So at the top of the show under comcast tradition, we asked you, why are you awake . Producer john tower with all the answers. John. Biff writes, armstrong, teo, we cant trust anything anymore. The next thing well learn is that barnicle is a hologram. Elliott, youre looking better already, and lighten up. Lifes not that serious. Its true life isnt that serious. Next time i do the show, ill do three things. Ill put my hand through Mike Barnicle. Two, ill do the entire program through body limericks and knockknock jokes. And three morning joe starts right now. We have a recording of a phone conversation between manti and his supposed girlfriend. Ive got to be honest. Im surprised manti didnt pick up on the hoax sooner. Take a listen to this. Hey, baby, what are you up to tonight . Your call is very important. Please listen carefully as the options have changed. Yeah, im thinking i might stay in tonight. Me, too. I plan on just chilling like a villain, laughing out loud. But seriously, i miss you. I mean, that right there, i could tell something was up. I dont know. Friday, january 18th. Good morning, everyone. Im Mike Barnicle. Im here. Ive got four imaginary friends with me. Filling in here for joe and mika today. With us on set, msnbc and Time Magazine senior editor, mark halperin, National Affairs editor for new York Magazine and msnbc political analyst, john heilemann. Cohost of msnbcs the cycle, s. E. Cupp and gillian tete. Hes not real. I can tell you. Wait a minute. How did i get here . I asked siri. Ive been dating siri. I dont know. I dont care about Lance Armstrong. You have no opinion or just dismissing the whole story . But he has to be the luckiest guy in the world. Or the other way around. Manti teo comes in and just takes the whole thing away. Back when i was a kid when you talked sports stories, you talked about real things like salary disputes and ratings, not all these controversies. The manti teo thing, theres one aspect of it that i find kind of really, really interesting. And it is this. We live in a culture, if you look around today, people Walking Around on their cell phones, walking through traffic, almost getting hit by cars, texting people, we live in a noeyecontact era. So its not that surprising that someone is going to go online. That happens all the time, okay . This guy, what i think happened with this guy, first of all, i figure, hes not exactly a mensa number, right . Hes got a pretty good gpa. I dont think so. You think he was taking, like, astronomy . Mike, he almost pulled off one of the greatest hoaxes ever. Lets give him a little credit. You. Think he was in on it from the beginning, then . I tend so. Some of the details really dont make sense. And really, the media deserves all the blame here. I cant imagine being an editor at a newspaper or a magazine, seeing this story of this gorgeous stanford girl that this great Football Player met and not dispatching a reporter immediately to go meet her and put her on camera. There was just total negligence all the way around. No one knew about her until i mean, really no one knew about her until after, oh, shes dead. She died of leukemia. Thats when it became a big story. Sure. But in this day and age, it is so easy, information is at our fingertips. It is so easy to check and recheck some of this information. No record of her at stanford. Theres a lot of things you would have thought someone would have picked up on. What was your theory . You never got to your theory. Did you ever get to your full theory . Yeah, i just think you know, too many people have created this imaginary texting, tweeting world. I thought there was going to be a more elaborate theory beyond that. No. Beyond the dead girlfriend, she dies of leukemia, she was in a car crash and everything like that. Its human nature if youre a reporter. I agree with you on the media. Manti, im sorry, you know, your girlfriend, she died of leukemia and everything. Do you have her death certificate on you . Dpexactly. I need some proof. You want to talk to her family, her friends. Thats covering the story. It was him. He was the story. She turned out to be the story, didnt she . Yeah, sure did, yeah. The thing thats interesting about him and armstrong together, the media thing, both kind of on some basic level implausible stories that people, including a lot of reporters, kind of wanted to believe. There was a lot of willing suspension of disbelief in both stories. Where the basic facts, we look back on them, nothing really adds up here. But at the time people want so much to believe in these stories that theyre willing to kind of withhold skepticism. I agree. Were going to keep well get to you in a sec. Were going to stir this a little later in the program. Dave ziron of the nation will join us. One of the longestrunning lies in sports is at least partially over. Theres no doubt that Lance Armstrongs remarkable journey of comeback and triumph was a fraudulent fairy tale. In an interview aired last night with Oprah Winfrey, armstrong, the disgraced seventime Tour De France winner confessed repeatedly to cheating throughout his cycling career. Wow. Did you ever take banned substances to enhance your cycling performance . Yes. Yes or no . Was one of those banned substances epo . Yes. Did you ever blood dope or use blood transfusions to enhance your cycling performance . Yes. Did you ever use any other banned substances like testosterone . Cortisone or Human Growth Hormone . Yes. Yes or no . In all seven of your Tour De France victories, did you ever take banned substances or blood dope . Yes. Was it a big deal to you . Did it feel wrong . At the time . Mmhmm. No. It did not even feel wrong . No. Its scary. Did you feel bad about it . No. Even scarier. Did you feel in any way that you were cheating . No. The scariest. I have this exercise, because i kept hearing that youre a cheat. Im a cheat, im a cheater. And i went in and looked up i just looked up the definition of cheat. Yes. And the definition of cheat is to gain an advantage on a rival or foe, you know, that they dont have. I didnt do it that way. I viewed it as as a level Playing Field. All right. So we all have pretty much the same reaction to that. He should have looked up the definition of sociopath. Sociopath. Hes clearly got a lot of Pr Consultants and was trying to execute something there. No one could look at that and think, oh, sympathetic. You know what that reminds me of is that two years ago i went down to North Carolina prison to interview Bernie Madoff. And looking at him face to face, i asked a series of questions. And i had exactly that same robotic response in that hes been told by his pr team, he has to a, look at hes telling the truth and b, that hes sorry. You get the feeling hes almost talking about somebody else. Theres this element of detachment. And you realize that coming back to johns question, how do people sustain this . They manage to con others partly because for years, i think conning themselves, and basically dealing with lies. Theyve been compartmentalizing. And acting as if the person doing this stuff is somebody else. Now, do you think people care about this, or are these yesterday . I think they do. For me, i tend to believe rumor and hearsay when i hear it. So years ago, the first time i started hearing this innuendo of him cheating, i believed it. I thought he was a pretty bad guy. I can only imagine for the people who really believed in him and supported him and defended him that yeah, this matters. That yeah, this is going to have a really deleterious on culture and sports. But i think in another setting, hed be a wall street cheat. He could be a serial killer in another setting. Its the same kind of behaviors. Its really, really scary stuff. I have to say, im maybe at the center of the table. I dont have any sympathy for the guy, and his conduct in his life, the thuggishness and the way in which hes the way hes treated people who work for him, the way he treated journalists, people who challenged him, over the course of time, the guy exhibited a lot of horrific behavior. But i will say, this is a dirty sport. And there is something true to the fact when he says, i was leveling the Playing Field. It is the fact that almost everyone in competitive cycling at a high level is doping. And that doesnt make it right because its a rule you shouldnt break the rules. But hes not you cant say that the entire sport is made up of sociopaths. Its just not true. Theyre not all sociopaths. Theres been a systematic thing thats happened in that sport and a lot of other competitive sports where it became pervasive, and people who wanted to be at the highest level came to convince themselves that they needed to have this in order to be competitive. So in response to your question, you know, do you care . Part of the reason i think a lot of people at some level do not care is because the sport itself is not its a european sport. Blame it on the europeans. Its a european sport. Youre such a jingoist, barnicle. Its a southern european sport. Mike, its exactly the same thing that happened in baseball. And there was a period of time where a lot of players that we know, some we admire, some we dont admire, there was a period of time where, you know, a lot of really players who had been great players absolutely. Decided barry bonds, would have been one of the great players in the history of baseball whether he ever took a drug in his life. Prior to the moment he decided he needed to juice. You know, there was a period of time in baseball where we all watched it happen, and it wasnt a small thing. It wasnt aberrational. It wasnt like there were a couple random sociopaths. It was dozens of players on every team. The big difference, before we get to the rest of the armstrong story, is in baseball, no one said anything. Owners didnt say anything. Other players didnt say anything. In cycling with armstrong, a lot of people were saying stuff. In many ways thats why it was so instructive because many people think that finance on wall street has been rigged explicitly or implicitly, and yet its taken a long time until we discovered somebody like Bernie Madoff. To my mind, one of the most interesting issues with the interview with armstrong is he felt this need to keep control. He had to control the environment. He had to control the situation. And that, again, is so similar to madoff. Sports is filled with cheating and Everybody Knows it, but there is an aspect of this story that oprah asked Lance Armstrong which is about in order to cover up, he told a lot of lies. That included emma oreilly, armstrongs former masseuse. She said lance, quote, tried to make her life a living hell after she went public with some of the details of his doping operation. What do you want to say about emma oreilly . Hey, she shes one of these people that i have to apologize to. Mmhmm. Shes one of these people that got run over, got bullied. Yeah. Isnt she you sued her. To be honest, oprah, we sued so many people, im sure we did. Youre suing people and you know that theyre telling the truth. What is that . Its its a major flaw, and its a guy who expected to get whatever he wanted and to control every outcome. Its inexcusable. And thats when i say that there are people that will hear this and will never forgive me, i understand that. Chilling. You know, its a major flaw. Im sorry, emma, you know. Sorry i sued you. Its part of my scheme. Pretty cold. You dont always get a grasp on the Ripple Effect of some of these scandals. They feel immensely personal. You can sort of dismiss them because its just sports. If you look at recent hall inductions or noninductions, mike piazza really suffered at the hands of everyone else in that circle at the time. He suffered from innuendo about juicing when there was really no proof that he did. Yes, im sticking up for mike piazza, barnicle. Im a fan. Im a huge fan. And i dont know that hell ever get into the hall. He might. I hope he would. But the sort of Ripple Effect of these stories goes beyond just the people in your personal life, goes beyond just the press. It goes to people whose entire reputations get impugned because of the actions of a few. And yet if you are a sociopath, what you do is block out the feelings of others. And you have such tunnel vision and you basically create your own world and your split world inside your head. Thats what was going on for years. In many ways its a huge pr disaster for armstrong because he comes across as such a robotic, uncaring figure. If he had at least cried or looked as if he was sorry. Having watched that should he not have done it, do you think . Personally, i think it was a mistake to do it like this particularly on Oprah Winfrey which is supposed to be about showing your emotions. Outstays on rehearsals, they executed just the way they had it planned. What happens when sociopath merges with megalomania . Tiger woods . Bernie madoff. The Baseball Hall last week made me think about this lets leave manti out of this. The thing with all sports and all society have to reckon with at some point is the fact that the technology and science are going to raise these questions over and over again as we go forward. Because its not totally clear where you start where you draw the lines. Right now we think tommy johns surgery is okay, even though you come back with a stronger arm than you had before. Thats a medical enhancement. Thats not something thats part of your natural gift. Thats something that you earned. At some point well have laser surgery that will allow them to see better. Is that a drug . Is that something you should be allowed to have or not . People will be able to do things scientifically, technologically to their bodies to make them better performers without any effort. So where do the lines get drawn . How do we figure out how to cope with the march of science . Like a futurologist. Last month Bartolo Colon, came back from a 93 miles an hour. Thats okay but hgh isnt. Again, where do the lines get drawn . The reason im here today is because i had my blood spun last night. Juicing. Im on a little hamster wheel that makes the spinning happen. And all the pop tarts. Please, you shared them with me. The foil wrapping. Coming up, nbc news political director, chuck todd, the Washington Posts Gene Robinson, the moderator of meet the press, David Gregory and the ceo of whole foods, john mackey will be here. Up next, the politico playbook. First, bill karins. Bill, it is winter. Youre going to tell us its going to get cold. This is a real bulletin. Yeah, almost like armstrongs confession, right . Couldnt see that one coming. Yes, you do need to be prepared for it. And this morning theres one slippery spot out there after the snow in virginia and income new york, watch out for black ice. Cape cod got clipped by a little snow. You may see flurries in new york city, philadelphia during the day, pennsylvania and definitely near buffalo. But the big story is whats going to happen the end of this weekend into the beginning of next week. Were in a mild weather pattern right now. It lasts today, tomorrow. By the time we get to next week, a huge plunge of cold air just blasts down from canada all the way through the Northern Plains, great lakes, ohio valley and into the northeast. Heres your forecast today. A beautiful day. Enjoy it while it lasts. This is the last warm day youll see for a long time in minneapolis and all through wisconsin. Even chicago, well get much colder over the weekend. Saturday is your last warm day in chicago. Look at the east coast. No problems at all. 47 in d. C. 48 in new york. Florida is warm. Texas is nice. But then by sunday, thats when that frigid air mass comes down. A high of only five in minneapolis. Some of that cold air will make its way to washington, d. C. , for the inauguration. Thats at noon on monday. Calling for a sun and cloud mix, maybe a flurry or two. Temperature, 34 with windchills in the 20s. It will be chilly in d. C. For the inauguration. But overall, no problems whatsoever for the events, the pageantry and that big parade. 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Now we know how jared lost all that weight he starved to death subway, it is over. Im going to be keeping you honest by measuring every sandwich with the most accurate means possible, my fruit by the foot. I dont know, Lance Armstrong, manti teo, now subway sandwiches. Who can you trust . My world is crushed. Lets take a look at the morning papers. The financial times. Chinas Economic Growth has hit its slowest rate in 13 years. Still the countrys gdp grew by 7. 8 . Economists say it could have been worse. They note amid concerns of a slowdown, chinas government has spurred heavy investment in inf infrastructure. Usa today. Congress, inexperienced. 40 of lawmakers in the house have fewer than three years experience. The lowest number since at least 1995. As a result, new members are often receiving Committee Assignments that previously t