Good morning, welcome to morning joe. Its wednesday, march 13th. We have so much more to get to with that hearing yesterday on capitol hill. Democrats pressed the former Special Counsel on his language about President Bidens memory while republicans wanted to know why the president wasnt charged. Meanwhile, also on capitol hill, today the who house is expected to vote on a bill that could lead to a ban on one of the most popular apps in america. Well explain that legislation. Well also get analysis on the alarming comments from russian president Vladimir Putin this morning about the threat to use nuclear weapons. Hes saying that if russias sovereignty or independence is threatened, he will use nukes. Good morning, everybody. Along with willie and me, we have the host of wasteway, bureau chief at politico jonathan louisiana mere. Msnbc contributor Mike Barnacle and jonathan martin. Great group this morning. Also has President Biden announced a new Weapons Package for ukraine. According
plus on to the senate now for a big bipartisan breakthrough. a month scramble of meetings, breakdowns and near rebellions leads to 314 yes in the house on a deal to steer the united states around a debt default. from wall street to the whout, one of the most powerful men in corporate america doesn t say no to a future in politics. up first for us, critical new cnn report ing on a special counsel investigation evidence trail that we now know includes a record ing of donald trump admitting he kept a classified record when he left the white house. trump right now is on the campaign trail between iowa. a reminder of the unprecedented place we find ourselves. a state investigation sb n georgia and two tracks of the federal special counsel investigation. and yet, he is at the same time the front runner for the 2024 republican nomination. ask he vows to carry on his campaign no matter what prosecutors allege. this exclusive new cnn reporting is this. special counsel jack smith h
Hampshire, they are going to be thinking is this the strongest candidate we can put out to defeat president biden. he certainly isn t out of the woods legal ly, but he s not ou of the woods politically. i don t think he s as strong as he may appear in the early polls. what i found fascinating as i was reading several papers and articles, a convicted felon does not face any legal barriers to run for the u.s. presidency. but a convicted felon or someone incarcerated cannot vote. so let s say trump is convicted in connection with the mishandling of classified dlts. he s behind bars. et yet he runs for the 2024 presidency, he wins the nomination and he wins while he s incarcerated. what would happen then?
That s knowledge that of what he has in his hands. it contradict what is he told kaitlan collins at the town hall. listen. i was there, i took what i took. it gets declassified. did you show those classified dlts to anyone? not really. i would have the right to. awhat do you mean not really? i have the right to do whatever i want with them. to the point that notwithstanding what the former president said at the town hall, the idea that if trump had a document and said, i d love to share this with you, if you re jack smith trying to build a case not just about obstruction, but about misappropriation of classified materials, put that evidence into con texas. it s extraordinarily important because often the sticking point in a prosecution is proving the defendant s state of mind. i used to send out fbi agents sometimes with notices that i