good morning. welcome to morning joe. that s a look at times square. we re a heart of hours the ball the will drop and we ll turn the page to 2024. good morning. joe and mika have the morning off. a lot to get to this morning, including another state remove donald trump from the republican presidential ballot. we will have expert legal and political analysis on that big decision from maine s secretary of state. plus nikki haley s attempt at cleaning up her highly criticized answer on the cause of the civil war. also forces continue to strike refugee camps where it believes hamas terrorists are hiding. this comes as the biden administration is putting more pressure to protect civilians. plus we ll take a look at the stories that dominated 2023 from two wars overseas to chaos on capitol hill, as well as the former president s many legal battles as he enters the presidential election. a lot to go through. with us for all of us is nbc news national affairs analyst john heilem
sat by while donald trump used the rally to go farther than he has before in this cultish alliance with this dangerous sometimes amorphous group called qanon by pushing lies that may sound bizarre and absurdist you can underestimate how serious they are and how they re building a following. i m not going to repeat or amplify all of them, but among them is the claim that certain hollywood actors and democrats are part of some secret pedophile group aligned with satan or who eat children. it goes on like that. i m not going to do much more of it for you tonight. i ll tell you why that is the top story. what does that have to do with midterm campaigns other than villainizing a few democrats? one of the theories is that trump will lead a battle against the forces and by the way, there are many versions and it rations of these conspiracy theories. it matters in many ways. you may recall right after donald trump was elected, a gunman opened fire in a washington, d.c. restaurant und
But i still will be the newbu jerseys senior senator. At what does gold bars gold bob menendez have on the big guy . How does seattle fight crime . Its not a thing that happens just on the street. People come upthappened and tryb people on the street. I cant save you. Yeah jesse . If you dont want to be saved. Plus, do you realize how much pressure there was on you today from the swiftieo you s . I think he wanted to get in the end zone just as much as i rather swifties wanted hime wan. When the Washington Post sent cia mouthpiece David Ignatius to warn joe biden not to run for reelection, we figured it was because they knew impeachment was going to air their dirty laundry. Or maybe the agents who deliver the president s briefings saw up close with their own eyes the joe is on his last legs and there was a risk Kamala Harris was riing to be in the oval at any moment. The column rocked washington, but it wasnt enough to jar loosy nt. Enouge the ticket. As of right now, Joe Biden Biden i