidding. it is very simple. >> the world is watching. >> with donald trump, there will be a straight line from washington to hungary to russia to beijing. donald trump made it clear, he does not like democratic leaders. by the way, you have -- you have trump -- >> wow. >> -- derangement syndrome in that you are so deranged for donald trump that you can't see this or you're willing to lie through your teeth to deny the existence of this. donald trump keeps telling us what he is going to do, and it is going to be the united states, hungary, and russia all working together to help vladimir putin. donald trump has been very clear about that, and he was clear about it with orban. he has been clear when there was the invasion of ukraine. what'd he say, jonathan? it was brilliant, a brilliant move by putin. now, he keeps saying that once he is president, this war will be over in a day. yeah, we know now how it'll be over in a day. >> one thing i think that the show has done, very importantly, is talk about the stakes of this next election. it's not just the day-to-day in the polling, the up and down, the campaign strategy. we talk about that, too, but it's the stakes of this election. it can't be any clearer than on the world stage. president biden took office in 2021 saying he was going to restore america's commitment to aliengss, restore america's imprint on the world as a force for good. he tells a story, frequently, about how world leaders, he tells world leaders, america is back. they wonder, for how long? this is what the world leaders are wondering about. if trump does return to office, america is going to disappear from the world stage, at least as we're used to thinking about it. it is going to be far more isolationist. trump and his project 2025 that his allies are putting together made that clear. he will cut off funding entirely to ukraine. of course, his supporters in the house have already done that now. ukraine is losing ground by the day to russia. that, of course, will get worse. despite the occasional tough talk on china, he's praised xi jinping, including the response to the covid pandemic. there is no suggestion he'd stand up to xi jinping were he to make a move on taiwan. he buddied up with orban this weekend. he talks highly of kim jong-un, who, of course, threatens japan and south korea nearly every week with a various rocket launch. there is no sense that trump will hold american ideals in hand, keep american foreign policy in place for those things. that's what so many of us should be focusing on as we head into november. former president trump is vowing to release hundreds of january 6th defendants currently behind bars if he is re-elected in november. on truth social last night, trump wrote, one of his first acts as president will be to, quote, free the january 6th hostages being wrongfully imprisoned. >> by the way, it is grotesque to call these people who beat the hell out of cops and rioted in the united states capitol hostages when there are actual hostages being kept by a terror group under ground in gaza. these people are not hostages. the fact is, donald trump should already be in jail with them. the only thing that is wrong with the fact that they're in jail is that donald trump is not there to cause -- >> the person who incited the riot. >> because there is a two-tiered justice system. there is a justice system that protects donald trump, and we've seen it. the supreme court has protected donald trump because he's powerful. courts have protected donald trump because he is powerful. trump judges have protected trump because he is powerful. just the system has protected trump because he is rich and powerful. whereas, these working class people, middle class people that rioted on january 6th at the behest of donald trump and following donald trump's orders are sitting in jail. >> mm-hmm. >> donald trump, two-tiered system. two-tiered system. we see it time and time again. we'll see it again. will we see it from the supreme court again? most likely. they want to give donald trump a free ride, and they've given him a free ride by certainly dragging out an issue that we already know the answer to. >> trump has previously suggested he would pardon people charged in the january 6th attacks. nearly 500 people involved in the insurrection. >> convicts. >> have been sentenced to prison, and over 1,000 people have been charged over their connection to the capitol riot. let's bring in congressional investigations reporter for "the washington post," jackie alemany. jackie, trump is also getting help from some house republicans who are trying to undermine the work of the now defunct january 6th investigative committee and one of the committee's witnesses. tell us about that effort. >> yeah, mika. house republicans yesterday under loudermilk, the head of the subcommittee on the administration committee released an extensive report which was a review of the work that the house select committee investigating the january 6th investigation committed several years ago, at the end of 2022. throughout this report, they essentially underscore some inconsistencies that they found with cassidy hutchinson's testimony, much of which has already been reported. the most interesting parts of this report were some of the repressed transcripts that the committee was able to unearth that had yet to be released by the department of homeland security. the end of the january 6th committee, they released, you know, the dozens of transcripts that they had transcribed with witnesses who appeared before the committee to testify about trump's actions to overturn the results of the election on january 6th, 2021. but there were a handful of transcripts that they didn't release in agreement with the department of homeland security because of security precautions. the defendant had asked for more time to review those. but in those transcripts, what they found, these house republicans, was essentially there was at least one person, the driver, who disputed -- the driver who was taking trump from the white house to his speech on the ellipse, back to the white house, that he essentially couldn't remember what cassidy hutchinson hutchinson, the star witness, had testified, that she heard one of trump's lead details telling her about trump trying to lunge, grab a deal, and lunge at another security detail in the car to go to the ellipse. sorry, that's a bit confusing. basically, this inconsistency does not detract from the thrust of what happened on january 6th. trump obviously encouraged rioters to storm the capitol. that's why even at the time, despite house republicans unearthing this inconsistency, there was concern on the january 6th committee that putting forth cassidy hutchinson without more corroboration and without a secondary account of what had happened exactly inside the beast, on that car ride, when trump was, you know, going back and forth on the ellipse, to and from his speech, that there was concern that it was an unforced error. >> as we look at those pictures, you get a sense, when donald trump calls these people hostages, to your point, at a time when we're dealing with world wars in which real hostages are being held and their families are suffering so much, beyond sick. it is also the ultimate kind of twisting of our democratic system by this former president. these people have received due process. they have had trials. they have been found guilty of crimes. now, he's trying to work completely against our system and saying that he is going to free them upon his next presidency. if you can't see what's in front of you, i can't help you. >> they're not hostages. they're convicts, willie. i know this may seem strange, but two things can be true at once. they're receiving the justice they deserve, but i feel sorry for a lot of them. they were lied for well over a year. they believe because of those lies, that they were doing something to save democracy from being stolen. donald trump, again, lied to them repeatedly. it really is kind of like a cult. as i've always said, it is kind of like my grandma, my sainted grandma who would send money to jim and tammy faye bakker, part of the check, despite what we all tried to tell her. no, no, these people are scam artists, grandmom, come on. but she'd do it anyway because she believed in them. >> she lost her money. >> she lost her money. >> consequence. >> they, of course, ended up being the scam artists, just like donald trump is a scam artist. but these people, as badly as i feel for them, because it's not fair that they're in prison and the guy that pushed them there isn't, because he is rich and powerful, they're still convicts. they're still people who beat the hell out of cops. hard to feel sorry for people who take american flags and beat the hell out of cops. the people that did that should be in jail for a very, very long time. >> yeah. by the way, the second layer to that scam from donald trump is, go attack the capitol on my behalf based on a lie i told you. also, please pay my legal bills as we go forward. he's asking them to do that. >> right. >> joe, as recently as five days ago, a florida man pleaded guilty to a couple felony counts of beating the hell out of cops, as you said. he's going to jail. there was a cop down. another came in to assist the officers who was down. this 33-year-old florida man beat up the officer who was helping the downed officer. this is a story we've heard again and again, where even in the last couple of weeks, there have been three or four other cases of men who beat up police officers on january 6th pleading guilty, saying, "yeah, i did it. i believed a lie i shouldn't have believed. i did it. i'm going to jail." perhaps part of their thinking now is, well, if donald trump becomes president of the united states, i won't be in jail for very long because he is going to empty the prisons so i can be freed, despite the fact i peat the hell out of a police officer on january 6th. >> yeah. >> as i attempted to participate in a coup against the government. >> this supposed takedown of the january 6th report, i mean, it's just, again, i guess arnold the pig went from working for comer and tried it across and started working forloudermilk, because loudermilk is lying, or else he didn't read the report. it is much more likely he didn't read the report. congressman, page 585 to page 592, you will see all the details there. they spelled it out. >> i'm not sure he cares. >> i'm not exactly sure -- well, he probably did read it, which is why they call him the best they have. arnold the pig from "green acres," he snorts a couple times and they ignore it. they release it anyway. it's bogus. reading the report, they addressed all of this. still ahead on "morning joe" -- >> we need to get arnold on the show. >> we have sound bites often that seem like arnold. >> arnold signed a non-compete and non-disparagement. >> he doesn't like being -- >> hopefully when he gets out of that, we can have him on the show. >> i don't think he appreciates being, you know, labeled with comer. >> again, read the january 6th report, pages 585 to 592. >> it's worth it. >> you'll see that loudermilk is not telling truth. up next, the latest on donald trump's legal troubles, including a push to delay his hush money case. a hearing this week on his handling of classified documents. and did the former president defame writer e. jean carroll again? what her lawyers are saying -- >> yes. >> -- about trump's latest remarks. you're watching "morning joe." we will be right back. the company goes to the first born audrey. the model train set is entrusted to todd. mr. marbles will receive recurring deliveries for all of his needs in perpetuity, thanks to autoship from chewy. i always loved 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(♪♪) former president trump is expected to attend a hearing in the criminal case involving his handling of classified documents at his mar-a-lago estate in florida. u.s. district judge aileen cannon will hear motions to dismiss the indictment. his attorneys arguing the case should be thrown out because of the presidential records act. meanwhile, a former mar-a-lago employee is publicly describing how he helped to move materials related to the case. brian butler was an employee 20 years and handled car service for the former president. he helped trump co-defendant walt nauta load several boxes onto trump's plane at the west palm beach airport on june 3rd of 2022. that was the same time the fbi was searching a storage area at mar-a-lago for classified documents. >> did you have any idea at the time that there was potentially u.s. national security secrets in those boxes? >> no clue. we were just taking them out of the escalade, piling them up. they were all stacked on top of each other, and we were lifting them up to the pilots. >> how many boxes? >> they asked me in the interview. i believe it was 10 to 15, is what i remember. >> they being the investigators? >> correct. >> when you look back on that now, what do you -- >> well, had no clue. until probably the end of june, there was a few different things that happened that kind of opened my eyes to, you know, something is going on here. >> so you get the unusual request. did you ever think to yourself, why were there so many boxes at mar-a-lago? >> for me, i'm just thinking, the former president, he has a lot of stuff he likes to lug around with him. i never would have thought it was anything like what we see now. >> classified documents. >> yeah. >> butler's interview with cnn there. butler, walt nauta's legal team, and the office of special counsel jack smith declined to comment to nbc news. the trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment by nbc, though cnn reports a lawyer for trump declined to comment. joining us now, former litigator and msnbc correspondent lisa rubin. good morning. let's start with brian butler saying explicitly, i helped walt nauta load boxes onto a private plane to get them away from mar-a-lago around the time the fbi was coming to search for classified documents at mar-a-lago. how does mr. butler play into all of this? >> mr. butler shows up in the indictment with six different references across two paragraphs. none of those paragraphs relate to the incident we were watching as he described to cnn. nothing about the indictment details how boxes got from mar-a-lago to bedminster. it makes a passing reference. the statement made to cnn is not part of what donald trump has been charged with, what walt nauta has been charged with. it is interesting to hear him provide this additional detail that isn't part of the case as we understand it. >> why do you suspect he sat for that interview? why did he want to go public and tell-all these details? he got into his relationship with donald trump, how he doesn't trust donald trump, think he is a bad guy. what is he up to here? >> he worked there for 20 years. on one hand, it is interesting to say he doesn't trust trump now. on the other hand, i think part of the motivation is he might believe his name is about to be disclosed. you might recall that judge canon ordered the unsealing of certain documents in the case that relate to almost two dozen witnesses or potential witnesses in the case. that order is under a motion for reconsideration. if she decides she's going to side with donald trump and his co-defendants, brian butler's name could be a matter of public record sooner than we think. >> it was an open question why the feds didn't search bedminster, as well. the trial is set to begin march 25th, but it's been asked to be delayed until after the supreme court rules on presidential immunity. do they have a shot for that to happen? >> i don't think they do, john. partially the reason they don't is because they've waited so long to raise the argument. judge merchan said they put it in at the last minute. jury selection begins two weeks from yesterday. they could have raised presidential immunity at any other point during the case since the indictment. they hadn't raised it since last summer and let it lapse and didn't appeal a federal court's determination about that that relates to this case. they're not claiming he is immune from the case now. they're claiming that the d.a. wants to use particular statements by him, during his presidency, that somehow should be considered official statements because he was president. the stuff he said about michael cohen, for example, on twitter, 2017, 2018, is as personal as it gets. there is nothing official about it. i expect the d.a. to take a really hard whack at this motion when they respond later this week and for judge merchan to treat it similarly tough. let's stay in new york and talk about e. jean carroll. donald trump posted a $91 million bond, again defaming her at a rally over the weekend. yesterday morning on cnbc, defaming e. jean carroll. carroll's attorney said, dude -- i'm not quoting here but -- dude, we can keep doing this if you want, and you can keep writing us checks. are they going to pursue another defamation case against donald trump? >> i wish i had a crystal ball to answer the question. they have grounds to do so if they would like to. there are a couple complications. one is proving that e. jean carroll has been further damaged by the repetition. this would be for the third time now of the same lies that donald trump has been telling about her. unfortunately, showing that she's been damaged in that way might perversely require robbie kaplan and her team to wait little bit to see how the death threats mount, to see how the nasty and vile comments on twitter pile up. to be able to show she's been damaged is critical to filing a new suit against trump, even if the larger goal is to punish him. the law requires some proportionality between her injuries and the punitive damages. >> yesterday, donald trump calling her ms. bergdorf goodman, which is where he was found liable of sexual assault against him many years ago. quickly, before we go, i want to circle back to the documents case. donald trump's team is claiming presidential records act covers them, so this should be dismissed. for the 1,000th time, that's not what the presidential records act says, that you can take documents home with you to your beach club. does that hold water at all? >> i don't think so. nobody has ever claimed before the presidential records act somehow immunizes them from criminal prosecution. you know trump is famous for a shorthand about this argument. he says, the clinton socks case. that's audio tapes that bill clinton made when he was president with the historian, branch. the audio tapes were akin to diaries, which are exempt from the presidential records act. it was not a determination that they were his personal records and, therefore, trump can say, hey, these were mine to begin with and i was president when i took them. therefore, there is no criminal liability here. donald trump is dreaming. again, his audience is aileen cannon who, when donald trump wants, she usually provides. >> tapes about your stories of your car are different than iran plans and waving them around the beach club? >> that's what i'm saying. >> good to know. >> that's why we have her. >> you're looking and going, how -- how do you -- like king solomon, how do you split the baby? she did it. stories about cats, okay. stories about nuclear weapons, no. okay. >> thank you. >> we got it, lisa. >> good work. >> she went to a good law school. there is no doubt about that. >> she knows her stuff. >> she does. special counsel robert hur is expected to testify before the house judiciary committee. >> i wonder what pasture he will walk off into. >> i don't know. >> kind of wander off and say, you know, joe biden, i noticed he didn't really tie his tie well. the tie knot suggested that maybe he has arthritis in his left thumb. >> what are you going with this? >> this guy says such random shit. >> joe, stop! >> oh, he's a kindly, old man. >> stop. >> who could not remember. >> stop. >> his son's birthday. like, he wandered off into a pasture here and, you know, maybe arnold the pig. >> i apologize for -- >> you should apologize for her. >> i shouldn't have asked. >> i don't know exactly, like, does he hope he gets a judgeship? i think he does. >> yeah. >> i think he hopes he gets a judgeship if donald trump gets elected again. >> okay. >> he is trying out. he humiliated himself with that display. >> jackie alemany has actual reporting on this. >> good. >> let's go to her. hopefully she will not have a foul mouth. >> you've never hung out with jackie alemany when she gets mad. let me tell you something, did you ever see her on a basketball court, mika? whoa. >> she does have a temper. >> you don't want to see me mad. >> ask jake. >> okay. >> continue. >> what's going on with this guy? >> well, we are going to hear from robert hur today on capitol hill, whom democrats and republicans both have some issues with, although very different issues. we should start this conversation with the fact that robert hur ultimately concluded that there were no criminal charges warranted in president biden's documents case. biden willfully retained some sensitive information, but it was not enough to establish biden's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. the issues with robert hur's report, which was a memo where hur felt like he needed to establish why he didn't pursue charges against biden was some of the, as democrats view it, gratuitous and elaborate digs at biden's memory and mental faculties. hur went into extensive detail about biden being unable to remember specific details during his interview with the president. biden's aides have said that this interview that took place, which was several hours long, happened in the aftermath of the october 7th attack. it's also important to note that there are many witnesses across the board, across many administrations who have trouble remembering information about something that happened self-yeaseveral years ago. biden was asked about essentially retaining documents, again, not willfully, after his vice presidency. republicans are probably going to try to hammer and press her for why, you know, he didn't ultimately charge biden, especially in comparison to former president donald trump, who is obviously facing extensive criminal charges. but hur does note in the report, which he is expected to underscore, that there are serious material differences between the trump case and the biden case. that biden at the end of the day cooperated, people around him cooperated with the justice department's investigation into the classified documents. former president trump obviously didn't. also, in the process, committed obstruction and enlisted other people to destroy and hide evidence. >> our friends at playbook got an advanced copy of hur's prepared testimony, set to deliver in a short time. he defends his decision to include those comments about the president's memory. i'll read a little. he says, "for that reason, i had to consider the president's memory and overall mental state and how a jury likely would perceive his mental state at a trial." he said, "i didn't sanitize my explanation nor disparage the president unfairly," is what robert hur says. eugene robinson, the white house feels good post state of the union. they felt they addressed the issue of the president's age and mental fitness for the job. they're not thrilled to have this come up again today. although, they feel they've already mitigated some of the possible damage here pause the president was so strong the other night. we should note, robert hur no longer an employee of the doj. he is not bound by some of the constraints a doj employee would have. he potentially has the freedom to editorialize more than a special counsel normally would. the white house has prepared a rapid response room. we'll be hearing from them a lot today. give us your expectations of what will happen and particularly on the political fallout. >> you know, i have no idea what hur is going to say, i mean, which way he'll go. is he going to go deeper into this fantasy world he created in the report, or is he going to pull back from that? we'll have to see. politically, i think from the white house point of view, they would be very happy that if this has to happen, it happens in the wake of the state of the union address, as you noted. president biden and his team believe they put a lot of the, you know, battering old mans and kind of trope to rest. you know, with the speech. with the appearances and the ads he's done since. so i think they believe they can handle that. i do have a question for jackie about hur and, specifically his in report, the beginning of the report, in the summary, he says that biden willfully withheld these documents. later in the report, i believe in a footnote, he says, actually, we don't have proof he willfully did this. will he be asked to clarify that, and what do you think he'll say? >> i think he has to address this confusing matter he drafted the report in at the top of his hearing today. i mean, this is going to be a priority for democrats to have him clarify that in his own words. i think he is probably going to go into detail about this episode in 2017 about a recording that hur and justice department investigators obtained with his biographer who, at the time, biden was going back and forth, sharing information with. at the end of the day, after all was said and done and they reviewed the conversations taking place between biden and his biographer at the time, they were able to sort of discern that the materials and what was being discussed was actually something that biden was not willfully disclosing and did not necessarily know. they were not able to establish that he knew that it was sensitive information and he was disclosing anything that was problematic to u.s. national security. >> you know, again, the inconsistency there shows bad faith. they put it up front, that it was willful. at the end, you go to a footnote that says, we don't have any evidence that what he did was willful. and whatever he says today is going to be ineffective. he painted biden as a dottering old man who couldn't remember anything. 30 million people saw joe biden stick it to the republicans. >> own the republicans. >> confront the republicans. go back and forth with the republicans. no dottering old man. probably no one in their 40s, 50s, 60s could have done that on that big of a stage, knowing 30 million people were watching you. it was preposterous what he said. he humiliated himself. let's see how much more he wants to humiliate himself today. >> we shall see. "the washington post"'s eugene robinson and jackie alemany, thank you, both, very much for being on this morning. we appreciate it. ahead on "morning joe," as lawmakers consider ways to regulate artificial intelligence, a new book looks at what could happen if the technology goes unchecked. the authors, admiral james stavridis and elliott ackerman join us next on "morning joe." here's to getting better with age. here's to beating these two every thursday. help fuel today with boost high protein, complete nutrition you need... ...without the stuff you don't. so, here's to now. boost. we're talking about cashbackin. not a game. not a game! we're talking about cashbackin. we're talking about cashbackin. we're not talking about practice? no. we're talking about cashbackin. we're talking about cashbackin. we're talking about cashbackin. not a game! we've been talking about practice for too long. -word. -no practice. we're talking about cashbackin. we're talking about cashbackin. i mean, we're not talking about a game! cashback like a pro with chase freedom unlimited. how do you cashback? chase. make more of what's yours. why choose a sleep number smart bed? can it keep me warm when i'm cold? how do you cashback? wait. no i'm always hot. sleep number does that. now, save up to $1,000 on select sleep number smart beds. plus, special financing. shop now at sleepnumber.com you can make money the hard way as a bullfighter or a human cannonball... or save money the easy way, with xfinity mobile. existing customers can get a free line of our most popular unlimited plan for a year! not only will you save hundreds but you'll also be joining millions who have connected to america's most reliable 5g network. sure is a lot safer than becoming a stuntman for money. get a free line of unlimited intro for a year when you buy one unlimited line. visit xfinitymobile.com today to learn more. while serving as president in 2020, donald trump planned to ban the social media app tiktok from operating in the united states, and he was considering signing an order forcing china's bitdance to sell the app over national security concerns. as far as tiktok is concerned, we're banning them from the united states, trump told reporters aboard air force one. >> that sounds strong. >> yeah, he is very, very concise there. >> so he's against it. >> yeah. >> he's against tiktok. >> no tiktok. >> no commies surveilling the united states. >> last month, donald trump welcomed a conservative hedge fund manager to mar-a-lago. >> doesn't he have a huge stake in tiktok? >> $33 billion stake in the social media app. >> okay. >> over the weekend, one-time trump adviser steve bannon suggested the former president was paid off to switch his stance on the platform. trump denied discussing tiktok with him. yesterday -- >> whatever, what a lie. >> -- legislation makes its way through congress with republican support. >> i could have banned tiktok. i had it banned just about. i could have gotten it done, but i said, you know what, i'll leave it up to you. let them do their research and development. they decided not to do it. as you know, i was at the point where i could have gotten it done if i wanted to. i sort of said, you guys decide. you make that decision. it's a tough decision to make. frankly, there are a lot of people on tiktok that love it. there are a lot of young kids on tiktok who will go crazy without it. there are a lot of users, you know, a lot of good, and there's a lot of bad with tiktok. but the thing i don't like is that without tiktok, you can make facebook bigger. i consider maybe to be an enemy of the people, along with a lot of the media. >> let's bring in former supreme allied commander of nato, james stavridis. contributing writer for "the atlantic," elliott ackerman, serving duties in iraq and afghanistan, receiving stars for valor and the purple heart. they're co-authors of "2054," a novel. it's a sequel to "2034," their best seller, a novel of the next world war. admiral, let's start with tiktok. donald trump, everything he said there was a lie, just in case i could fact-check him. read "the wall street journal" editorial page today. they fact-check him for me. let me read quickly from this, just to talk about some of the real concerns, why donald trump flip-flopped. as steve bannon said, because a billionaire with a lot invested in tiktok wants him to flip-flop. this is "the wall street journal" editorial page, not a left-wing rag, obviously. tiktok can't explain why posts that are divisive in america go rival, while those that are sensitive for the communist chinese party get few views. tiktok's algorithms are still controlled by bitdance engineers in china. chinese law requires bitdance to comply with beijing's surveillance demands. this is why there is no way to mitigate tiktok's security risk besides a forced divestment. bitdance employees once tried to uncover internal leakers by spying on american journalists. the communist chinese party through tiktok spied on american journalists to try to uncover leaks. they end by saying, china blocked u.s. social media companies that don't comply with their censorship regime, and the house bill would prevent beijing from applying its political speech controls and surveillance in the u.s. despite america's political divisions, this should be a shared goal. it looks like it is a shared goal, except for donald trump, who because a billionaire walks through the gates of mar-a-lago, suddenly, he is fine with the communist chinese party surveilling americans. >> yeah, do the words, the swamp mean anything to you? >> wow. >> let's face it, tiktok is universally across the political spectrum regarded as a national security threat. not just a concern, a threat. on this one, i listen to the chairman on the bipartisan house committee on china, outgoing senator, gallagher, veteran marine, and he is deeply worried and concerned about this. we all ought to be. final thought to the novel "2054," it's all about how artificial intelligence can insert itself into the social networks. here is a beaten path to the heart of america, tiktok, to our youth. we need to get control of it. it should not be connected to bitdance. >> one more issue, and then we'll jump into the book. front cover, women are enlisting into the army in ukraine because there have been a shortage of men. a lot more women are enlisting. we, of course, are faced with the shame of house republicans, people who claim to support freedom, people who claim to support ukraine, meekly sitting back and letting ukraine twist in the wind. that's exactly what every republican chairman that claims to be a big supporter but is doing nothing right now to get aid to ukraine, it's exactly what they're doing. you know, orban basically killed hamlet in the first act yesterday by telling us why the house republican party won't fund them. because donald trump promised him, if he is re-elected, he will immediately cut off all aid to ukraine. what is the impact on america, on nato, on europe, on america's role in the world? >> yeah, to stay with the metaphor of hamlet, orban is playing pollonious, this empty foolnaddou walks through act the until he is killed. my wonderful co-author, elliott, just returned from ukraine and i'm sure has a thought on this. if we walk away now, we're repeating the 1930s. we are ceding europe to a malevolent force in the form of vladimir putin. we will rue the day we did that. it would be an enormous geopolitical mistake. >> elliott, before we dive into the book, i'll ask you about that since you just returned from ukraine. not just donald trump, by the way, but the united states congress, the house of representatives now has stalled months and months and months worth of desperately needed aid to ukraine as it is forced to retreat in some places. what is the impact on the ground of the congress sitting on its hands? >> the impact is profound. you know, time is a maneuver space that exists on the battlefield. it doesn't just matter you get the equipment. it matters when you get the equipment. the story of u.s. response and the western response in ukraine has been not enough and too slow. you know, to the story you mentioned, when i was there, i visited several fighting units. i served in the marine corps, and the average age in the units i served in was 20, 21 years old. the average age of soldiers in these units, 42, 43 years old. >> russia is still producing at a high capacity, producing ammunition. they're outproducing the united states and the west right now. if it continues this way, what does it look like six months from now, a year from now in ukraine? >> the ukrainians can hold out two, three more months but there isn't a six-month or year out option to recommit to ukraine. the aid needs to come. it needs to come now, or else we're going to be dealing with the consequences, which is further russia's incursions into ukraine and a further destabilized europe. >> let's turn to the book. "2054," coming off the best seller "2034." i'll read a little of the thumbnail, and tell me if this sounds familiar. a future where the democratic and republican parties are near a point of extinction. the u.s. is on the edge of a civil war. a president who will not leave office. and the emergence of remote gene editing software courtesy of a.i. that may or may not have assassinated him. a lot in there. tell us where we find ourselves in 2054 in the new book. >> 2054, we find ourselves at the beginning of a political crisis. the president has been killed. we don't know who or what killed him. we have two very divergent americas living in two curated realities that are being curated by artificial intelligence. >> admiral, there's obviously russia, china, iran, that play a part in your books. tell us about the role they play on the page, but also what lessons we can draw as if they also go unchecked in real life. >> without question, power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. that is the essential lesson of leadership in authoritarian nations. thus, as we see in 2054, the president simply refuses to lose office. something decides that it is time for him to go. that's where the artificial intelligence comes in. >> elliott, this does give us a little bit of a view. hopefully it doesn't go this way, but about where a.i. could take us over the course of the next 25, 30 years. >> right. >> what's your sense as you obviously are well versed in artificial intelligence from just reading this book, what is your sense of where it is going in reality, as well? >> one of the ideas we get into in the book is this concept of the singularity, where molecular and biological verge. we lived through an iteration of that in the pandemic. we were getting vaccines, a version of technology. what does it look like at not only our curated realities on social media start blurring, our technological and biological realities. that gets into the weapon that kills the president and is also threatening to take over the united states. again, this is part of a project that the admiral and i have been doing. it started with "2034." it's a trilogy of books that serve to deal and imagine what we view as kind of the three great challenges facing us in the 21st century. one is china. the second is artificial intelligence and civil conflict. without spoiling too much, the last will be about the environment. >> admiral, what is your sense on the question of artificial intelligence, hopes and fears of where it might be headed? >> that is the right construct. if you look at great inventions in history, think the printing press or electricity, big things that truly moved the needle of the human experience, they come with risk and they come with benefit. i would argue, i'm cautiously optimistic, ultimately, about what artificial intelligence can do for us. the whole point of the book, the point of "2054," it's not strictly predictive fiction. it is cautionary fiction. it lays out some of the risks. i think those could be profound. on the other hand, the benefits could be profound. last thought, what we do now in 2024 as we think about mid cen century, how we can shape artificial intelligence will matter deeply. >> it is a thriller and a little too close to reality here. the book is "2054: a novel." james stavridis and elliott ackerman, thank you, both. elliott, thank you for your extraordinary service to the country. we appreciate you both. thanks, guys. mika? all right. thank you. >> mika, this is a story you share deeply about. >> it is four minutes past the top of the hour, so we're getting to the top stories. >> we are getting to the top story. >> just a little late. >> we go there. >> what? >> this is something you care deeply about, i know you do. our entire family cares deeply about it. >> hm-mm. >> willie, i'm talking, of course, and jonathan lemire, i'm talking, of course, about. >> football. >> kirk cousins. >> oh. >> you over here, t.j.? great. >> nfl quarterback. >> going to the falcons, baby. >> gamed the system and hit the jackpot. it's a trade. >> sounds, willie, like there is skepticism there. >> sweet. >> the falcons have a complete team, a pretty complete team. they need a quarterback. kirk cousins, just one of the best guys in the league. i absolutely love him. he had a devastating injury last year that ended his season. he's 35 years old. right now, with the team the falcons have, and i've been suffering with the falcons for ages, but with the team the falcons have, this guy, if he gives them two good years, they could do something they don't do often. they can get to the playoffs. >> yeah. kirk cousins is terrific for the vikings for several years. the falcons have good, young skills positions. including bijan robinson, who they got in the first round last year. cousins is 36, coming off a major injury. we'll have to see how he bounces back. it is a clear upgrade for a team that seems to be on the rise. willie, i know your concern is elsewhere. >> yeah. >> giants' superstar running back saquon barkley. >> unbelievable. >> not only leaves new york, as they pay daniel jones and not saquon barkley, but he heads to philadelphia. he is an eagle. >> whew! >> heads down 95 and makes a good team even better. >> you can't throw up a bigger figurative middle finger to the giants than to sign with the philadelphia eagles. saquon barkley, the giants' star who is a talent, but has been hurt the last couple years, always a risk to take a running back who has been hurt. i love saquon barkley. he had injuries. running behind an atrocious offensive line almost all of his career. maybe he gets new life in philadelphia. we did sign another running back, singletary, so i think we'll be all right there. joe, man, of all the teams, 32 teams in the league, to just go right down the turnpike to philly, to the giants' arch-rival, that is some move by saquon. >> well, i've got to say, i'm really surprised that he did it. again, of course, everybody, you know, their business is their business. i will say, though, this is like going from the red sox to the yankees. >> it is. >> for people who don't know how intense this rivalry is, that don't live in the northeast corridor, these two teams hate each other -- >> deeply. >> -- about as much as two teams can hate each other. you can ask people my age that follow this rivalry closely. they'll still talk about the fumble. i think it happened in '77 or '78 on the last play of the game. i mean, it's just pretty stunning. mike, we talked about mac jones yesterday. i really said this for some time, i think mac is going to be a good quarterback somewhere else. he really -- you talk about a guy that got thrown into a no-win situation. he did there. speaking of no-win situations, i have to ask, do we have any shot? do the red sox have any shot of signing montgomery? how close are we? is boris still too high? are we getting closer there? >> you know, joe, don't you think that every owner in major league baseball, every manager in major league baseball is thinking now of these pitchers who get six and seven-year contracts, gerrit cole? he could be undergoing the knife. we don't know that. we'll find out soon. the number of pitchers who have gone under tommy john surgery just increases each and every year. >> yeah. >> pitchers asking for seven-year contracts. i'm not going to do it. that's the problem with jordan montgomery. he is asking for seven years. they won't give him seven years. might offer him three. >> all right. >> i have to say, willie, gerrit cole is the one -- i think he is the one exception to the rule about pitchers. this is a guy that actually signed a huge contract, went from one great team to another great franchise, and identify i've got to say, he is the exception and not the rule. if i'm an owner, i don't give a pitcher a long -- i just don't. >> no way. >> i just don't. we have seen now, especially with tommy john surgery and these guys pitching so few innings, it just doesn't make any sense. but every time i see gerrit cole go to the mound, i'm like, man, there's one guy who actually put his money where his mouth was. he delivers. >> yeah, he's a beast. he was great for us last year, a bright spot. he won the cy young, of course. man, he's going in for an mri. we hope there is nothing too serious about the elbow. asking around a little bit, it sounds like the yankees are concerned but not freaked out, hoping it's not tommy john surgery. if we lose him, that's devastating. on the big pitchers' contract thing, ask the mets about verlander and scherzer. you give these guys huge contracts, and they're not even around for a season. >> the list goes on and on and on, which makes nolan ryan all the more remarkable, his career. he was throwing 100 miles an hour when he was 52 years of age. >> yeah. >> only had one surgery. it came about a month before his retirement. stunning. >> yeah. >> mike and lemire and willie, maybe you guys can answer it, i mean, bob gibson would pitch ten shutout innings. hurling fastballs 96, 97, 98, 99 miles an hour and not get hurt. pitchers used to do it all the time. what has changed? is it the second and third pitch that they're trying to master and just too much torque on their arms? what's happening? >> there are many theories as to what is happening. one is, as you mentioned, the insistence on just amping up the volume of your pitches, to work all winter long arm stronger. instead of 95, get up to 97 or 98. also the spin on the ball, getting more spin on the ball. that creates torque in your wrist, your elbow, and your arm. the slider, the sweeper now, the new pitch, the sweeper. it sweeps across the plate. all of this puts enormous stress on the lig aments in the elbow. >> the pitchers are asked to do less, but it's the increased velocity, the spin of the sliders. different programs. some think the pitchers are babied, that they should throw more and it might help them. also, there's certainly -- we think about pitchers, the pitches that don't put the strain on the arm. greg maddox, didn't suffer major injuries, pitched forever. why? fastball, change-up. two pitches with less strain on the arm. >> maddox also had velocity. he ranked that, like, third or fourth most important. >> yeah. >> placement was first. having two, three, four pitches was second. you know, then velocity, i think, was third or fourth. the guy may have been one of the three greatest pitchers of the last 50 years, mike. he'd throw an 88 mile an hour fastball, and they couldn't touch him. >> no, it's where you put the ball rather than how hard you throw the ball. if you can locate the ball uniquely, how greg maddox did and other control pitchers did, you'll be way ahead of the game. first of all, can you throw strikes at a certain angle, at a certain place, instead of the velocity? velocity is important, but control is more important. joe morgan, former manager of the red sox, not the second baseman, he used to say, how many catchers who had core arms and surgery? hardly any. they throw more than pitchers. >> can we get to the news now? >> willie, do you have anything else to add there? >> mika seems like she's ready to wrap things up, so i'll be brief. >> 12 minutes past the hour. >> maddox -- >> go ahead. >> you mentioned bob gibson. no question whether he was going to walk out for the ninth inning or tenth inning in a close game and keep the ball. now, you can be on a no-pitter but you're on a pitch count and they throw you out of the game. it's a different era, obviously. >> come on, man. >> so worth it. thank you, willie. >> that was worth it. >> i'm joking. returning to the news now. just days after donald trump's allies took over the republican national committee, dozens of rnc officials have been pushed out of the organization. >> at least they have a lot of money to spend on the campaigns, right? >> two sources tell nbc news at least four senior staffers were terminated and as many as 60 officials could be laid off. according to politico, the rnc's new chief operating officer sent a letter to employees explaining the new leadership team was, quote, in the process of evaluating the organization and staff to ensure the building is aligned with its vision. >> its vision, of course, is pay donald trump's legal fees. >> be in a cult. >> and be in a cult. >> as "politico" notes -- >> not in that order. >> -- the shakeup underscores the swiftness in which trump's team is taking over operations after the former president all but clinched the gop presidential nomination last week. >> i mean, heading into the 2024 election, trump's campaign, they're facing a massive cash crunch. some people are worried, as they should be, that he is spending way too much of his political money on legal bills. >> yeah. now, they can't pay his civil liabilities, can they? no, right? there's even concern he may not be able to afford to hold his signature rallies. take a look at how msnbc's vaughn hillyard explained the situation. >> not only are they looking at a deficit in finances compared to biden, but also there is the reality here at play that $80 billion have already gone towards legal-related expenses over the last two years from trump-affiliated superpacs. they're already starting in a deficit. add on to the reality here that the rnc is having to figure out how to best fund also senate and down ballot races. there are serious question marks for the trump team in how they're going to be able to even compete. here's also a reality at play. it takes manpower. money can also help toward -- this is my big thing here -- money can help put folks on the ground in the states, in areas they'll rely on to pull off victories are rural parts of georgia, rural parts of wisconsin, rural michigan, rural arizona. to get folks that normally don't vote, you have to tell them, come vote. in bullhead city, arizona, if you don't have the money to finance actual staff out in those areas, it makes it a lot more harder. you can have a rally in those places but they cost $400,000. don't expect to see donald trump parading around the country because those events cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to put on. they're in a predicament now, whether they like to admit it or not. >> you know, willie, it's not like nikki haley and all of us and anybody that has cared for a healthy republican party hasn't been warning about this for years. if you elect donald trump, you elect a guy who is not fit to be president. first of all. secondly, who is going to put the republican party in a terrible, terrible position. he has looted his campaign funds to pay for legal bills. now, he's firing people inside the rnc and putting family members in there to pay even more of his legal bills. he's doing this as he's starting to go into a general election, as jonathan lemire said. you know, it is 50/50. i personally don't think it is 50/50. but you look at the polls right now. it is about 50/50. republicans have selected a candidate who gutted his campaign cash. by the way, this has a huge impact on people running for the senate, running for the house. republicans who need help from the rnc. that's just not going to happen now. and, because he's gutting people in there who were competent, most likely, they're now going to have a bunch of cult members going in, personally cult members going in there, and the incompetence will grow by the day. >> yesterday was a purge, a loyalty help. lara trump, donald trump's daughter-in-law, she's now the co-head but really running the rnc at the behest of donald trump, is seeing who is loyal to donald trump and who is not. if you are not sufficiently loyal, you're gone. that's sort of the definition of a cult. we talked about "the financial times" story, that donald trump has thousands and thousands fewer donors than he had at this point when he first ran. why? because they're saying, i'm not giving you all my money to pay your legal bills. i'd like to see republicans win. i'd like to see maybe you win but also senators and house members be re-elected. i'm not here to pay your legal bills. that has a real impact. let's bring into the conversation executive director of the republican accountability project, sarah longwell. the group is out with a new $50 million campaign to showcase republican voters against trump. take a look. >> trump talking about retribution. >> retribution. >> going after people. >> he's disrespected our military. >> the military people he disgraced. >> 91. >> 91 criminal felonies. >> four indictments. >> mishandled classified documents. >> now, his desire to do away with nato. >> donald trump talks about abandoning ukraine. >> dictator day one. >> he'll be a dictator, period. >> that kind of stuff scares me. >> absolutely scares me. >> a second trump term would be worse than the first. >> a second term for trump -- >> -- would be far more extreme. >> it is outright dangerous. >> i cannot support donald trump again. >> never vote for him again. >> he'll never get my vote, ever, ever. >> those are all republican voters. sarah, good morning. great to have you on. >> wow. >> what is your sense? you've been doing these focus groups for so long now, getting the pulse of voters. what is your sense of how big that pool of republican voters is, who is open maybe not for voting for joe biden, maybe, but not showing up for donald trump at this point in 2024 in a way that maybe they did in 2016 and even 2020? >> yeah, there's one number that keeps coming up over and over again when you think about what percentage of the republican party hasn't gone sort of full maga. that's 30%. if you ask how many voters believe that the election was stolen, you get about 70% of the republican party and about 30% don't. when you ask republicans, if donald trump is convicted of a felony, will you vote for him? about 30% say no. nikki haley was polling about 30% of self-id'd republicans in places like south carolina, in michigan, in new hampshire. so i think that that is our persuadable group of people. now, some of those people are going to go home to trump. there's no doubt about it. they will just -- they're sort of always republicans. but there is another group in that 30% that i think has already been voting for joe biden. i mean, we've now run this campaign, republican voters against trump, in 2020. we ran it in specific places in 2022, like republican voters against kari lake. so this group has sort of been there for a while. then there is this other group, and i would categorize them as double doubters or double haters and they tend not to like -- because they're right-leaning independents, soft gop voters, they're not democrats. they have a tough time voting for democrats. also, they don't think donald trump is a republican. not like the kind of republicans of reagan or john mccain or mitt romney that they like. they have a hard choice. strategically, we think about this less like building a pro-joe biden coalition, because a lot of these people don't love joe biden, but what you can do is build an anti-trump coalition. get these people to either say, look, i cannot vote for this guy. i will not be part of him taking over the republican party and running out everybody normal. even if they can't quite -- like, we want as many of them as possible to get there on joe biden. we want to help build the case. most importantly, we want to make sure there is a permission structure being creatmessenenge saying that they have a real way to persuade voters. >> permission structure, it's really gained add lot of credence in recent cycles. tell us more about what that means, the idea of where you're telling a voter, hey, it's okay to go against what you've always done before. vote this way instead. >> look, when we were trying to figure out how to beat trump in 2020, we were running some of these ads you see going viral on twitter, where we were really beating up on trump. they were catchy and would get millions of views, but they didn't persuade these sort of center-right, soft gop voters. i mean, voters were kind of turned off by the attacks on trump. so we started experimenting with these testimonial style videos of real people saying, hey, i'm tommy from texas. i'm a christian. i cannot vote for donald trump as a christian. that really connected with people. that's what people found persuasive. they wanted to be kind of on a tribe, right? they're used to being part of a republican tribe. they don't feel a part of the democratic tribe. we had to build them a new tribe where they felt like there was safety in numbers. they had a group they could attach to. being a republican voter against trump allows you to maintain the republican identity. for a lot of the voters, that's important to them. but still be against trump and be with a group of people that feels the same way. that's the kind of permission structure you're creating. >> sarah longwell, thank you very much for coming on the show this morning. still ahead on "morning joe," we are awaiting a key inflation report this morning that could offer some insight about whether the fed will cut interest rates anytime soon. we'll bring you those new numbers. first, democratic senator michael bennet is standing by, joining us on the heels of a hearing on worldwide threats. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. here's to getting better with age. here's to beating these two every thursday. help fuel today with boost high protein, complete nutrition you need... ...without the stuff you don't. so, here's to now. boost. look - i'm not a young guy. that's no secret. but here's the deal — i understand how to get things done for the american people. i led the country through the covid crisis. today we have the strongest economy in the world. i passed a law that lowers prescription drug prices. caps insulin at $35 a month for seniors. for four years donald trump tried to pass an infrastructure law and he failed. i got it done. now we're rebuilding america. i passed the biggest law in history to combat climate change because our future depends on it. donald trump took away the freedom of women to choose. i'm determined to make roe v. wade the law of the land again. donald trump believes the job of the president is to take care of donald trump. i believe the job of the president is to fight for you, the american people. and that's what i'm doing. i'm joe biden and i approve this message. look, i'm very young, energetic, and handsome. what the hell am i doing this for? 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(♪♪) why choose a sleep number smart bed? can i make my side softer? i like my side firmer. sleep number does that. the queen sleep number c4 smart bed is only $1,599, save $300. shop now at sleepnumber.com it's our assessment russia is not serious about negotiations. they're interested in the theater but not really interested in negotiating, in the sense of compromise right now. if you want to get to a serious negotiation, you have to help the ukrainians demonstrate that putin is wrong in his notion that time is on his side. >> this is actually the white house, has been thinking about this now, concerned about this for months, what director burns just said, which is, they want to get the funding to ukraine for two reasons. one, obviously, to help them on the battlefield, but, two, to give vladimir putin a reason to move toward the negotiating table and sign a cease-fire. >> right. >> so as long as mike johnson is doing vladimir putin's bidding, there will be war. as long as donald trump is doing vladimir putin's bidding, there will be war. as long as republican committee men and women who support ukraine sit in silence, i don't know out of what, out of fear? why are they fearful when, you know, brave men and women are on the front lines in ukraine fighting for freedom, not only in ukraine, but in europe, and fighting for us. >> and the world. >> fighting for the west. there are still some of us who believe in the concept of the west. western democracy. and the fight against totalitarianism from russia and communist china and north korea. so why do these people sit in silence? why do they turn ukraine over to vladimir putin? they need to speak up. they need to speak up for freedom. they -- >> they need to vote. >> -- need to stand up up for freedom. they need to get ukraine aid on the floor. they could do it today. they could make the announcement today. and freedom would breathe another breath in ukraine. >> so -- >> but if putin gets ukraine, he's already talked about poland. he'll certainly go into estonia, latvia, lithuania. this is what house republicans are doing right now. they're making the world so much less safe. they're sending a message to communists in china and communists in north korea. that america doesn't have the will to fight because the house republicans, because this accidental speaker is a lap dog for donald trump. and since donald trump choosing vladimir putin, this lap dog who is speaker of the house chooses vladimir putin. they have to go around him. >> and -- >> they're going to have to give ukrainians a chance to fight. and give people like bill burns a chance to go to russia and say, "we're behind ukraine. let's negotiate a settlement." >> those consequences you discussed as to where putin would go next if ukraine falls, that brings us directly into the conflict. >> yeah. >> i wonder, do republicans want that? what we heard coming into this was cia director williams burns' comments on russia and the ongoing invasion of ukraine. it came during testimony as part of a senate intelligence committee hearing on global threats. joining us now, the person who asked the question that elicited the response from director burns, democratic member of the intelligence committee, senator michael bennet of colorado. he also traveled to the middle east recently where he met israeli and palestinian leaders. we'll get to that. two burning crises in the world. let's stay on ukraine for a moment. can you explain how dire the situation is? how long can ukraine continue while the u.s. sits waiting to vote and waiting to get aid to ukraine? >> mika, thanks for having me. ukraine started battling putin with their bare hands, and now they're having to do it again. they're out of bullets. because we have not come forward with this aid. even though they have done absolutely everything the world could have asked them to do. nobody could have imagined the success that they have had on the battlefield because of their bravery and because of their courage and because they are fighting, as president zelenskyy says, not just for ukraine but for democracy. they understand that. >> right. >> we need to understand that. that's the reason i asked secretary burns the question yesterday. listen to this -- director burns. this is a guy who worked in bush administrations and in the obama administration. i asked him, what about the guys in the republican party now who are saying we can't afford this fight in russia, we've got to worry about some theoretical, plausible, but theoretical future battle with china? he basically said, their position is ridiculous. you know, for $60 billion, we can keep ukraine in this fight. we can get to a result where the end is a noble result for the people of ukraine, for the west, as joe said, for democracy, and send a signal to xi jinping, that when tyrants invade a free country, the leaders of the world will band together with the united states. it's what was melt with, gorbachev, tear down the wall." many have forgotten. >> you returned from a trip to the middle east. when you were in israel, the war against hamas that israel is conducting, legitimate war, no doubt about that, but it began within the first few days with the israelis dropping 2,000-pound bombs on various elements in a region, one of the most highly congested regions. 2.5 million people living in gaza. each and every day, we've seen and heard anecdotal evidence of massive numbers of palestinians being killed. could you talk about the after-effect of what we're doing, what we're participating in, in terms of supplying this ordinance to the israeli army and what's going on there, the after-effect on our reputation in the world? >> well, i think the after-effect is going to be very significant for israel and for the united states. it's important to recognize that hamas is a death cult and attacked israel. it is important for us to remember as we sit here today, there are still about 100 hostages that hamas has refused to turn over. six of those, by the way, are americans. it's very important for us to be clear-eyed about that because we've got to get those hostages back. but there has been a lot of damage as a result of this war, and there's starvation in gaza that will be a shame on the conscience of the world. i believe that the united states and israel and the arab partners in the region have a moral obligation to come together and say, "we're going to go what we can to mitigate this human suffering. because we know starvation in gaza will breed terrorism." we know that. it is naive to think anything else. i think it is critically important for us to work with the israelis and others to make sure we provide the humanitarian aid, irrespective of what hamas does. we can't rely on hamas to care about what's happening to the civilians in the palestinian territories in gaza. we can do a better job than that together. >> senator bennet, we want to get your reaction to new reporting i have this morning. president biden considering that if israel were to launch a full invasion of rafah, despite warnings from washington not to do so, because of the humanitarian concerns, that he would consider for the first time conditioning military aid to israel. does that seem like an appropriate measure to you? >> i think he's sending an important message. it's not clear to me at all that prime minister netanyahu has a plan for rafah. it's not clear to me that he has a plan, as his people said when senator booker and i were there last weekend, to move the civilians out of rafah before he sends his troops in. i can understand the need to dismantle the remaining six hamas battalions that are there, but we need to understand how he is going to do that. i think the prevailing view in our country and in many places around the world is that too many civilians have died in this war already. i think that's what president biden is saying as a friend of israel, by the way. president biden has stood up in this region, and i think prime minister netanyahu has shown over and over again that he's incapable of listening to advice from his friends. that he is pursuing policies every single day there about his election and his remaining in power in israel. again, you know, when we're having a debate today about what's naive, i think it is worth considering whether the policies that prime minister netanyahu pursued over the last 15 years, in the end, kept israel safe. or whether or not we have to pursue a new set of policies, abandon what didn't work over the last 75 years and work toward a two-state solution, which i think is the only way that we're going to get to a place of enduring peace in the middle east. we may never get there, but it's incumbent on us to not give up on hope. it is incumbent on us to summon the international allies that we have to make sure that children in palestine don't starve because hamas doesn't care about them or because of the way this war is being prosecuted. >> democratic member of the intelligence committee, senator michael bennet, thank you so much for coming on this morning. we appreciate it. and coming up on "morning joe," we'll be joined by the republican chairman and the ranking democrat on the house intelligence committee ahead of the lower chamber's hearing today on global threats. first, we'll have a look at the new political dramedy about covering the campaign trail. it's titled "the girls on the bus," and it premieres this week. the show's co-creators and two of its stars will be our guests, next on "morning joe." when i'm cold? 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[ sigh ] next. next. if you don't pick one... oh, you have time. am i keeping you from your job. next. i don't even know where i am anymore. stop. do we finally have it? let's go back to the beginning. are you... your electric future. customized. the fully-electric audi q4 e-tron. ♪ ♪ hey, so you kind of ruined it for the rest of us back there. i know we answer to different people who want very different things but -- >> i'm pretty sure we answer to the same people, the american public. all they want is the truth. >> nice try. liberty direct news doesn't give a [ bleep ] about the truth. you care, though. which is why i'm appealing to you. >> as a woman, this conversation is over. >> as a journalist who is in the same spot as i am, trying to remain objective with a story that is fundamentally not objective. if bennett were a man -- >> i would be going after him in the exact same way. >> all right. a scene from the new series for max entitled, "the girls on the bus." the comedy/drama follows four female journalists and competitors as they hit the campaign trail to cover a presidential election. each of them with their own unique reporting styles and personalities. joining us now, co-creator, executive producer and writer of the series, amy chozick. the show is based on amy's experience as a journalist covering hillary clinton's presidential campaigns in 2008 and 2016 for "the wall street journal" and "the new york times." also joining us, two of the show's stars, melissa benoist and christina elmore. melissa also serves as a producer on the show. amy, i want to start with you. give us an overview of "the girls on the bus." >> it follows four journalists who become unlikely friends when they're stuck together on the campaign bus covering a very fictional democratic primary. it's really a show about found friendship and the kind of friendship you never knew you needed but can't live without. these girls start out completely different, as you said, different walks of life, different outlets, and philosophies on everything. then you're stuck in close quarters on this campaign bus that you end up finding friendship. then they have to work together to break a giant story. you know, save our democracy. something like that. >> something you know a little bit about from 2008 and '16 and all your experience. >> exactly. >> melissa, what did you take from amy's experience? she was on the bus for many, many months. she knows exactly what it is like to be there. what did you learn from her about being a journalist? >> i think everything. i mean, i devoured her book before we started shooting, but you were there quite a bit. every day that amy was on set, it was just wonderful. down to, like, the press passes and the way that the tables looked and the way a scrum should look, everything, you were so hands-on. >> scrum, right? >> nice. >> very good. >> kind of everything was invaluable. >> including down to, if you watch it, down to the terrible food, which is really an important part of being on the bugs. >> circulating sandwiches, yup. >> christina, how did you go about approaching this role, which your character works for the conservative network there. >> yeah. >> as we heard in the clip. you were an outlier on the bus. >> at first, i thought i should get into conservative news a lot. i was watching stuff. i was like, oh, no, no, no. i have to get out of this. what's so great about all the characters on the show, they're sort of people we know, but i'm not playing a certain journalist. i didn't have to go down that rabbit hole. but i did love to see this black woman, conservative who are has a different voice than what we hear a lot today. i was interested in the writing. it was already there on the page. >> amy, any campaign, of course, is a grind for the reporters there. 2016, you were covering hillary clinton. i was covering donald trump. now, we're going through another campaign, which looks like it is going to be just as long, just as ugly as the last one. what is it like for you now watching this with some distance from it, yet still immersed because of the show? >> it is interesting to watch. i think even since we started writing the show, things have evolved so much. for instance, the influencer on the bus, we wrote in she has a subscription substack. that wasn't a word we would have used years ago. sadie, the character melissa plays, romanticizes the era of the boys on the bus that doesn't exist anymore. looking at the campaign bus now, this evolution of the importance of the campaign bus and reporting. you see donald trump going direct to the voters with his social media feed. just sort of the evolution of journalism, i think, has made huge strides, not necessarily in a positive direction, since the last one. both the kind of stress on the industry and the attacks on the media and the truth. >> for people who don't know, 1972 book, "boys on the bus," iconic book about journalism and reporting in the race that year. tell me about sadie, who she is, what kind of character. you've played all kinds of people. you played superheros, everybody under the sun. what was unique and challenging about sadie for you? >> sadie is a journalist with a capital "j." it's what she lives, eats, and breathes, and she kind of gives up everything to do it. it wasn't challenging. that was kind of joy of playing this woman that just gives into her passion. she romanticizes this sort of bygone era of journalism. that was really for me to get into. i read a lot of -- >> she read "what it takes," 1,000 pages. >> i loved it. i kind of went through withdrawal when it was done. >> still holds up. >> i didn't want it to be over. that was kind of the joy of getting to know this character, was really kind of digging into what she loved about politics and being a reporter. >> and the granular detail to what it takes. you can't put it down. talk about, if you can, christina, the cast, the group of women, kind of being on the bus in your own way, making the show. what was it like? >> we were on our own little rickety sound stage, similar to our rickety bus. it really helped. i think that like the four women in the show, they don't expect to find this family and this camaraderie. sort of immediately, the four of us became real friends. >> yeah. >> became real friends. it sounds so corny. our cast was such a family. it's real. i don't know how the four of us found each other, but our lives i think are better for it. >> absolutely. >> but it's so true. i think it makes the chemistry on the show palpable. >> was that the way it was? obviously, there is competition, going against "the washington post" for scoops. at the end of the day, did you feel like a family? >> yes. karla plays queen of the scoop and andrea nurtured the younger women on the bus. the you are close friends with woman you probably wouldn't normally meet in your life. that was inspired by a chapter that became the show. >> it's a great show. you don't have to love politics or even media, but it's a great show. "the girls on the bus" debuts thursday, march 14th on max. congratulations. thanks for being here. >> thank you. coming up next, we will tell you what donald trump is promising to do for those convicted for their roles in the january 6th attack on the capitol. hours from now, special council robert hur will face questions from lawmakers about his report on president biden's handling of classified documents and we have a look at hur's opening statement, particularly his aside about joe biden's mental acuity. "morning joe's" coming right back. the virus that causes shingles is sleeping... in 99% of people over 50. it's lying dormant, waiting... and could reactivate. shingles strikes as a painful, blistering rash that can last for weeks. and it could wake at any time. think you're not at risk for shingles? it's time to wake up. because shingles could wake up in you. if you're over 50, talk to your doctor or pharmacist about shingles prevention. here's to getting better with age. here's to beating these two every thursday. help fuel today with boost high protein, complete nutrition you need... ...without the stuff you don't. so, here's to now. boost. ♪♪ time for a look at local headlines across the country. "the boston globe" reports that governor healy will announce plans this week to seek pardons for potentially thousands of massachusetts residents with simple marijuana possessions convictions. according to the cannabis control commission, there were nearly 67,000 criminal violations for marijuana issued in state before it was legalized in 2016 with people of color being disproportionately charged. in ohio, the plain dealer reports that more than a dozen skimmer devices designed to steal credit card information have been found across the northern part of the state. the devices typically target cards with magnetic stripes. investigators believe large criminal networks from eastern europe are responsible for the scam. in washington, the olympian report on the ongoing fallout for boeing with u.s. transportation secretary pete buttigieg saying the company will face, quote, enormous scrutiny and a rigorous assessment from the faa following a series of high-profile flight incidents this year. boeing recently failed 33 out of 89 product audits by the faa, citing dozens of problems throughout the manufacturing process of its planes. and the "miami herald" reports that it seems the city's efforts to cushion ruley spring break crowds have been working so far. the past weekend appeared to be a relatively calm one compared to recent years with the city's commissioner sending an email to constituents proclaiming no shootings, no stampedes, no fatalities. what a difference. some local business owners say they are hurting though with restrictions like parking bans making it harder for customers to get to bars and restaurants. still ahead, a person who worked costly with donald trump in the white house is detailing the former president's praise for adolf hitler. we'll go through those comments. plus, what hungary's prime minister is saying about his meeting when he stayed as a guest of trump's at mar-a-lago. that's all ahead on "morning joe." 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[ laughter ] >> good morning and welcome to "morning joe." it is tuesday, march 12th. we've got lot to get to this morning, including donald trump's latest promise to his supporters who stormed the capitol on january 6th. it comes as hungary's prime minister is revealing how trump would handle the war in ukraine if he wins another term. plus, we will go through donald trump's flip-flop on tiktok. the platform -- >> follow the money. >> to ban -- well, he pushed a ban while president. it comes as the house is expected to vote tomorrow on a significant bill tied to the app's beijing-based parent company. along with joe, willie, me, the host of "way too early" jonathan lemire and pulitzer prize-winning columniest and associate editor of "washington post" eugene robinson is with us this morning. >> it's something we will give that tiktok story in a minute. you know, we always say follow the money. follow the money. >> yes. >> either about money or it's about this anti-american sort of thirst for authoritarian power. you see it with orban, which we will be talking about today. but you see it in the top story. the story we have heard a little bit about before, but not to this full extent. >> yeah, we will tell you four or five stories in the previous universe of politics would have been disqualifying alone, each of them. former president donald trump allegedly praised adolf hitler saying the nazi leader, quote, it done some good things. according to a book "the return of great powers" by jim sciutto, retired general john kelly, who served as white house chief of staff in the trump administration, recounted several conversation trump spoke favorably about hitler. from the book, quote, well, hitler did somed good things, kelly said of one conversation with trump. well, what? well, hitler rebuilt the economy. but what did he do with that rebuilt economy? he turned it against you his own people and against the world. i said, sir, you can never say anything good about the guy. nothing. end quote. trump admired nazi officers' loyalty to hitler, according to kelly. quote, he would ask about the loyalty issues and how, when i pointed out the german generals as a group were not loyal to him, tried to assassinate him a few times and he did not know that, kelly said. in a statement, trump spokesperson dismissed kelly's comments and said he is suffering from a severe case of trump der rang. syndrome. it's worth recalling, according to a 190 investigation by by "vanity fair," yvonne trump, quote, told her lawyer michael kennedy from time to time her husband reads a book of hutler's collected speeches, my new order, which he keeps in a cabinet by his bed. so, again, the source material here, joe, is general kelly. >> right. >> highly decorated general who served at the right hand of donald trump for many years. a guy with credibility, recalled other conversations where donald trump called fallen soldiers suckers and losers and now revealing that he had a lot of fondness for adolf hitler. >> yeah. and trump derangement syndrome, sorry, whatever idiot said that. we are talking about a man who dedicated his entire life to serving the united states military at war in peace. gene robinson, decided to go in and work with donald trump, even though he had some concerns. he did it for his country. end the up being donald trump's longest running chief of staff. >> this is not a guy with trump derangement syndrome. he is deeply concerned about donald trump, calling dead americans war heroes suckers, when donald trump is sitting next to him there, a man there whose own son sacrificed his life for his country in afghanistan. so, no trump derangement syndrome here. the problem is, and we see it over and over again, and let's just keep going back to that famous saying, when somebody tells you who they are, believe them, donald trump is continuing to tell us, and with more repeatty that he is an autocrat and if he takes power again he will be an autocrat and this worshipping of hitler's power like this worshipping of president xi, this worshipping of kim jong-un, this worshipping of vladimir putin, it all comes from the same disturbing place. he has an anti-american bent to authoritarianism. >> absolutely. donald trump told us like 57,000 times who he is. and we see clearly who he is. and what a sick, warped individual he happens to be. i mean, it's hard to look at him any other way. yes, you always follow the money with trump. but it's more than his lust for money. it's more than his narcissism. there is this authoritarian bent, this fawning over authoritarian figures. i know we will talk about it later. but viktor orban at mar-a-lago, are you kidding me? this is the great guy, the great leader that he wants to praise? it's just sick. and it amazes me, and i'm sure it amazes general kelly and amazes a lot of other people, that more americans, that all americans don't see this in donald trump and don't fear it and reject it. but, again, here we are. he is a, you know, going to be the republican candidate, and there is a possibility that he could be president again. it scares the willies out of general kelly. scares the willies out of all of us. >> scares the will lease out of many people. he has a one in two chance of being president of the united states. we should not overlook that. this is not unfamiliar for donald trump, who praises these leaders. kim jong-un, viktor orban, it's xi jinping, it's bolsonaro out of brazil and of course vladimir putin time and time again. so this reported admiration for adolf hitler certainly is of that trend for donald trump, even if it's not something he says publicly. and you think it is instructive to ask as a preview as to what the next trump term would look like were he to be re-elected, not just that he would just side with all of these leaders, including with putin in the conflict against ukraine, but with trump in office again, facing no consequences, having gotten away with all of these criminal indictments, having gotten away with fueling the january 6th insurrection, with not having to face voters again, he would be unchecked, he would be unfettered, there would be no john kelly in the white house next time. it would only be true believers. there would not be guardrails and i think we would see him lean into the strong man tendencies. >> yeah. and we can call it sick and disgusting, but the reality is, this is unbelievably dangerous for our country and somebody like this, someone like donald trump, who does what donald trump does, says what donald trump says, has done what he has done as president of the united states, would, in normal times, shunned. would be shunned completely, politically or personally. but in this case, you have people showing up at mar-a-lago and clapping and hooting and going to his rallies and you can't just cast them off as uninformed or there for the show. if you read like madeleine albright's book on fascism, any books on the rise of dictatorships, this is how it happens. >> vaughn hilliard's interview with people who were in a rally last week, and i have been wondering what do they think when he says he going to be a dictator from day one, that he can execute with seal team 6, to execute his political opponents and not face any criminal repercussions. what do they think when he says he is going to terminate the constitution, execute insufficiently loyal generals who aren't lackeys to him all the time. what do they think when he says all of these things that vladimir putin doesn't even say publicly? well, you listen to some of vaughn's interviews, they think it's great and say that, if trump doesn't win this time, they think they should have a civil war and go state legislate -- i saw a video, i'm sure you saw it, too, of a republican event in missouri, and they had joe biden and people went up kicking joe biden. i'm telling you in all my lifetime, in all my lifetime, if that ever happened at any republican event, if one person even talked about doing that, they would be surrounded and removed and the image of the president would be removed. i just -- i just -- again, there is a sickness where people say, yeah, we're going to violently take over state legislatures, we are going to violently take over the congress, we are going to violently take over whatever we have to take over if we don't win the election. >> yeah. even a few years ago you could have pa perhaps rolled your eyes at that as idle talks or threats. it happened on january 6th. a violent attack on the united states capitol. of course it could happen again. of course we are hearing talk if donald trump loses we will hear and see exactly the kind of things you described there. the voters who go to the rallies, they go along for the ride. they laugh at the stuff that they have been laughing at for the last eight years. they don't mind his authoritarian tendencies. how many have seen enough of the show? we'll find out in november. donald trump talking about strong men says he will not fund ukraine's fight against russia if elected, according to his buddy hit-and-runen prime minister viktor orban. he told hungarian state media on sunday that trump, quote, will not give a penny in the ukraine russia war. the war will end because ukraine cannot stand on its own feet, end quote. trump says well 24 hours, if elect the, provided no detail. the detail is he will roll over for vladimir putin and russia will get what it wants. >> exactly. >> tlg a new axis of evil supporting vladimir putin and supporting totalitarianism across the east, jonathan lemire. right now, it's vladimir putin and viktor orban who, again, hold out as much as he can, but without the united states supporting him he is out of luck, and you've got china and then you will have donald trump doing their bidding. it's very simple. there will be, with donald trump, there will be a straight line from washington to hungary to russia to beijing. and donald trump's made it clear. he does not like democratic leaders. by the way, you have trump -- >> wow. >> you have trump derangement syndrome in that you are so deranged for donald trump that you can't see this or you are willing to lie through your teeth to deny the existence of is, because donald trump keeps telling us what he is going to do and it's going to be the united states, hungary, and russia all working together to help vladimir putin. donald trump's been very clear about that and he was clear about it with orban and he has been clear when there was the invasion of ukraine. what did he say, jonathan? it was brilliant. a brilliant move by putin. and now, you know, he keeps saying once he is president, this war will be over in a day. now we know how it will be over in a day. >> one thing i think that the show has done very importantly is talk about the stakes tv this next election. it's not just the day-to-day and the polling, up and down, the campaign strategy. we talk about that, too. it's the stakes of this election. it can't be clearer than on the world stage. president biden took office in 2021 saying he was going to restore america's commitment to alliances, restore america's imprint on the world as a force for good, and he tells a story frequently about how world leaders, tells world leaders america's back. how long? this is what those world leaders are wondering about because if trump returns to office, america's going to disappear from the world stage at least as we are used to thinking about it. it's going to be far nor isolationist. trump and his project 2025 that his allies are putting together have made that clear. he will cut off funding entirely to ukraine. supporters in the house have done that now. ukraine is losing ground by the day to russia. that, of course, will get worse were trump to take office. we know despite his occasional tough talk about china, he praised xi jinping, including in his response to the covid pandemic. there is no suggestion he would stand up to xi jinping were he to make a move on taiwan. he bud eid up with orban this weekend. he talks highly of kim jong-un, who, of course, threat japan and south korea every week what rocket launch. there is no sense trump will hold american ideals in hand, keep american foreign policy in place for those things. that's what we should be focusing on as we head into november. >> all right. former president trump is vowing to release hundreds of january 6th defendants currently behind bars if he is re-elected in november. on truth social last night, trump wrote, one of his first agents as president will be to, quote, free the january 6th hostages being -- >> by the way, it is grotesque -- >> yes. >> to call these people who beat the hell out of cops and rioted in the united states capitol hostages when there are actual hostages being kept by a terror group underground in gaza. these people are not hostages. the fact is, donald trump should already be in jail with them. the only thing that is wrong with the fact that they are in jail is that donald trump is not there -- >> the person that incited the riot. >> because there is a two-tiered justice system. there is a justice system that protects donald trump, and we've seen it. the supreme court has protected donald trump because he is powerful. courts have protected donald trump because he is powerful. trump judges have protected trump because he's powerful. just the system has protected trump because he is rich and he is powerful. whereas, these working-class people that rioted on january 6th at the behest of donald trump and following donald trump's orders are sitting in jail. donald trump, two-tiered system, two-tiered system. we see it time and time again. we will see it in fort pierce again. will we see it from the supreme court again? most likely, because they want to give donald trump a free ride and they have they have given him a free ride by dragging out an issue that we already know the answer to. >> trump has previously suggested he would pardon people charged in the january 6th attacks. nearly 500 people involved in the insurrection -- >> convicts. >> have been sentenced to prison and over 1,000 charged over their connection to the capitol riot. let's bring in congressional investigations reporter for "the washington post" jackie alemany. trump is getting help from house republicans trying to undermine the work of the now defunct january 6th investigative committee and one of the committee's witnesses. tell us about that effort. >> yeah, house republicans yesterday under barry loudermilk, the head of the sub smith on the house administration committee, released an extensive report essentially a review of the work that the house select committee investigating the january 6th investigation committed the end of 2022. throughout this report, they underscore some inconsistencies that they found with cassidy hutchinson's testimony. much of which has already been reported. but the most interesting parts of this report were some of the repressed transcripts that the committee was able to unearth that had yet to be release bid the department of homeland security. at the end of the january 6th committee, they released, you know, the dozens of transcripts that they had transcribed with witnesses who appeared before the committee to testify about trump's actions to overturn the results of the election on january 6th 2021, but there were a handful of transcripts that they didn't release in agreement with the department of homeland security because of security precautions and the department had asked for more time to review those. but in those transcripts, what they found, these house republicans, was essentially that there were -- was at least one person, the driver who disputed -- the driver who was taking trump from the white house to his speech on the ellipse back to the white house, that he essentially couldn't remember what cassidy hutchinson, the star witness of the january 6th committee, had testified that she had heard one of trump's lead details, anthony arenado, tell her about trump trying to lunge, grab the wheel in the car to go to the ellipse. sorry. that's a bit confusing, but basically this inconsistency does not detract from the thrust of what happened on january 6th, was that jump, obviously, encouraged rioters to storm the capitol and that's why even at the time despite house republicans unearthing this inconsistency, there was concern on the january 6th committee that putting forth cassidy hutchinson without more corroboration and without sort of a secondary account of what had happened exactly inside the beast on that car ride when trump was, you know, going back and forth on the ellipse to and from his speech, that there was concern that it was an unforced error. >> coming up, our next two guests are leading a hearing in the house today on worldwide threats to america. republican mike turner, democrat jim himes preview the testimony from the top intelligence leaders. 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>> no clue. we were just taking them out of the escalade, piling them up. they were stabbed and we were lifting them up to the pilots. >> how many boxes? >> they asked me in the interview. i believe it was 10 to 15, is what i remember. >> they being the investigators? >> correct. >> when you look back now, what -- >> well, you know, i had no clue until probably the end of june. there was a few different things that happened that kind of opened my eyes to, you know, something's going on here. >> so you get that unusual request. did you ever think to yourself, why were there so many boxes at mar-a-lago? >> i am thinking the former president, he has a lot of stuff he likes to lug around with him. i never would have thought it was anything like what we see now. >> classified documents? >> yeah. >> butler's interview with cnn there. butler, walt nat a's legal team and jack smith declined to comment. cnn reports a lawyer for trump declined to comment. joining us former litigator and msnbc legal correspondent lisa rubin. good morning. let's start with the last part of that, which is brian butler saying explicitly i helped walt walt nauta around the time the fbi was coming to search for classified documents at mar-a-lago. how does mr. butler play into all of this? >> it's interesting because mr. butler shows up in the indictment with six different references across two paragraphs. none of those paragraphs relate to the incident that we were just watching as he described to cnn. nothing about the indictment details how boxes got from mar-a-lago to bedminster, makes a passing reference to it, but the story he told to cnn is not currently part of what donald trump has been charged with, what what walt has been charged with. >> why did he want to go public and tell the details he got into his relationship with donald trump about how he doesn't trust donald trump, thinks he is a bad guy, et cetera, et cetera. what's he up to here? >> he worked there 20 years. on one hand, interesting to say that he doesn't trust trump now. on the other hand, i think part of his motivation is that that he may believe his name is about to be disclosed. recall that judge cannon ordered the unsealing of certain documents in this case that relate to almost two dozen witnesses or potential witnesses in the case. that order is under a negotiation por reconsideration but if she decides she is going to side with donald trump and his co-defendants, brian butler's name could become a matter of public record. >> it's been an open question why the feds didn't search bedminster as well. the case in new york, trump's lawyers asked a judge to delay the trial, set to begin in two weeks time, march 2 #th, until after the supreme court rules on presidential immunity. do they have a shot for that to happen? >> i don't think that they do. partially, the reason they don't is because they have waited so long to raise this argument. judge mershon issued an order last night taking a a tweak at donald trump and his lawyers for putting this in at the very last minute. jury selection begins two weeks from yesterday. they could have raised the question of presidential immunity at any other point during this case since the indictment. they hadn't raised it since last summer and then essentially let it lapse and didn't appeal a federal court's determination that, that relates to this case. they are not now chaiming he is immune from the case. they are claiming the d.a. wants to use particular statements by him during his presidency that somehow should be considered official statements because he was president. the stuff he said about michael cohen, for example, on twitter in 2017, 2018, is as personal as it gets. there is nothing official about it. i expect the d.a. to take a really hard whack at this motion when they respond later this week and for the judge to treat it similarly tough. >> staying in new york and talking about e. jean carroll for a moment. again, donald trump had to post a $91 million bond again defaming her at a rally over the weekend, again yesterday morning on cnbc defaming e. jean carroll. to which e. jean carroll's attorney says, dude, i'm not quoting her, we can keep doing this if you want to and you will keep writing us checks. are they going to pursue another defamation case against donald trump? >> i wish i had a crystal ball to answer that question. i think they have grounds to do so if they'd like to. there are a couple of complications. one is proving that e. jean carroll has been further damaged by the repetition now for the third time of this same lies that donald trump has been telling about her. and unfortunately showing that she has been damaged that way might require robbie kaplan and her team to wait, see how the death threats mount, how the nasty and vial comments on twitter pile up to be able to show she has been damaged is critical to filing a new suit against trump even if the larger goal is to punish him, the law requires some proportionality between her injuries and the punitive damages. >> and yesterday donald trump called her miss bergdorf goodman, found libel of sexual assault against her many years ago. the documents case, durt's team is claiming presidential records act covers them. so this should be dismissed. we will say if for the 1,000th time, that's not what the presidential records act says, that you can take classified documents home with you to your beach club. does that hold any water, that argument? >> nobody claimed that it immunizes them from criminal prosecution. trump is famous for shorthand about this argument. he says the clinton socks case has to do with audio tapes bill clinton made as president with the historian taylor branch. the court found those audiotapes were akin to tyrees ex tempt from the presidential records act. it was not a determination they were his personal records. trump can't say these were mine, i was president, therefore, there is to criminal liability here. donald trump is again dreaming. then again his audience is aileen cannon. what donald trump wants, she usually provides. coming up, robert hur, his year-long probe of president biden's handling of classified documents. that's next on "morning joe." sid documents. that's next on "morning joe. here's to getting better with age. here's to beating these two every thursday. help fuel today with boost high protein, complete nutrition you need... ...without the stuff you don't. so, here's to now. boost. rylee! from rylee's realty! hi! this listing sounds incredible. let's check it out. says here it gets plenty of light. and this must be the ocean view? 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highlight hur's description of president biden as a, quote, sympathetic, well meaning, elderly man with a poor memory. and his references to biden's diminished faculties. >> yeah. that's not great for the state of the union. >> jackie, give us a preview. >> we are going to hear from robert hur on capitol hill, whom democrats and republicans both have some issues with, although very different issues. but we should start this conversation with the fact that robert hur ultimately concluded that there were no criminal charges warranted in president biden's, you know, classified documents case. that essentially he found that biden willfully retained some sensitive information, but it was not enough to establish biden's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. but the big issue that republicans have had with robert hur's report which was essentially a memo where hur felt like he needed to establish why he didn't pursue charges against biden was as democrats view it gratuitous and delab rit digs at biden's memory and mental faculties. hur went into extensive detail about biden unable to remember specific details during his interview with the president. biden's aides have said that this interview that took place, which was several hours long, happened in the aftermath of the october 7th attack and it's also important to note that there are many witnesses across the board, across many administrations who have trouble remembering information about something that happens several years ago. biden was asked about, you know, essentially retaining documents. again not willfully, after his vice presidency, and republicans are probably going to try to hammer and press hur for why, you know, he didn't ultimately charge biden, especially in comparison to former president donald trump who is, obviously, facing extensive criminal charges, but hur notes in the report, which he is expected to underscore, that there are serious material differences between the trump case and the biden case, that biden at the end of the day cooperated and that people around him cooperated with the justice department's investigation into the classified documents and, you know, former president trump, obviously. and then also, in the process, committed obstruction and enlisted other people to destroy and hide evidence. >> so our friends at playbook got an advanced copy of hur's testimony and he defend his decision to include those comments about the president's memory. he says i had to consider the president's memory and mental state and how a jury likely would perceive his mental state at a trial. he said i did not sanitize my explanation or disparage the president unfairly. but eugene, i mean, the white house feels really good post state of the union, felt like they addressed this issue of the president's age, mental fitness for the job. they mitigated some of the possible damage because the president was so strong the other night. robert hur no longer an employee of the doj. he is not bound by some of the constraints that a doj employee would have. the white house has prepared a rapid response. we will be hearing from them a lot today. give us your expectations what will happen today and on the political fallout. >> i have no idea what hur is going to say. i mean, which way he is going to go. is he going deeper into this sort of fantasy world he created in the report, or is he going to pull back from that? and we'll have to see. politically, i think, from the white house point of view, they would be very happy that if this has to happen, it happens in the wake of the state of the union address, as you noted, president biden and his team believe they put a lot of the, you know, old man kind of trope to rest. coming up, the force is strong and our next guest, ewan mcgregor, is standing by to talk about his latest project. that conversation is just ahead. before we go to break, last week i had the honor of sitting down with the former president of liberia, ellen johnson surly, at the forbes know your value summit in abu dhabi. it was a truly global event with over 400 women from 46 different countries in attendance. we spoke about professional success, personal fulfillment and especially impact during these difficult times. during my conversation, the first democratically elected female head of state in africa, i asked her about the state of women in leadership, particularly in the united states. take a look. >> i'm curious if you are surprised that the united states has not had a female president yet. >> what are you waiting for? >> i know! >> i think, yes, i am surprised. and, yes, i think that the time has come. i believe that. women deserve the equity and equal opportunity because they've already earned it. >> we'll be showing you much more from that better view in the days to come, across with the other conversations from our incredible lineup of speakers including shania twain, suzmy orman, activist and agent ris ivana and much more. follow know your value on our social media channels for additional coverage from the 3050 summit. "morning joe" will be right back. 3050 summit. "morning joe" will be right back [coughing] copd isn't pretty. i'm out of breath, and often out of the picture. but this is my story. 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"glitter and doom" is so good. >> i didn't even know how to play the song. yeah, it was fun. >> "glitter and doom" is playing in select theaters right now. opens everywhere on friday. the indigo girls, amy ray and emily salyers. thank you so much, guys. take care. in about an hour, special counsel robert hur, who investigated biden's handling of classified documents, will testify in front of the republican-led house judiciary committee. this morning, nbc news confirmed hur will testify as a private citizen and not a justice department employee. peter alexander has more. >> reporter: this morning, after a year of public silence, special counsel robert hur will testify before congress. hur, a former u.s. attorney appointed by then-president trump, has faced fierce backlash. he says the president willfully retained documents, but not enough to prove his case to a jury, saying the president was an elderly man with memory problems. following his state of the union, president biden is still trying to dispel voter concerns about his ability to serve a second term. >> i'm not a young guy. that's no secret. here's the deal. i know how to get things done for the american people. >> crooked joe got off scot-free. they said he was a mental basket case. >> reporter: in fact, hur did not say that. still, house republicans are likely to accuse hur of giving president biden a pass and to press him for additional observations about what hur called joe biden's diminished faculties. house democrats are likely to zero in on hur's conclusion that no criminal charges were warranted and hur's distinction between biden, who cooperated with the investigation, and mr. trump, who refused to return classified documents and obstructs the investigation into his conduct. he's now facing 40 criminal charges. a key witness overnight speaking out on cnn, describing moving those classified documents at mar-a-lago. >> they were the boxes in the indictment, the white bankers boxes. that's what i remember loading. >> did you have any idea at the time that there was potentially u.s. national security secrets in those boxes? >> no clue. i had no clue. >> nbc's peter alexander with that report. let's bring in white house correspondent mike memoli, who has new reporting on the transcript of biden's interview with hur. tell us about that, and what more we might hear from him today as a citizen. what's the difference? >> when you think back to last week, the state of the union address, you saw how overjoyed democrats were at the president's feisty performance. but that reaction was, in part, based on just how worried democrats were when the special counsel robert hur released that damning report with his assessment that the president was an elderly man with a poor memory. i had a chance yesterday to read all 260 pages of the transcript of that five-hour interview that took place over two days. what you find in reading that is a much more nuanced picture of that series of back and forth with the special counsel and his team than was presented in the report and has been shorthanded now. you see the president often asked very technical questions about how he consumed classified information, how he retained, whether he retained documents, where they were moved as he was leaving the vice presidency. biden at times flashed anger at these questions that he thought went well beyond what anybody should be expected to recall. he also flashed some humor. the president told the special counsel when he said he was going to ask questions going back a decade, he said, well, i'm a young man. they were looking at a picture found in biden's possession of a trip he took in 2011 to mongolia. i happened to be on that trip with president biden more than a decade ago, and he recalled things i had to look up myself to verify were the case. there are moments in which, yes, the president does show he had a difficult time recalling some things. the most important one was, in fact, the president who raised the timing of his son's death, not special counsel robert hur. he brought that up in an important context as hur was asking him to describe what documents he was using and how he was storing them in 2017, when he first left the vice presidency and was embarking in life as a private citizen for the first time. the president had the time says it was around that time that his son beau was diagnosed with cancer, something that had actually happened more than two years earlier. that has been a flashpoint on which hur based part of his assessment here. the president uses that question to launch into a much more detailed series of discussions about the series of events that led from him making the decision not to run for president in 2015 and ultimately doing so in 2020. >> so you saw a lot of detail that showed the president's memory was quite intact. does the transcript undermine the assessment the prosecutor made in his assessment of the president's -- i don't know the words he used exactly -- aging man with a poor memory or something, or does it even out somehow? >> i think an interesting signal about how the politics may play out on capitol hill today comes from the fact that in just the last few moments, democrats on the house judiciary committee have posted the full transcript. i believe they see what many in the white house who i've talked to about this see, which is that the fuller picture here does help present the fact that the president was able to recall events with great specificity and talk about a very complicated series of issues over the course of a long period of time. mika, you have spent some time with president biden. you've talked to him. as i was reading this, i also reflected on the fact that somebody who spent more than 16 years at this point covering biden as closely as anyone, the conversation ensued in a way that it often does when you have time to spend with the president and he talks about these stories. rather than talking about whether this undermines her, i think it certainly gives democrats an opportunity to challenge her about why and whether it was appropriate for him to make the kind assessments in his report that he did. >> mike memoli, thank you very much for your reporting this morning. breaking economic news this hour. according to the later consumer price index, inflation rose slightly last month, largely in line with expectations. let's bring in stephanie ruhle. good morning. so .4% up in february. how should we take this number? >> i have no idea. i just came because i haven't seen you in a while. things aren't getting worse-worse, but for people who are concerned about inflation -- and that's everyone -- it's not great. housing costs are still expensive, energy costs, your everyday items. the fed has been looking to get this thing down to 2%, because that's when they'll cut rates. it is not there yet. we hear republicans saying the economy is awful. republicans are wrong. we've had an extraordinary economic recovery. however, when you're talking about getting car insurance, house insurance, your health insurance, all these things are expensive. this is not going to be great news for the white house, who's desperate for the fed to cut rates. the fed isn't going to say, oh, things are really sticky, let's cut rates now. things are still headed generally in the right direction, but once they cut rates, there's still a lag time before you see the positive effects. >> we know the economy is doing well. i was filling up the car yesterday. i was like, well, i'm knocking on the door of $100 again for a tank. i understand that it's down, but it's still expensive. >> when people go to the grocery store, when they go to rent an apartment, airline costs, these are expensive. this is the challenge for the biden administration. we have had the best recovery considering where we came from in covid, but day in and day out, when people say they don't feel great about the economy, this is why. >> what are the other areas? >> food, housing, energy. go out and get insurance right now. all the things you need in your day-to-day life, you're not that psyched. >> there's this perception from donald trump that the economy is in shambles. we know that's wrong. we've seen the data. paint us a picture. broadly, the economy is doing how? >> the economy is doing well. look at unemployment. there's 24 states right now about to raise minimum wage. when your son and daughter go to get a summer job this summer, it is going to pay well. when small businesses talk about what life is like for them, they're going to say inflation is a problem. you're starting to see consumers go, oh, how much did dinner cost? >> it's true, though. polling is starting to show the economy is getting better. >> he's doing everything he can. he cannot control things like food prices. go to the store and get your ground beef. it's expensive. >> it is. stephanie ruhle, we will be watching "the 11th hour" at 11:00 p.m. coming up, the house intelligence committee will hold its annual hearing with the heads of u.s. intelligence agencies for its assessment of global threats to the country. we'll be joined by the top democrat and republican on that panel next on "morning joe." n o panel next on "morning joe." skyrizi is the first il-23 inhibitor that can deliver remission and visibly improve damage of the intestinal lining. serious allergic reactions and an increased risk of infections or a lower ability to fight them may occur. tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms, had a vaccine or plan to. liver problems may occur in crohn's disease. control of crohn's means everything to me. ask your gastroenterologist about skyrizi. ♪ control is everything to me ♪ learn how abbvie could help you save. [coughing] copd hasn't been pretty. it's tough to breathe and tough to keep wondering if this is as good as it gets. but trelegy has shown me that there's still beauty and breath to be had. because with three medicines in one inhaler, trelegy keeps my airways open and prevents future flare-ups. and with one dose a day, trelegy improves lung function so i can breathe more freely all day and night. trelegy won't replace a rescue inhaler for sudden breathing problems. tell your doctor if you have a heart condition or high blood pressure before taking it. do not take trelegy more than prescribed. trelegy may increase your risk of thrush, pneumonia, and osteoporosis. call your doctor if worsened breathing, chest pain, mouth or tongue swelling, problems urinating, vision changes, or eye pain occur. ♪ what a wonderful world ♪ ask your doctor about once-daily trelegy for copd because breathing should be beautiful. ♪i'm hearing different ways for me to screen for colon cancer.♪ ♪it's time to 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strength? >> i think the best way to answer that question is to point to the fact to highlight where there's political dysfunction or other issues they see in the context of our governance and use it as part of their information operations globally, both to sort of highlight, for example, to their own populations that democracy is quite challenging and would you really want this at home kind of thing, and also to demonstrate to our allies and partners that we can't be reied on as effectively. >> avril haines, director of national intelligence, warning us how russia and china capitalize on our own domestic dysfunction during yesterday's hearing on world wide threats. in less than an hour, the house intelligence committee will hold their own session on those threats. joining me is congressman jim himes of connecticut and mike turner of ohio, the chair of the committee. congressman turner, will you be addressing threats from within here at home? >> absolutely. today is about world wide threats, and our adversaries are on the move. china is taking an unprecedented buildup of its military capacity and threatening its neighbors. you see, of course, russia threatening ukraine and making threatening statements broadly to our allies. there's no question that as we take up the issue of worldwide threats, the fact that the world is becoming a less safe place for both america and its allies will be an issue and the southern border and the destabilizing effect you heard director wray testify to yesterday that people coming in from the southern border that mean to do us harm and our adversaries taking advantage of the political situation, is very important. tomorrow, the issue of tiktok and china's influence and what effects that can have in the united states, will be taken up. >> congressman himes, we're headed toward an election, and the concern is the division will ramp up even more, if that's possible. >> yeah. look, there's lots of scary things happening abroad that the chairman and i spend an awful lot of time looking at. i worry about everything, but i don't worry next week as much about a north korean attack or chinese threat as much i worry about the tinderbox that is america right now. the chairman is right, we need to secure our borders. but i would just point out, to the point of political polarization, it is not the undocumented who attacked this building on january 6th. it is not an undocumented individual who shot steve scalise. we need to work together. we need to stop using the language of treason, apocalyptic language. we ultimately will put our own democracy at risk. >> if we walk away from ukraine, the impacts will be felt not just in europe, but in taiwan and other nations as the congress sits there waiting to give aid to ukraine, what message do you believe it sends that congress right now is sitting on its hands in terms of refunding ukraine? >> this is demoralizing for ukraine. that's going to be my area of questioning today. there are those who still tried to couch putin statements that the war was over nato or nazis in ukraine as having some validity. we know this war is about putin's aggression and him wanting to take over ukraine. we need to understand the roots of that aggression so we can understand that we have a role here. this is about democracy versus authoritarianism. the united states needs to play a role. ukraine needs our help and support. we're actually not the majority of support that's gone into ukraine. >> congressman himes, i want to turn to the other active war zone right now, which is gaza. director haines said yesterday that what we're seeing there in the gaza conflict and what israel is doing in that region has a, quote, generational impact on terrorism, suggesting it is radicalizing not just those in gaza, but perhaps those around the world who are objecting to how israel has conducted itself in this war. do you share those fears? what should be done right now to curtail them? >> yeah, i do. look, it's always important on this topic to remember that two things are absolutely true. number one, what happened to israel on october 7th with the murder of 1200 israelis was beyond the pale. israel has the right to do what it needs to do to make sure that doesn't happen again. it is also true that how israel does that matters. we learned after 9/11 if you are particularly aggressive and kill the terrorist neighbor, that has the effect of radicalizing people. when the humanitarian situation is as bad as it is in gaza today with babies starving to death, with people not getting food and medicine, that has long-term echoes for the state of israel. they have the right to defend themselves, but how they do that matters. i appreciate the president pushing on the prime minister to do this in a less untenable way than has been done. >> you warned about their work in space, a satellite that could have nuclear capabilities. we heard from the national security advisor this is not an imminent threat. do you feel like it's been appropriately addressed? do you stand by your decision to go public with your concerns ahead of the classified briefing? >> what we were seeing on the congressional side was inaction from the administration, really believing that many of us, that they were sleepwalking into what was going to be a crisis. i do believe now that there has been a dialogue on this issue and this threat, jake sullivan takes this issue seriously. i think there is action now coming from the white house. hopefully this is going to be able to deter what would be a catastrophic effect to our country and our allies. >> congressman jim himes and chairman of the committee congressman mike turner, thank you very much for joining us this morning. coming up, an update on the family photo edited by the princess of wales kate middleton and the ongoing fallout. plus, a dramatic development involving boeing after a series of dangerous mishaps with boeing planes in recent months. we're learning this morning that a former employee turned whistleblower against the aerospace giant was found dead just months before his retaliation lawsuit was set to go on trial. nbc's tom costello will have the details next on "morning joe." e details next on "morning joe." no. ♪♪ -no. -nuh-uh. ♪♪ yeah. oh. yes. ♪♪ oh yeah. yes. isn't this great? yeeaahhhh!! ♪♪ yeah, i could do a cartwheel in here. oh hey! would you like to join us? no. we would love to join you. ♪♪ disrupts my skin, night and day. despite treatment, it's still not under control. but now i have rinvoq. rinvoq is a once-daily pill that reduces the itch and helps clear the rash of eczema—fast. some rinvoq patients felt significant itch relief as early as 2 days. some achieved dramatic skin clearance as early as 2 weeks. and many taking rinvoq saw clear or almost-clear skin. rinvoq can lower your ability to fight infections, including tb. serious infections and blood clots, some fatal, cancers, including lymphoma and 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crisis spiraling into day two as kensington palace stand firm on not releasing the original photograph. there is another photo of the princess of wales snapped by a u.k. photo agency. the sighting just hours after kate middleton issued an apology and forcing news agency to kill the photo because it had been altered. >> you can count on one hand when you get an apology from a member of the royal family. >> reporter: prince william is keeping calm and carrying on at least publicly, sharing a giggle with queen camilla at a confidence on monday and not addressing the pr fiasco back at home. photo editors the world over have been dissecting every pixel of this photograph, finding more than a dozen consistencies, including a portion of charlotte's sleeve, hair and zipper. and look at the edges of the tiles that appear repeated. the last official outing for the 42-year-old princess was christmas day, just a few weeks before her planned abdominal surgery. two weeks later kate returned home to recuperate, but the palace never explained why she required surgery, only making clear she'd return to public duties after easter. the absence of details fuelled more questions than the palace ever expected. >> that was nbc's molly hunter reporting. now to an update on the ongoing fallout with boeing. we are learning this morning that a former employee turned whistleblower was found dead. his death comes at yet another boeing plane was involved in a mid-air mishap. tom costello has more. >> reporter: this morning, police in charleston, south carolina, tell nbc news they are aware of the death of a former boeing employee turned whistleblower. 62-year-old john barnett was found dead on friday from what the coroner calls a self-inflicted gunshot wound. he has taken legal action against the company claiming he was retaliated against for raising safety issues internally, issues that boeing denied at the time. back in 2019, barnett sat down with "today" describing a haphazard safety culture at boeing. >> from day one it's all about schedule and hurry up, get it done, push the planes out, we're behind schedule. >> reporter: in 2017 the faa released a review upholding many of barnett's concerns. with regards to his sudden death, the company released a statement writing, we are saddened with mr. barnett's passing. the latest news on monday that a 787 apparently dropped abruptly mid-flight from sydney to auckland. nbc news has confirmed the justice department has launched a criminal investigation into boeing following the blow-outdoor plug in january. the plane left the plant without critical bolts that hold the plug in place. a scathing new faa audit also found boeing failed to comply with its own quality control procedures. >> we're working with boeing and demanding they come up with a very detailed plan within the next 90 days to fix the quality issues that are out there. >> tom costello with that report. still ahead on "morning joe," a story about a russian imprisoned for 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"a gentleman in moscow" premiers march 29th on paramount plus. thank you all very much. congrats again. >> thank you. coming up, more fallout from alabama senator katie britt in her rebuttal to the state of the union. the woman referred to in britt's speech is now trying to set the record straight. the record straight. (avo) kate made progress with her mental health... ...but her medication caused unintentional movements in her face, hands, and feet called tardive dyskinesia, or td. so her doctor prescribed austedo xr— a once-daily td treatment for adults. ♪ as you go with austedo ♪ austedo xr significantly reduced kate's td movements. some people saw a response as early as 2 weeks. with austedo xr, kate can stay on her mental health meds— (kate) oh, hi buddy! 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[ laughter ] >> if you're going to stand with me, could you stand a little bit further away? >> welcome back. we are now hearing from the woman at the center of a story that senator katie britt told in her republican response to the state of the union. as a reminder, here's part of what senator britt said. >> i traveled to the del rio sector of texas. that's where i spoke to a woman who shared her story with me. she had been sex trafficked by the cartels starting at the age of 12. >> well, the woman in that story, karla jacinto romero, who now works as an activist on behalf of sex trafficking victims says britt's account is inaccurate. she said she never had a one on one discussion with britt. explaining she met the senator at an event at the southern border with other government officials. and that her abuse was not at the hands of mexican drug cartels. but instead by a pimp. romero is criticizing britt for trying to use her harrowing and graphic experience to criticize president biden's immigration policies. in an interview with cnn, romero refuted much of what britt implied during the address, stating the crimes against her occurred between 2004 and 2008, during the george w. bush administration. when biden was still a senator. she also made clear no one reached out to her to get permission to use her story. >> i hardly ever cooperate with politicians because it seems to me that they only want an image. they only want a photo. and that, to me, is not fair. i work as a spokesperson for many victims who have no voice, and i really would like them to be empathetic. all the governors, all the senators to be empathetic with the issue of human trafficking, because there are millions of girls and boys who disappear all the time, people who are really trafficked and abused as she mentioned. and i think she should first take into account what really happens before telling a story of that magnitude. >> romero also said she was never trafficked in the united states as senator britt suggested. there are so many things wrong with this, willie, from using her story, without asking permission, really weaponizing her story, then getting it completely wrong, and, again, showing herself to be a student. a student of president donald trump. lie, lie again, and when asked about the lie, lie again about the lie. that is as trumpy as it gets and it is incredibly destructive to the fabric of our society. >> and the heavy suggestion was that this incident that didn't take place happened under president biden. it did not. it took place 20 years before he was in office. as you watch this play out over the last several days, you wonder how could it be this bad? how could someone have watched the performance and rehearsal first and said let's pull back a little bit and be yourself, we know you're good when you're yourself, but the substance of it, how to get substance wrong and exploiting the story of a woman who had been sex trafficked. the people around katie britt bear a lot -- she's ultimately responsible, but how is this level of preparation allowed? >> rebuttals to the state of the union are rarely remembered unless they're heard for the wrong reasons and that's why this one will be. what a tragic event she then totally misrepresented and to not apologize, that's rule number one in trump's republican party, you never, ever apologize. and, yes, you've seen a rising star in the republican party, this was sort of devastating, mika, one for her, politically, and now one wonders we'll remember this like we remember marco rubio reaching off camera to get a glass of water in his own state of the union rebuttal, not one that reflects well on her or her party. >> i think this one is in its own category. it sort of has, yeah. in a matter of moments, former special counsel robert hur who investigated biden's handling of classified documents will testify in front of the republican-led house judiciary committee. he arrived a few moments ago. hur will be testifying as a private citizen, and not a justice department employee. he resigned yesterday. a transcript of biden's hours long interview was just released. so there is a lot going on with this. we'll be covering it live right here on msnbc. ana cabrera picks up the coverage after a quick final break. we'll see you tomorrow morning. l break. we'll see you tomorrow morning lowering bad cholesterol can be hard, even with a statin. diets and exercise add to the struggle. today, it's possible to go from struggle to cholesterol success with leqvio. with a statin, leqvio is proven to lower bad cholesterol by 50% and keep it low with 2 doses a year. common side effects were injection site reaction, joint pain, and chest cold. ask your doctor about twice-yearly leqvio. lower. longer. leqvio® ♪everything i do that's for my health is an accomplishment.♪ ♪concerns of getting screened faded away♪ ♪to my astonishment.♪ ♪my doc gave me a script i got it done without a delay.♪ ♪i screened with cologuard and did it my way.♪ cologuard is a one-of-a-kind way to screen for colon cancer that's effective and non-invasive. it's for people 45 plus at average risk, not high risk. false positive and negative results may occur. ask your provider for cologuard. ♪i did it my way!♪ business. ask your provider for cologuard. it's not a nine-to-five proposition. it's all day and into the night. it's all the things that keep this world turning. the go-tos that keep us going. the places we cheer. and check in. they all choose the advanced network solutions and round the clock partnership from comcast business. see why comcast business powers more small businesses than anyone else. get started for $49.99 a month plus ask how to get up to an $800 prepaid card. don't wait- call today. business. it's not a nine-to-five proposition. it's all day and into the night. it's all the things that keep this world turning. it's the go-tos that keep us going. the places we cheer. trust. hang out. and check in. they all choose the advanced network solutions and round the clock partnership from comcast business. powering more businesses than anyone. powering possibilities.

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