up early on way too early. morning joe starts right now. relief. excitement. joy. i m very proud of our fellow kansans. we were telling people in neighboring states that their rights were no longer intact. they had to flee their states to get care. the cards were set against us from the start. as a husband i do not look forward to trusting the legislature to protect the rights of my wife. we re avoiding a huge horror that would have come to kansas. one of the things i heard, you may be against abortion for yourself, but you can t be against it and make it for someone else. this is my life on the line, too, is this my right. tonight, we get to say to kansans, you can still get care here, you re still recognized and make your own medical decisions. reaction from kansas last night, as voters turned out in high numbers to protect abortion rights in that conservative state. it was the country s first best of the issue since the supreme court overturned roe v.
Save face? you know, a big deal. she can t come, we ll freak out. she came, she met with the president. it was very high profile. and so, he looks pretty bad right now, how does he save face? and is this because of that a dangerous moment? yeah, i think china is going to have to cause things to go boom in the taiwan straits. in other words, i think they re going to run some exercises and fire off missiles but i think they re going to quietly transmit to the biden administration or directly to the channels at the embassy that, hey, we re not looking to escalate the situation. we re not lacking for military conflict. after a couple of days i think they re going to back down. i think richard is exactly right, xi jinping is taking enormous risk. in every place in history you look, chinese leaders often step back from the line of risk. this leader is looking to the line of congress to solidify his position and take more risk.
Of congress did and through the year, meeting the president of taiwan. going to the inauguration of the president of taiwan. and they said nothing, and now this massive overreach where they backed themselves into a corner and embarrassed themselves. i wonder why are there no political repercussions for him inside the chinese communist party. when you look at even with the zero covid policy, his policies have been disastrous for china over the past five years. joe, you re right. you know, we can argue today whether this is about arrogance, or whether about insecurity. i think it s important to remember, the economy has slowed dramatically, and china had economic success, high economic growth was for years the principal source for political legitimacy in china. taiwan also represents a
List, whether you re a conservative or progressive, we should be able to get together on the president s agenda, like we did last night in the senate and ensure that we do the right thing. thank you so much, secretary of the va denis mcdonough, so great to have you again. thank you, joe. congratulations. and congratulations most importantly to those veterans who so desperately need this care that, really they were promised when they first enlisted they would be taken care of. for some reason, so many republicans stood in the way of it which leads to the next question, john heilemann, it s not hyperbole to say that you have republicans in congress, republicans in state legislatures, that are taking opposing sides to rape victims, to incest victims to getting to the bottom of what happened on
Liberal, western market-oriented democratic model, which just inherently and intrinsically is a threat to xi jinping and his rule. there s no one who can push back against him right now. and he s the most powerful chinese leader since mao. a lot is about him. you re right, he could have ignored the pelosi trip. we would not have having this segment had it not been for china s reaction. i think this is about the problems that this leadership is facing. it s own insecurity. the growth of nationalism which will they ve ripped up. and now in some ways is putting pressure on them as he tried to get this unprecedented third term, which he will get, that the party needs and congress in a couple of months. this is not about nancy pelosi. this is all about the leadership in china at this moment in history. jeremy, how do you think this plays out? how does xi at this point try to