that would be fit for public release. that is nowhere in the rules. i was to prepare a confidential report that was comprehensive and thorough of -- >> what is in the rules, mr. hur -- what is in the rules is you don't gratuitously do things to -- you don't add language you know would be useful in a political campaign. you weren't born yesterday. you understood exactly what you were doing. >> that's democratic congressman adam schiff pressing former special counsel robert hur on his choice of words in his report on president biden's handling of classified documents. we'll have much more on the political theater from that high stakes hearing in just a moment. meanwhile, on capitol hill today, the house is set to vote on a bill that could ban one of the most popular apps in america. plus, we'll have the latest on the cease-fire negotiations between israel and hamas, which appear to remain stalled now two days into ramadan. good morning and welcome to "way too early" on this wednesday, march 13th. i'm jonathan lemire. thanks for starting your day with us. and we'll begin with it's predictable but important news. the general election rematch between president joe biden and former president donald trump is all but official this morning. that's because nbc news projects both men now have enough delegates to win their respective party's nominations following their latest primary wins. last night president biden was projected to become the presumptive democratic nominee after a victory in the georgia democratic primary. and just hours later trump was projected to secure his spot as the presumptive republican presidential nominee after he won the gop primary in washington state. after last night's wins, president biden issued a lengthily statement that argued that the, quote, threat trump poses is greaterthen ever. he went onto write this. donald trump is running a campaign of resentment, revenge, and retribution that threatens the very idea of america. voters now have a choice to make the future of this country. are we going to stand up and defend our democracy or let others tear it down? will we restore the right to choose and protect our freedoms or let extremists take them away? i believe that the american people will choose to keep us moving into the future. with every crisis, america has always emerged stronger and more united on the other side. this november will be no different and i believe we will do it together. meanwhile, in a nearly 4-minute video posted to social media, trump celebrated last night's results and went after joe biden. >> this was a great day of victory. last week was something special, super tuesday. but now we have to get back to work because we have the worst president in the history of our country. his name is joe biden, sometimes referred to as crooked joe biden, and he must be defeated. to the main event in washington now where house lawmakers grilled special counsel robert hur for more than four hours yesterday about his investigation into president biden's handling of classified documents. in a marathon hearing of the house judiciary committee, hur stood by the conclusions he outlined in a report last month that biden should not be criminally charged, and that the president demonstrated severe memory problems while he was being interviewed. yesterday house republicans tried to get hur to admit that the president was senile while democrats accused the trump appointed prosecutor of showing parsonship in his report. >> mr. hur, based on your report did you find that the president was senile? >> i did not -- that conclusion does not appear in my report, congressman. >> unfortunately, you are part of the praetorian guard that guards the swamp out here in washington, d.c., protecting the elites. and joe biden is part of that company of the elites. >> you find in your report that the elements of a federal criminal violation are met, but then you apply this senile cooperator theory. >> congressman, i need to disagree with at least one thing you said, which is i found all the elements were met. >> we get this glaring double standard. the fact the only person being prosecuted for this offense happens to be the president's political opponent makes this an unprecedented assault on our democracy. >> house republicans may be desperate to convince america that white conservative men are on the losing end of a two tiered justice system, a theory that has no basis in reality. >> you said to president biden you have -- appear to have a photographic understanding and recall of the house. did you say that to president biden? >> those words do appear on page 47 of the transcript. >> photographic is what you said, is that right? >> that word does appear on page 47 of the transcript. >> never appeared in your report, though, is that right, the word photographic? >> that does not appear in my report. >> i now want to show you and play a video of what is absolutely not photographic. >> in the failing new york times by an anonymous really gutless cowered. we are a nation that just recently heard that saudi arabia and russia will -- i hope they now go and take a look at the oranges or the oranges of the investigation. and i watch our police and our firemen down at 7-eleven, down at the world trade center. this is the very definition of totalarianism. let me wish you a beautiful -- do you remember? god bless the united states. the windmills are driving them crazy. they're driving the whales i think a little batty. >> to reiterate president biden was not charged criminally for mishandling classified documents. president trump was. joining us now msnbc justice and legal affairs analyst, anthony coaly. he was most recently the top spokesman at the department of justice under attorney general merrick garland. anthony, thanks for joining us. let's start with some of your broad take-aways from yesterday's hearing. what do you think? >> yes, so every mistake isn't a crime. that was the central take away of robert hur's report. and despite all the political rhetoric we just heard, that still broke through yesterday, in my opinion. the other thing that was clear, there was also a lot of talk about this critical commentary about biden's mental acuity. i think that was extraordinarily bad judgment, jonathan. and i'm a person who i worked at the justice department, i had conversations with robert hur just as he was about to take this -- just as he was about to take this appointment. and it's clear to me like we all had high hopes. and it's clear to me, though, that he didn't meet those hopes. he -- this language he included was not consistent with the best systems of the justice department. i do think merrick garland made a mistake in his appointment. >> you were at doj when this came about. some said hur much like james comey was when he intervened in 2016. tell me why you think it was a mistake stoo. >> so a good prosecutor follows the facts and the law, and they have a -- and they go wherever the facts and the law tell them to go, right? they also have sound judgment on the facts and the law, robert hur got it right. it's not appropriate for joe biden to be charged in this situation, but on the other hand this sound judgment, this is not what prosecutors typically do or include this language when you're not charging someone. now, about this tension between the doj and the white house. i think you wrote a piece on this in politico a couple weeks ago as well. there's always tension between doj and the white house. there's always tension. i was old enough to remember even during the obama administration with eric holder. you remember his nation of cowards speech? there were senior people at the white house who wanted eric holder fired. that's the predicate. what's interesting now, jonathan, is that this tension is starting to build, spill over in public. and it's coming at an inopportune time for the president. in your piece you had well-sourced folks within the white house and within the biden orbit. and quite frankly that is not in the president's interests right now. democrats have one job in 2024, and that is to get joe biden re-elected. everything else is a distraction, and so these anonymous quotes we're seeing from the white house, from certain allies of the president, they're counter productive, and quite frankly folks need to cut it out. >> yesterday ended seemingly with both parties unhappy with hur. republicans are not going to give up this issue, the president's mental ability to handle the office and the white house feels like between the "state of the union" yesterday, they're hoping to start to turn the page. >> if you go back and look a week ago even before the "state of the union" address, there was this -- this idea about the president's mental acuity. it was front page. but the president to his credit effectively dealt with that. 32 million americans saw joe biden for themselves last thursday, and i think they were pretty impressed with what they saw. they don't need some transcript or anything like that to tell them what their eyes told them. >> yeah, the transcript reveals both men didn't quite represent in their public comments what happened. and let's undersquoer again only one former president has been charged with mishandling classified documents. and that's donald trump. nbc news justice and legal affairs analyst thank you for being here today and starting us off. meanwhile, donald trump reportedly floated the idea of selling his social media platform last summer and to guess who? he asked elon musk it if he would he interested in buying truth social. also notes the discussion came up while trump's media company was trapped in a long delayed merger process. "the post" reports trump's media company did not address any of the facts in the story when asked and trump's campaign did not respond to a request for comment. the paper also asks musk about the truth social offer as well as other conversations he's had with the former president, to which musk responded only that he had, quote, never been to mar-a-lago. it's worth noting "the new york times" reports musk met with trump in palm beach, florida, earlier this month along with a few other wealthy republican donors. still ahead here, what we're learning about a new weapons package for ukraine, the first since funding ran out late last year. plus, the republican majority in the house of representatives is about to get a little bit smaller. we'll talk about the significance of congressman ken buck's retirement and what it could mean for the party. those stories and a check on weather and sports when we come right back. on weather and sports when we come right back 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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[dog whimpers] [thinking] why always the couch? does he need to go to puppy school? get his little puppy diploma? how much have i been spending on this little guy? when your questions about life turn into questions about money... there's erica. the virtual financial assistant to help you spend, save, and plan smarter. only from bank of america. 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. 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. welcome back. as we turn to some news from overseas. and it appears israel and hamas are not making any progress since striking a cease-fire deal. negotiators had been hoping an agreement would be reached before the start of ramadan which was monday. now a qatari official says while discussions are continuing, a deal is not imminent. hamas is still demanding a permanent end to war, which israel is rejecting. instead prime minister benjamin netanyahu is doubling down on his goal to wipeout hamas' military, vowing to press forward a ground offensive into the southern gaza sit of rafah. cia director william burns briefed the house intelligence committee on the cease-fire talks. burns just returned from a trip to the region to negotiate the release of the hostages. he told lawmakers there's still a chance a deal can be reached, but it's difficult to bridge the gap between israel and hamas, saying i don't think anybody can guarantee success. the only thing i think you can guarantee is that the alturnbative is worse with president biden leaning on netanyahu to not go forward with that invasion and weapons package and aid package. if they do hamas is the one who refuses to sign this cease-fire deal. mean wheel, the president has also announced a$3 million weapons package for ukraine. according to officials the package will include ammunition, anti-armor missiles, anti-aircraft and spare parts. defense officials say this is one time arrangement made through savings with contracts with lawmakers. the biden administration is working to find ways to help ukraine as the country faces dire weapons shortages in its fight against russia. meanwhile, president biden hosted poland's president and prime minister at the white house yesterday to mark 25 years since poland joined nato. in public remarks at the outset of the meeting president biden praised poland's commitment to the alliance. he noted while nato members are supposed to commit 2% of their gdp each year to their defense spending, poland spends roughly double that. poland called on other allies to take more responsibility for the security alliance as a whole while asking for that 2% number to be raised to 3%. the ap reports that president biden also informed the polish leaders the u.s. plans to move forward a loan deal that would allow that country to purchase american-made helicopters and all of these leaders, again, stress the need to support ukraine. still ahead, we'll bring you a stunning upset in women's college hoops plus the knicks blow out the 76ers and pull out defense defeat that hadn't happened in more than a decade. we'll bring you the latest in free agency when we come right back. e latest in free agency when we come 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. got to put it up. and it'll do it. are you kidding me? the pilots do it again. >> that's number 14 ganzaga missing the game winner three-pointer at the buzzer as portland pulls off what might the biggest upset in championship week. portland lost to ganzaga by 50 but yet beat the bull dogs in the west coast conference game for the second straight year and earned a bid to the ncaa tournament. meanwhile on the men's side the 17th ranked ganzaga did not fair any better to end the streak. both the ganzaga men and women still likely to go to march madness. we turn to nba and begin msg right here in new york city and a welcome return to the court for the knicks who's back in action after missing 18 games because of an elbow injury. he helped them bounce back from a 73-point performance on sunday as they beat the 76ers last night 106-79. the knicks are the last team in over a decade. to los angeles now anthony edwards -- excuse me, led the minnesota timberwolves scoring a game high 37 and in last night's 118-100 win over the clippers. minnesota mounted its rally following kaua'i lennards early exit. they avoided their first three game losing streak. now to nfl free agency and another reminder that running backs still carry some value. the baltimore ravens are adding two time russian champion derek henry to their league leading attack. a two-year $16 million deal with the former tennis and titan star. henry could help lighten the load for the mvp quarterback who has led the raves in rushing each of the past five seasons. nfl free agent starting to slow down but several good players. time now for the weather and let's to meteorologist angie lassman. mild around r around here but i see spring on the board. >> we've got heavy snow and some difficult travel on tap with all these winter alerts across parts of the rockies. 5 million people included in that, and this is the system going to bring the heavy snow and the potential for some strong to severe storms to develop late into the day today. that will be across the plains, but we're not done with it tomorrow either. we've still got the heavy snow across the rockies, the rains will stretch from it plains to midwest and that's where we'll once again have a chance to see some strong storms. today the bulls eye across portions of of the plains, kansas city, the biggest impact looking at the potential for large hail just like what we saw yesterday. we'll see this spread a little farther, include a whole lot more people here especially as we get into tomorrow. places like little rock, springfield, st. louis, all included in this threat for this thursday, more hail, damaging wind gusts and a threat for potential tornados out there as well. this is something we watch into the evening hours tomorrow. and of course we've still got the dry conditions, the windy conditions, all of that leading to the perfect kind of forecast for fires. we do see an extreme risk of fires centered right around amarillo. this is going to be something we'll watch through the day today. we'll note the wildfires are going to be easy to spread. it's something they're concerned about in that region. >> we'll definitely keep an eye on that as fire season starts. still ahead on "way too early" house lawmakers are set to vote on a bill today that could ban the social media app tiktok. we'll bring you the latest from capitol hill next. we'll bring y capitol hill next. help fuel today with boost high protein, complete nutrition you need... ...without the stuff you don't. so, here's to now. boost. - so this is pickleball? - pickle! ah, these guys are intense. with e*trade from morgan stanley, we're ready for whatever gets served up. dude, you gotta work on your trash talk. i'd rather work on saving for retirement. or college, since you like to get schooled. that's a pretty good burn, right? (crowd cheers) sore throat got your tongue? mucinex instasoothe sore throat medicated drops. uniquely formulated for rapid relief that lasts and lasts. that's my babyyy! -ow! get mucinex instasoothe. it's comeback season. my name is oluseyi and some of my favorite moments throughout my life are watching sports with my dad. now, i work at comcast as part of the team that created our ai highlights technology, which uses ai to detect the major plays in a sports game. giving millions of fans, like my dad and me, new ways of catching up on their favorite sport. welcome back to "way too early." it's a little before 5:30 a.m. on the east coast, 2:30 out west on this wednesday morning. i'm jonathan lemire. thanks for being with us. to washington now where republican congressman ken buck has uh-uh nounced he's leaving congress at the end of next week in a move that will further shrink his party's slim majority. his departure will cut the house republican margin to just 218 out of the chamber's 435 seats. now, the colorado lawmaker had previously announced he would retire at the end of his term, but he broke the news yesterday about his about to be immediate retirement on social media, and he caught some colleagues off-guard. >> congressman buck, talk to me a bit what has frustrated you so much about this era of politics, and particularly congress, what's made it so difficult? >> you really need me to say that? you need me to explain what's so difficult about this? i was as you see number 3 in the seniority on that committee and i asked questions last. and you need me to explain what is so complicated about that or how we try to impeach somebody for a difference in policy. we take impeachment as a social media issue. this place just keeps going downhill and i don't need to spend my time here. >> speaker mike johnson will continue to have two votes to spare before needing to rely on democrats to govern. now in just a few hours the house will vote on a bipartisan bill that could ban tiktok in the united states. the vote's expected to take place at 10:00 a.m., and right now house leaders are confident that they have the votes to pass it. the bill would ban tiktok from american app stores if the social media giant does not divest from its chinese parent company, bytedance. if the bill does pass today, it will then go onto the senate where its future remains unclear. tiktok as you might imagine is actively fighting against the bill. the app's ceo will meet with senators in washington today and tomorrow. the platform is also looking to mobilize its millions of users showing pop up screens like this as the app opens. the message urges users to call their representatives and stop a tiktok shutdown. lawmakers have been flooded with calls since the ad campaign began. in a joint statement the lead sponsors of the bill in the house slammed the notice saying it was deceiving american people about bipartisan legislation. tiktok responded on social media writing, quote, it's shameful members of congress would complain about hearing from their own constituents. joining us now nbc news congressional correspondent juli sirkin. thank you for joining us this morning. let's talk about this tiktok bill. it does appear to have the votes needed to pass the house. give us your on what might lie ahead in the senate. >> have you heard in the last year banning tiktok. of course as you explain this wouldn't lead immediately to a ban. they want to force the company to divest from its chinese based owners in six months. tiktok saying of course that would result in a ban because the company does not want to sell tiktok which 170 million users a month in the u.s. use. it's an a glide path in the house. it's fast tracked under suspension of the rules. it had that unanimous vote in the committee. just under a week prior yesterday you had intelligence officials briefing house members, telling them about the concerns this app poses to americans, the risks that it poses. later in the house yesterday, though, you did have four members of congress, progressives, also some of the youngest members rallying with tiktok influencers outside trying to stop this bill from passing. but of course we do anticipate it, according to my sources, to pass in the house today. even in the senate, it looks it could have a fair shot there. you have john thune endorse the idea even though there's more trepidation from the former president. it's unclear if they will fast track it. trying to meet with senators. it's not clear how many of them, jonathan, will actually take that meeting. >> it's really an extraordinary moment, one of the most popular apps out there. its fate hangs in the balance. we'll of course keep you posted here on msnbc how that goes later this morning. julie, you also have reporting, though, on democrats in the house trying to pass a discharge petition trying to get money particularly to ukraine. tell us more about it, and does this thing have a chance to pass? >> well, that's a really good question. look, jonathan, it's an uphill battle. i'm sure you know that. our viewers who have been paying attention to this of course know that as well. this is a foreign aid bill passed by the senate weeks ago that would unlock funding to ukraine which is critical. the administration has been saying for weaks and weeks they're running out of ammo, low on artillery. just yesterday they approved $300 million to send them some ammos overseas. in a moment congress has so much pressure to make this happen, and democrats in the house clearly getting frustrated by republicans who control the house with a very narrow majority, as you just outlined even more narrow ken buck leaving. they've refused to put the senate aid bill on the floor. in a closed door meeting the democratic leader jeffreys told his democratic colleagues, he said, listen, everybody should sign onto this discharge petition. it needs 218 signatures in order to make its way on the floor and force the republican leadership's hand in putting the bill on the floor, but also needs some republicans because progressives some already talked to like pramilla jaypal said as well they're not going to support it because of the unconditional aid to israel. when you look at the other side of the aisle and republicans are planning, we have reported on friday some republicans want a nonrepayment plan when it comes to nonlethal aid to ukraine. democrats in the senate don't want that to happen, even the republican leader in the senate said yesterday he prefers the house take up the senate passed bill. obviously the leverage is not that great in the house among speaker johnson and republicans, jonathan, but we'll see what happens. >> certainly updates from europe, ukraine, but able to land some drone strikes in russia. but on the battlefield losing ground and running out of ammunition. congressional correspondent for nbc news, julie sirken, thank you for your reporting this morning. still ahead we'll go live to cnbc for an early look what's driving the markets this morning plus how boeing's safety crisis is affecting growth plans for other airlines this year and what it means for the health of the industry overall. we'll be right back with business news. dustry overall we'll be right back with business news. 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. ♪i'm hearing different ways for me to screen for colon cancer.♪ ♪it's time to use my voice,♪ ♪i've got a choice, more than one answer.♪ ♪i sat down with my doc.♪ we had a talk. ♪knew just what to say.♪ ♪i asked for 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!♪ rsv can severely affect the lungs and lower airways. but i'm protected with arexvy. arexvy is a vaccine used to prevent lower respiratory disease from rsv in people 60 years and older. rsv can be serious for those over 60, including those with asthma, diabetes, copd, and certain other conditions. but i'm protected. arexvy is proven to be over 82% effective in preventing lower respiratory disease from rsv and over 94% effective in those with these health conditions. arexvy does not protect everyone and is not for those with severe allergic reactions to its ingredients. those with weakened immune systems may have a lower response to the vaccine. the most common side effects are injection site pain, fatigue, muscle pain, headache, and joint pain. i chose arexvy. rsv? make it arexvy. 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 now for business and for that let's bring in cnbc's arabile gumede who joins us live from london. good morning, arabile. stock futures seen little change this morning after wall street saw the s&p 500 close at a new record high. so give us a sense, please, as to what's driving the market. >> yeah, so this market has really moved to that record high, again, right after two days of shaky market movement on the back of tech stocks really losing. what's managed to push them higher? it was those tech stocks again. nvidia managing to move up more than 7% and the last 5.6% on friday, 2% on monday. tuesday's trade was just that recovery and that rebound that saw the market actually move quite consistently higher. even managed to gain around 10% actually in the trading picture. still have worries, though, on the other side. and this is boeing and that stock price around 5% weaker on the day. overall the market sentiment was coming from that cpi print. inflation numbers coming off the top line figure, the headline figure. there was an expectation it would be 3.1% which was january then but the market a bit hotter than anticipated. 0.4% was the core number which excludes things like energy costs then as well. so that kind of gives you a clear sense then things are still a bit hot in the u.s. economy should i say. that might still hold off when interest rate cuts might happen. june is still anticipated to be when the first cut might occur. >> yeah, such an important story line to follow particularly in an election year. so let's hit a couple other headlines now. some of boeing's largest customers are reevaluating their financial forecasts for the year. tell us why. >> yeah, that's because boeing is saying number one they've put out 27 aircrafts, they gave 27% air crafts to their customers then who had ordered those, but that pails in comparson to the 49 that airbus was able to put out actually in the same month. and like you said some of the customers actually not too happy with how things are going. the likes of united airlines have told boeing to stop building the 737 max 10, which is the next generation of planes that boeing had tried to put out. then instead united airlines are going to try to opt for the airbus se8321. they're moving onto their rivals here. the ceo saying boeing deliveries are going to be way behind this year. some of the things for southwest they're planning to cut this year including job cuts in some places as well, reviewing spending plans. alaska airlines says its outlook remains influx due to lack of deliveries. delta airlines say they're going to look to the airbus a321 instead. clearly this is a dire situation for it. the stock is down maybe 50% in five years but significantly 30% year to date down for boeing. >> truly a crisis for that company with ramifications for lots of others. we will follow it in the weeks ahead. cnbc's arabile gumede live from london, thank you always. next up here on "way too early," as donald trump clenches the republican nomination he's ramping up his anti-migrant rhetoric. we'll take a look at his latest comments and the impact it's having on voters. we'll be right back. nd the impas having on voters we'll be right back. complete nutrition you need... ...without the stuff you don't. so, here's to now. boost. 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talk to us if you will about what's motivating trump's base right now. >> i think this is really important question, jonathan, and it's so great to see you this morning because we tend to focus on trump's autocratic tendenciesch we focus on his personality, his quirks, his failings. but i think we need to pay more attention to the ideology he's appealing to, and that is the sense of grievance and hatred, the sense that what we talked about in 2022 as great replacement theory, right, that somehow these people from elsewhere, these dark and brown people are coming to replace white christians. and donald trump is appealing to that underlying sense people are losing their nation. and that notion of this kind of immigrant influx, this invasion has a kind of global kind of currency across the west. and this is central to say say orban's popularity. right after the buffalo mass shooting orban went on television on may 16th in 2022 in hungary and basically agreed with the ideology and manifesto of the buffalo shooter. and so there's these intimate connections here that we have to begin to unpack. zblp and you mentioned orban, who you've highlighted before, trump idlizes him, and orban is a symbol of white christian nationalallism. talk to us if you will about the threat white christian nationalallism poses here in the united states particularly if trump were to take office again. >> right, i think this is really important. your colleague at politico, heidi prez bola, has reported on this in very, very clear and i think compelling ways that has become in some ways the target, right? she's showing the connection between these forces who believe that the u.s. should be a kind of christian nation run by christian principles as they understand those principles. we see it in the alabama, you know, justice decision with regards to ivf informed by in some ways the kind of christian nationalallism, right? we see it in project 2025 where 100 right-wing organizations signed onto this draft, jonathan, suggesting that the u.s. government should be run by christian principles. and what's interesting is that those christian principles are overdetermined by the adjective. what do i mean? it's not just simply christianity, it's white christianity, and that ideology of whiteness and this ideology god sanctions a white nation, right, undermines or let me say undergirds so much of the ideology trump is putting forward here, and i think we have to spend some time there as we think about the autocratic tendencies of donald trump. >> lastly, just talk to us about something we've tried to hammer home here on "way too early" and "morning joe" about the stakes of this election. the stakes and how the that's s. i was reading the july 51852 address the other day. there's a line in the address. he says there's a horrible monster call coiled tight in the nation's boss some. a horrible reptile coiled tight in the nation's boozement. so we are here in this moment where that coiled tight reptile that is threatening democracy, threatening to choke the life out of democracy since its beginning, has revealed its head again. and in 1852, he begged us to tear it away from our hearts. and today in this election, we must try to do it again. can you imagine? is so many years later, we must desperately do it again. >> professor at princeton university, an important conversation this morning, thank you so much for joining us. >> thank you. up next here on "way too early," we'll discuss president biden's meeting with the teamsters as he tries to win the support of one of the largest labor unions in the country and through the midwest. and coming up on "morning joe," president biden and donald trump clinch their respective party's nominations once again. our panel of political experts will weigh in on what's at stake this time around. and also ahead, both the u.s. ambassador to turkey, jeff flake, and the u.s. ambassador to poland, are guests. plus a new film, "morning joe" just a moments away. film, joe" just a moments away 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. 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have diabetes? with the freestyle libre 3 system... you'll know your glucose and where it's headed. no fingersticks needed. now covered by medicare for more people managing diabetes with insulin. visit freestylelibre.us/medicare. welcome back. president biden held a clezed-door meeting with the teamsters leadership as the union weighs its 2024 endorsement. the teamsters which represent transportation workers endorsed biden in 2020 and hillary clinton in 2016. however, the union's president said he would look into their options this cycle. according to the teamsters vice president, biden made labor issues and social security the focal point of his pitch. joining us now is white house reporter for the "wall street journal" ken thomas. thank you so much for joining us this morning. so the teamsters are simply not just handing democrats their endorsement. trump is trying to court it as well. tell us more about that meeting, what the teamsters are thinking and whether the president and his allies think he made an effective pitch. >> the teamsters have had had a really open process through this campaign. they met recently with former president trump. they have met with some of the other candidates in the field. they sat down with president biden in private yesterday. i was at the meeting jofr wards and spoke to the union president and he said they have to follow that process. they are going to pull their members, but don't look for an endorsement any time soon. in the past, they have traditionally endorsed after the summer conventions in august. i think that's the timetable that they are looking at as well. i think within labor circles, most people expect the teamsters to ultimately endorse president biden here, but the fact that they are showing an openness creates this potential coup for former president trump if he was able to secure their endorsement as the campaign is just about to kick off in the fall. >> if the leadership backs biden the rank and file will support trump. president biden now the presumptivive democrat you can nominee is making a swing state push, two vital states on the map, part of that blue wall. preview for us what the president's message will be and reiterate the stakes of these two states. >> he's going to be in milwaukee today. he's got an official event where he's talking about infrastructure and ways of helping low-income communities that had been displaced by highways and train lineses and things like that. he's going to be doing some campaign events in the area as well. tomorrow he's going to be in saginaw, michigan, which is a bell weather region of state. it's gone with the winner of that state in multiple cycles now. that's going to be more a local stop, meeting with people in coffee houses and that sort of thing. these are key states for the campaign. i think probably the clearest path to 270 electoral votes is maintaining pennsylvania, wisconsin, and michigan. they can afford to lose some of the other states like arizona, nvds, georgia, but they really need that blue wall to reach 270. so there's going to be a heavy focus on that. next week, we're going to see the president out west. they are amping up their advertising. they are hiring more workers this month. so this is a really chemoto build for the biden campaign. >> a lot of travel, a lot of fundraising, they have all this cash advantage over trump. lastly, we opened the show talking about the special counsel's appearance before congress. the white house had a rapid response team. now that the hearing has come and gone, what's your sense for how they think it went and will have any impact on the campaign? >> i think overall, they feel that it went pretty well. there was some talk of whether you put out the transcript or not. they made the decision to release it yesterday morning at the start of the hearing. so i think that the details in the transcript sort of got merged together with what we saw in the hearing. i think the campaign and the white house feels like they can move on now and that the state of the union address answered a lot of the questions that the report raised in terms of the president's abilities, hiss memory and that sort of thing. >> the questions about his vitality, he's going to be on the road a lot this week and next. those are chances to prove that as well. ken thomas, thank you. we appreciate it. and thanks to all of you for getting up "way too early" with us on this wednesday morning. "morning joe" starts right now. herself refused to engage in hypotheticals, but he released the transcript of his interviews with the president. and what do you know? it's not as old man forgets a lot as his summary made it out to be. at one point he complicated biden's memory saying, you appear to have the photographic understanding and recall. so the exact opposite of his report summary. at this point, i'm worried about his cognitive ability. did anyone ask