a very good day to all of you from msnbc world headquarters in new york. welcome to alex witt reports. we re beginning with the breaking news, a tsunami advisory currently in effect for the entire pacific coast as well as alaska. it comes after an underwater volcano erupted early this morning off the coast of tonga in the pacific ocean. you can see here that nation s largest island was hit by some pretty big waves. just last hour, though, hawaii ended their tsunami advisory. no major damage or injuries being reported at this hour, only some minor flooding. let s go right to nbc s guad venegas. i m going to be honest and tell you i got an email from a friend from new port beach saying they were alarmed about it and wanted to know what the latest was. reporter: right, so, a lot of people saw the alerts. they ve been seeing posts on social media talking about the tsunami. a lot of the images that we ve seen that we were just showing come from tonga. this is where they did
changing senate rules to make that happen. we must stand strong and stand together to make sure january 6th marks not the end of democracy but the beginning. freedom to vote act takes on election subversion to protect nonpartisan electors, officials, who are doing their job, from intimidation and interference, it s also time to pass the john lewis voting rights act. i ve been having quiet conversations with members of congress for the last two months, i m tired of being quiet. the threat to our democracy is so grave, we must find a way to pass voting rights bill, debate them, vote, let the majority prevail. and if that bare minimum is blocked, we have no option but to change the senate rules, including getting rid of the filibuster for this. i support changing the senate rules, whichever way they need to be changed to prevent a minority of senators from blocking action on voting rights. and why has president biden made this his number one focus? according to brennan cente
good morning. welcome to morning joe. it is wednesday, january 12th. good to have you all with us. we have the host of msnbc s poitics nation and president of the national action network, reverend al sharpton. he s the author of the new book, righteous troublemakers. that s a great one right there, willie geist. it is. that s a great one. i travel with my copy. me, too. if you have the electronic books, you can carry it in your ipod. you can do that. good advertising if they have the book. talking about traveling with it. you want me to hold this up or that up? oh, my. okay, the book is out now. you can get a copy. also with us, nbc news national affairs analyst and executive editor of the recount and the host of the hell and high water podcast, john heilemann. also with us, msnbc contributor, best-selling author of the confidence code series, katty kay. we need confidence today. we re going to be dealing with double tired joe and triple tired
good to be with you. i m katy tur. new numbers today confirming, no, it s not just you, everything is more expensive than it was a year ago. across the board prices rose by 7% in 2021, the fastest increase we ve seen since reagan was in office. it costs more to eat. bread, meat, fish and eggs are all up a whopping 12.5%. a pound of bacon just over $5 last year. $6.50 today. it costs more to sleep. rent and mortgage is up 4%. that means if you were paying $2,000 in rent every month, you might be looking at an $80 increase going forward. almost $1,000 more for the entire year. it costs more to get around as well. used cars are up 37%, a $20,000 car is now more than $27,000. and it costs a lot more to drive it as well. gas prices are up 50%, despite a dip in those costs at the end of last year. all of this, as you well know, adds up, especially when salaries are not keeping up. take all of this inflation into account, and the average earnings by the hour, hourly earnings, actual
in the wake of the other insurrection, the slow motion one that did not culminate on january 6, but rather commenced with it. to date, 19 states have passed voting restrictions. all of them disguised as election integrity measures. despite the fact that trump s ag, bill barr, found no evidence of fraud. even worthy of investigating and his lawyer, rudy giuliani, struck out in every legal challenge. that did not slow gop efforts or shame gop leaders. all of this creates the backdrop for today s speech. president biden and vice president harris traveling to georgia. the battle was kicked off with a passage of a sweeping voter suppression bill there in april. that bill so objectionable that at the time, major league baseball moved the league s all-star game out of georgia to colorado. since then, at least 12 bills have passed. the president s speech today is about urgent action needed right now, but it s steeped in civil rights history and and acknowledgment of past battles over