Morning Joe - Morning Joe 12/20/24

Episode Date: December 20, 2024

House votes down Republican bill to avert shutdown on eve of the deadline

It's shameful. Yes, I think this bill is better than it was yesterday on certain respects, but to take this bill yesterday and congratulate yourself because it's shorter in pages but increases the debt by five trillion dollars is asinine. And that's precisely what Republicans are doing. I'm absolutely sickened by a party that campaigns on fiscal responsibility and has the temerity to go forward to the American people and say, you think this is fiscally responsible. It is absolutely ridiculous. Republican Congressman Chip Roy of Texas, a consistent critic of spending bills, calling

out his own party yesterday. His rant highlights this self-made crisis for the Republican Party. Get ready. They had a bipartisan bill that would have passed this week, but then Donald Trump and Elon Musk killed it. Then yesterday, they hastily put together a Trump-backed package only for it to be rejected by dozens of Republicans and almost all Democrats who were not going to give in to Trump or Musk's demands. To top things off, Elon Musk may get rewarded for all of this as some Republicans are now

floating him as the next Speaker of the House. Good morning and welcome to Morning Joe. It's Friday, December 20th. I'm Jonathan Flemur in for Joe Meek and Willie with us we have a great group Pulitzer Prize winning columnist and associate editor of the Washington Post Eugene Robinson and BC News Capitol Hill correspondent Ali Vitali co-founder and CEO of Axios Jim Van de Huy co-host of the weekend on MSNBC Simone Sanders Townsend,

and editor of The New Republic, Michael Tomaski. It has been a dizzying stretch here. Let's dive right in and try to sort it out. With less than 24 hours to go, Congress still has no path forward to fund the government. Capitol Hill in complete chaos yesterday after President-elect Trump and Elon Musk, his billionaire buddy, torched the bipartisan agreement to fund the government through March.

Congressional leadership and Vice President-elect J.D. Vance spent the day working on new legislation that would appease Trump and the already very small Republican majority. After hours of negotiations, the group managed to come out with a bill that had Trump's seal of support, a dramatically smaller bill. However, it did not have the full backing of the Republican conference. The alternate package failed 174 to 235,

falling far short of the two thirds majority needed to pass. Moments after the bill failed on the floor, Republicans tried to blame Democrats for tanking the legislation. But Democrats, for their part, say the GOP backtracked on their deal and they felt no need to bail them out. The Democrats just voted to shut down the government even though we had a clean CR because they didn't want to give the president negotiating leverage during his first term or during the first year of his new term and number two because they would rather shut down the government and fight for global

censorship bulls**t. They've asked for a shutdown and I think that's exactly what they're gonna get. 38 Republicans going against it as well. I want you all to remember that it was just last spring that the same Democrats berated Republicans and said that it was irresponsible to hold the debt limit, the debt ceiling hostage. What changed? It is, I think, really irresponsible for us to risk a shutdown over these issues on things that they have already agreed upon. I think you need to be asking them the questions about that. House Republicans have abandoned that bipartisan agreement that we entered into in good faith. A bill that House Republicans negotiated gave us your word that we were going to move forward together on

behalf of the American people. There was a Republican drafted bill that was posted by House Republicans. And then one or two puppet masters weigh in, and the extreme mega Republicans decide to do the bidding of the wealthy, the well-off, the well-connected, millionaires and billionaires, not working class people. There is so much to sift through here in terms of the politics, the impact on the incoming Trump administration. But let's start, Ali Vittali, with the basics. What's the latest you're reporting?

Is the government gonna shut down tonight? It seems likely at this point, especially because the speaker and other top Republicans aren't sure what Plan C looks like. We watched Speaker Johnson, Leader Scalise, and other top members leaving the building last night, even questioning if they're going to end up having a vote on anything today.

It's bad news when your hours to go until government shutdown deadline and you don't know if you're going to have a vote because you don't know what you would vote on and even if they did have a vote. They don't know that it could pass because all the different iterations of OK is it going to be just a clean continuing resolution is it going to be that plus just disaster relief you've also got to throw a farm bill extension in there at some

point otherwise you're going to run into a lot of various problems in grocery store aisles across the country. There's different permutations of this but there still remains the same opposition from the same core group of folks in the conservative ranks of the House Republican conference who don't vote for continuing resolutions anyway. It's why they're negotiated in bipartisan fashion to begin with, because you always need Democrats in this iteration of the Republican Party to keep the lights on with the government

because there's always going to be staunch opposition from the same Republicans within the party who don't want to vote for it. Then Trump comes in and further complicates it by adding a debt ceiling negotiation to this mix, which I know to a casual viewer might seem like it's all part and parcel with a government funding negotiation, but we're talking about two very different fiscal negotiations happening right now.

And you can't just negotiate away the debt ceiling on a 24 hour deadline. And so that's certainly something that they're running into as well, because now Trump has told them, you have to keep that in the mix. And if you don't, you're going to have me and Elon Musk saying, we're going to primary you. So they're creating guardrails to a system that is already very difficult.

And that makes the job for Speaker Johnson even harder. I also think the Democratic posture here is going to be instructive because there's very much a vibe of you break it, you buy it, and that's why Democrats are setting the tone here, too, that they are not just going to be led down a path of negotiation in bipartisan

fashion, see it fall apart after good-faith negotiations, and then just say, okay, we'll vote for whatever you want. So they're doing their own tone setting here, too. And I have to say, there is a very subtle troll that's happening, which is Hakeem OK, we'll vote for whatever you want. So they're doing their own tone setting here, too. And I have to say, there is a very subtle troll that's happening, which is Hakeem Jeffries

is issuing all of his statements about this, not on the social media platform that Elon Musk owns, but on Blue Sky, which has emerged since the election as the alternative. So we're watching a little bit of trolling in real time, too. So Simone, let's talk about how the Democrats are handling this and let's state up front. They agreed to the initial deal. It's the Republicans who walked away, not the Democrats, despite what the GOP is trying to play the blame game there. But give us your analysis here because there's a lot of trolling about President-elect Musk

and the like, but they also chose not to bail out Republicans. They walked away from this replacement deal. Do you think on both fronts are they handling it right? Well, look, pass this prologue here. And I think that the last, this 118th Congress that we are at the tail end of, Democrats have bailed out Republicans. Every single time there has been a continuing resolution or something had to get done for the government, something had to get done in terms of funding, Democrats did come over across the aisle and do what needed to be done

to keep the government functioning. You saw in the election that they weren't necessarily rewarded for that work. And so did the American people, were they aware of what Democrats were doing on that regard? Did they know, maybe did they know and not care? We have to ask the voters. But the reality here is that Democrats cannot take

the same posture that they have taken previously at the release of Speaker Johnson and think that the voters will just recognize what they're doing or even punish Republicans for not doing their jobs. So in this regard, I think that the posture that the Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries is taking is in fact the right one.

I do think that Democrats need to step back just a notch and not be too gleeful, if you will. And some folks are sounding a little gleeful here and the Republicans don't know what they're doing and it's a mess and we're just waiting and posting their popcorn memes. Because the reality here is that if the government shuts down, whether it's for 24 hours

or through January 20th, like Elon Musk has, you know, he tweeted on his social media platform that that's what he thinks should happen. Real people are affected by this. Social security checks, yes, are gonna continue to flow, but workers are not going to get paid, okay? They're not going to get paid.

We are just days away from Christmas. Folks are going to have to make real time decisions, government workers across the country about how they're going to survive over the holidays because Congress, i.e. Republicans in Congress are taking their orders from Elon Musk on a social media site. So I just really think watching here for what Donald Trump is going to say, he usually tweets through or posts on his true social site through everything else. I'm seeing Elon Musk tweeting, and I'm

looking for what the president-elect is saying. So I don't know if the blind is leading the blind, who is leading who. But Democrats, they have to continue to take their posture that they are going to do what's best for the people, but they are not going to do the Republicans' work for them. So let's dig in a little deeper on Musk's role here.

Several lawmakers are placing the blame squarely on the billionaire for the failure to pass this government funding bill. Democrats say Musk was meddling where he did not belong and has effectively taking control of the Republican Party. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi took to social media, calling the president-elect Musk's puppet president-elect, adding that House Republicans are abdicating their responsibility to the American people and siding with billionaires and special interests.

Other Democrats echoed those very sentiments. It's just shameful that they allowed Elon Musk, who now everybody's calling President Musk, to blow this deal up. I heard one Republican colleague say now it's President Musk and J.D. Vance as vice president. Where does that leave Donald Trump, the president-elect? Is he the former campaign manager or something? They write the bill.

They post the bill. They agreed on a bill. And you know what? They got scared because President Musk told them. President Musk said, don't do it. Don't do it. Shut the government down. Elon Musk, an unelected man, said, we're not doing this deal. And Donald Trump followed along. So here we are, once again, in chaos. And House Democrats are going to stand together and make sure that American families' voices

are heard here. All I've heard for the last couple of weeks about this giant mandate, landslide, trifecta, put on your big boy pants, pass your own bill. We're only here, we're only here because you guys can't agree amongst yourselves. We're the legislative branch of government. Mr. Musk is not the legislature. We should be voting on that agreement, and that agreement's a fair agreement.

For his part, President-elect Trump told NBC News in a phone interview yesterday that Musk did not influence him at all when Trump initially came out against the spending bill. Some Senate Republicans also weighed in publicly, generally displeased with the idea of a government shutdown right before the holidays. But they claim that Trump is in control, not Musk. I think President Trump's driving this and I'm not diminishing Mr. Musk's role.

I mean, this is America. Everybody's entitled to have their opinion. And I listen, I follow his tweets. And it's just one more factor that I add to my equation of trying to make the right decision. But I think President Trump's driving the stream. I think it's somewhat constructive, quite honestly, but it's also a little bit disruptive. But that's what people elected. They wanted a constructive disruptor.

And Elon fits that bill pretty nicely. Well, despite what Senator Kramer just said, we'll just note that Elon Musk was, of course, not on the ballot and was not elected to any position in the government. So Eugene Robinson, though, Elon Musk, he wasn't elected, but he sure holds a perch of power, at least for the moment. I mean, it was already, we've spent a lot of time on this show talking about

just this unprecedented influence he had on the election with his money, with his time, with his social media site. Now he gets this doge quasi-government agency. And yesterday, let's be clear, when this week, when this bill, the original bill went down to defeat, that started soon after it was Musk, not Trump, who started going after it on social media. It seems like he's got the president's ear, and it seems like he's wielding a lot of power. Yeah, he definitely is wielding a lot of power. He definitely has the president's ear and it seems like he's wielding a lot of power. Yeah, he definitely is wielding a lot of power.

He definitely has the president's ear. I don't think, or the president-elect's ear, I don't think Donald Trump is for very long going to like people talking about President Musk and how Elon Musk is really running the show. But if we step back for a second, I mean, look at what just happened. The Speaker of the House of Representatives, like the number three official in our entire government, agreed with Democrats, negotiated and agreed on a bill to do the basic thing of keeping the government functioning and it fell apart and it began to fall apart as you said when Elon Musk got on his social

media platform and started attacking it. Elon Musk is not elected, was not elected to any position, he's not been appointed to any official position. He is apparently running this Doge, which is not a government body. It's really an advisory panel. Yet he is running, or he was yesterday, he was running the show. I mean, I think it's difficult to look at it any other way.

It's, I think, a very dangerous situation for this country to have this unelected gazillionaire essentially running the country by whim. But also, what is the Speaker of the House now supposed to do? How does he negotiate anything if his word is no good, if he has to go through not only President-elect, soon-to-be President Trump, but also Elon Musk and figure out, well, what does Elon think about this? That doesn't sound like any way to run a country So we have never been here before and Jim van de Hei you've got new reporting out this morning for Axios about the government funding fight and how it captures the power and

Flaws of what you call the new information ecosystem, which is in many ways Elon Musk and X I Mean, this is your future foretold. You might like it, you might hate it, but it is. Like you now have Musk controlling the dominant organ of the Republican media industrial complex. There's nothing close. He single-handedly with his tweets and his followers killed that bill.

There's no doubt about that. I think, listen, I think the aspirational part of what he's saying probably is a good thing, right? Like we do spend way too much money as a country and the process by which we do it is often asinine. And I think that was like the fundamental thing that started this. But now you do have somebody who,

at least in this interim period, is arguably the most powerful person in politics and is totally unelected. So now Republicans are seeing they got the benefit of Musk in winning the election. Now they're going to have to deal with the consequences of having a media infrastructure that can put pressure on them to force members to instantaneously change their votes. And make no mistake, that's what happened. Go back and look at acts at the number of members of Congress who went on and genuflected before Musk to say, I changed my votes because of what you said.

Now, the complicating part for Musk is there's a little bit of intellectual dishonesty when you say, listen, I wanna cut spending, but now I also am for a bill that would raise the debt limit. Never in the history of the country have we raised the debt limit and not then hit the limit, right? So the best way if you actually wanted to cut spending would say don't raise the debt limit. Force government to start living within its means and make the really hard choices.

But Trump doesn't want to do that. Why would Trump want to do that? He wants to do crackdown on immigration. He wants to do massive tax cuts. There's no appetite to do massive spending cuts on day one of the presidency. So I get what Trump is trying to do. And I do believe they'll figure out some kind of solution. I agree with everything Ali Fatali was saying, but there are ways out of this. You can just do a clean CR for three months. You could get rid of the debt limit and hope Trump doesn't get too ticked off. But there are ways to avoid a government shutdown. Yeah, the methods, but avenues to escape it. But at least right now, Republicans don't seem particularly close to any of them.

So Michael Tomaske, let's bring you in. I mean, you're a veteran observer of Washington, been covering this for a long time. This feels like not only an unprecedented moment, but a preview preview a preview of what's to come here in these next couple of months that Donald Trump, you know, he be it received hype that he ran a more disciplined campaign this time around he's coming in with a you know exaggerated but mandate he's got the 2 houses of Congress both in Republican hands he's more experience this time around he's going to get

things done. Well if this week is any example, it's the exact same chaos that we saw the first time around. Yeah, well, you know, when Republicans control the House of Representatives, Jonathan, we have chaos and we've had chaos going back a long time. Really, you can trace this back to John Boehner's tenure. Now, John Boehner was like a reasonable human being compared to what we've got today. But the fact remains that when Boehner was the speaker, the Senate Republicans, you'll recall, voted in a bipartisan fashion

to pass a good immigration bill. And the House held it up, and Boehner refused to bring it to the floor because he knew it would pass, and he knew therefore he would lose his speakership. Fast forward to Ryan's tenure, Paul Ryan. They passed, what did they pass? They passed a tax cut. That's really about all they passed when they had the reins. They couldn't even repeal Obamacare. Fast forward now to Kevin McCarthy's very brief tenure, the third shortest I believe in the history of the House of Representatives. And they essentially did nothing.

And now here in Mike Johnson's tenure, they have another mess. Now, when Trump is sworn in and Trump presents his legislative agenda such as it will be, and I can't really think of much that he has in the way of a legislative agenda except another massive tax cut and some tariffs, although he may not even need legislation on those tariffs. What are the Republicans going to do? It's interesting that we see these cracks today, yesterday, 38 Republicans voting against the bill that Trump wanted for fairly principled reasons, actually.

So, yes, there's a history of chaos and there are divisions right now within that caucus that make the future pretty up in the air, I think. And one of the questions that's up in the air is who's gonna be Speaker of the House, Ali Vittali, because Mike Johnson right now, I mean, his grip on power has never been particularly firm, but he has been taking it on all sides this week. Give us the latest here as to whether you think, whether the government shuts down tonight at midnight or not, whether he's going to hours is going to happen is January 3rd. Look the question the last 2 years has been who

is going to be the next speaker, you know McCarthy is ousted ousted and then you go through 3 weeks of chaos. The real question that we should be asking is why would anyone want to be speaker at this point it is easily the most difficult and thankless job in Washington and president-elect Trump has only shown that it's going to be worse this time around for whoever it is because he clearly can't be predicted to even stay on his team's side once they have a negotiation

that they feel is palatable to move forward with I mean that's what Mike Johnson has dealt with this week. The reality is there's always someone who wants to be speaker whether it's Steve Scalise or Jim Jordan. We could go down that road. But the questions Republicans have to ask themselves is, do they want to start the initial weeks of their new Congress and of Republicans having a trifecta of power in Washington by going through yet another multi-round chaos-driven process to elect a new speaker? When I still think Steve Scalise put himself up for the job a year ago now.

He had 20 or so detractors. That number may or may not still be the right whip count. But certainly that would be something they'd have to deal with. And the same can be said for Jim Jordan. So if not them, then who? Johnson is the person who right now has proven he can herd the cats. And that is, I think, the school of thought for the majority of Republicans who say, let's go with the guy we've got and the person that we know. But who knows? Although there are some Republicans who even floated Elon Musk as a possibility for a speaker. We should note there's actually not a requirement that the speaker be a member of the House.

This would seem deeply unlikely. But there was more than a few Republicans yesterday who seem to at least somewhat seriously and with the idea NBC's Ali battalion Ali thank you we know you have a very busy long day ahead of you. Thanks for being with us everybody else stay put coming up next on morning Joe Amazon workers are on strike at several delivery hub locations will break down the failed contract negotiations

and how it could potentially impact the holidays. Plus, what we're learning about the meeting between Amazon boss Jeff Bezos and President-elect Donald Trump. Gene Robinson will weigh in on that, and we'll read from his new column on the risks of declaring fealty to Donald Trump. You're watching Morning Joe.

We'll be back in just 90 seconds. A beautiful shot there of the Rockefeller Plaza Christmas tree just outside here at 30 Rock. We are now just six days from Christmas. And complicating, perhaps perhaps the holiday season some labor strife. Starbucks baristas are walking off the job this morning in three major cities. Union representing the workers say employees in Los Angeles, Chicago and Seattle, Starbucks'

hometown, are launching a five-day strike that would impact hundreds of stores by Christmas Eve. Workers are accusing Starbucks of stalling union contract negotiations and failing to produce better wage gains. The two sides have been bargaining a new national contract since April. Meanwhile, more labor issues. Amazon workers at seven different delivery hubs across four states also went on strike yesterday. This after the Teamsters Union claimed the company ignored a Sunday deadline for contract negotiations. It's not known how many are on strike or how long it will last.

The union is pushing for higher wages, better benefits, and safer work conditions. Representatives from Amazon say the strikes are not expected to impact holiday shipments, but I'm sure there are some nervous last-minute shoppers. And that strike, of course, comes just a day after Amazon founder Jeff Bezos reportedly had dinner with President-elect Donald Trump and Elon Musk, who else, at Mar-a-Lago. According to reporting in the New York Times, Musk was not initially invited to the meal, but joined it after it began on Wednesday. During Trump's first term in office, he often targeted Bezos, calling him out for issues

like how much Amazon pays in taxes and news headlines he disagreed with because, of course, Bezos also owns the Washington Post. The two men's evolving relationship is seen as an example of America's business leaders rushing to Trump's side before his administration begins. It's a change that the president-elect has touted multiple times, including on social media, where he recently wrote, everybody wants to be my friend, all caps, three exclamation points.

Gene, your latest column for the aforementioned Washington Post has this headline, the risks of declaring fealty to Donald Trump. In it, you write in part this, titans of industry and commerce, beware. When you bend the knee to the mad king, when you shower him with money and bathe him in flattery, he will receive your gifts with apparent gratitude,

but he will want more. He will always want more. And Eugene, tell us more about your piece and frankly warning you're trying to issue to the billionaire class who at the moment is trying to cozy up to the president-elect. They certainly are. I mean, who hasn't been to Mar-a-Lago from that class, the billionaire class at this point? Mark Zuckerberg was there. Sergey Brin and Sundar Pichai from Alphabet Google were there. And of course, there was the dinner Wednesday night with Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk dropping in.

Some of the titans or their companies are giving a million dollar donations to the Trump inauguration. Mark Zuckerberg's Metta is doing that. They don't generally give money to that sort of thing, but they're doing it this time, and Amazon is giving a million dollars, there are other big donations. I just want the billionaires, if they want a little advice, is to manage their expectations. Because if their idea going in is to open a line of communications with the president-elect and the incoming administration, I get that.

If they think that they're—that finally, they're the ones who are going to talk sense into Donald Trump and get him on board, you know, it's a sort of some sort of systematic, what they would see as a systematic, reasonable program, then they're going to be disappointed. Because you know, we've seen this movie, and we kind of know how it works out. So I don't want them to have illusions about what sort of influence they're ultimately gonna have over the president-elect or when he becomes president or indeed what kinds of policies may be coming down the pipe because as we've seen in the last few days, things can change in an instant.

And we know how chaotic and unpredictable the first four Trump years were. We're going to see that again. And we definitely know that loyalty between Trump and anybody else really flows one direction. It flows toward Trump. And if you don't believe me on that, just ask Mike Pence. Yeah, it's a one way street to be sure. So Jim Vanaheim, I mean, Trump has a unique character and some perceive as a singular threat to democracy,

but it's not unusual for billionaires or business leaders to meet with a president or a president elect coming in to try to get in that administration's good graces and get favorable policies. I mean, to be blunt, if you're a CEO of a publicly traded company, your job is to drive ... You have a fiduciary responsibility to drive shareholder value. And if you're sitting and running one of these tech companies and you realize that the next government is going to decide antitrust laws and potentially breaking up some of these big tech companies and they're going to set the parameters for AI which is the future of all of these big tech companies you'd be nuts not to be talking

to the president and his incoming staff and incoming cabinet secretary so that you have some leverage in those negotiations on top of it you can trace that back to Musk too, because Musk is their competitor in all of those spaces. And they see what we see, that he's sitting next to the president every day, all day, at Mar-a-Lago, talking about policy, talking about personnel. And so they're scrambling to get in front of him to make sure that they can at least make their case and that there's not punitive actions taking against their companies because Musk is whispering

in one ear and critics of them are whispering in the other. So if anything, this dynamic will intensify. So Michael Tomaski, in your latest article for the New Republic, which is titled, The Real Reason Why Americans Approve of Trump's Disastrous Transition, you write in part this, how can it be, you may be wondering, that 55% of Americans tell pollsters they approve of how Donald Trump is handling the transition? He has nominated almost, but not quite literally across the board, unqualified extremists. I don't blame people, you say.

I blame the larger culture, which has been almost totally drained of common concern about our civic health. First and foremost, I blame Rupert Murdoch, and to a lesser extent, his imitators, whose media properties have injected so much poison and so many lies into our discourse since 1977 that common civic agreement about basic morality in public life has become impossible. You go on.

We had a basic understanding about what kinds of actions did and did not reflect our best values. And this was why Richard Nixon had to resign in disgrace for committing far fewer offenses than Trump already has. Everyone, whatever their politics, agreed that Nixon had clearly crossed the line. But that impulse is dead in the United States and the right-wing media killed it. It's Michael, a powerful piece. Tell us more about your argument about the right-wing media, what it's done, and do

you see any way that this civic bond, this civic concern can be repaired? I'm not very hopeful about that, Jonathan, unfortunately. You know, John Dean famously said a few years ago that if Fox News had existed in 1973, 74, Richard Nixon would have survived Watergate. I think that's probably true. Today, the right-wing media extends far beyond Fox News. I mentioned Murdoch in that piece, but there's Sinclair media, there's many, many outlets that follow essentially the same kind of script.

I do think that we have lost those bonds I'm talking about. I think that in an earlier time, without that media pressure, right-wing media pressure, I think Republican senators and House members during Donald Trump's first term would have said, this is a bridge too far, he's gone too far, this crosses a line, we can't tolerate this. But those just aren't the rules anymore. With respect to the transition very quickly, I watched these polls, 55% approve of the transition, 59% I saw in one poll,

although that was a few weeks ago. I don't really think, I just can't believe that 55% of Americans think that Robert F. Kennedy is the best choice for HHS. I don't think 55% of Americans think Tulsi Gabbard is the best choice for intelligence, or Pete Hegseth is the best choice for the Pentagon. Whatgseth is the best choice for the Pentagon. What I think is happening though is that people are just kind of checked out. They don't know. They're not paying attention. And some portion of the media, the right-wing media, is telling them that these are very well qualified people and that they should be confirmed. It's a sad situation that we're in and I don't see an easy way out.

You know, I think Jim makes a important point here and and Eugene I'm wondering what you think because the reality is is I Do think that some of it is people are not fully informed, right? Folks are like, oh they people voted for what Donald Trump is going to do. They wanted this I'm not sure if they were fully informed about all the things but one could argue a lot of people know enough Because of our fracture media environment, if they were fully informed about all the things, but one could argue a lot of people knew enough. Because of our fracture media environment, they weren't fully informed, I think. Depending on where you get your news, you could actually believe that the Speaker of

the House is supposed to go to every single member of their caucus and say, hey, what do you want to put in the bill? Not knowing that that's not actually how negotiations work. You elect a leader to negotiate on your behalf, and the leader should have the respect and the backing of their caucus. That's how this usually works. And so, given though this is our situation, Eugene,

what are we gonna do? Because I asked my folks on social media questions last night on my Instagram, when I should've been asleep, and people are like, how are we gonna survive the crazy of the next four years? And Donald Trump isn't even elected yet. This is utter chaos for no reason, except that Elon Musk, and I can't help but think also,

maybe the president-elect didn't actually understand how the continuing resolution was supposed to go and what was actually in the bill. Yeah, well, just a couple of quick points, Simone. First of all, on those polls, you know, 55 percent, 59 percent saying they support the transition, frankly, I am not surprised. I mean, you know, just a scotch less than 50%, but he won the popular vote. And so it doesn't surprise me at all that 55 or even 59% of Americans, many of whom

voted for Donald Trump and others of whom are not really that firmly attached to either party. It doesn't surprise me that that many people would want to be optimistic about the new administration. That's called the dysfunction, at least until Trump takes office and the administration begins to shape up. So that's one point. And the other point is that a lot of people have just checked out after a couple of years of really intense politics and political news and being invested in one candidacy or the other and headlines

every day, I think a lot of people are just checked out for a little bit. And, you know, that's kind of okay. It's the holidays. Let's get through the holidays. People will check back in. I don't worry about that because stuff will happen and people will have feelings about it and then we'll say, but what's happening right now? It's not it's not a huge concern to me

Yeah, perhaps when the inauguration rolls around that's when the people do check back in editor of the New Republic Michael Tomaski and CEO of Axios Jim van de Huy both important columns online. We're reading them Thanks to you both for being with us this morning. And of course, Simone Sanders Townsend. Thank you as well We will be watching the weekend Saturdays and Sundays starting at 8 a.m. right here on MSNBC. Coming up, we'll take a quick break from politics and turn to sports. Pablo Torres here to preview the opening round

of the first ever 12-team playoff in college football. He's got a bracket. I need a bracket. Morning Joe's coming right back. Herbert, little shovel dump pass to Haskins inside the 10 touchdown chargers. That's Hassan Haskins taking a shovel pass from Justin Herbert 34 yards to the end zone for the Chargers go ahead score late in the fourth quarter.

It was LA's third touchdown in the second half and a comeback from a double digit deficit against their division rival Denver Broncos. Now, this included the NFL's first successful fair catch kick in nearly half a century. The Chargers took advantage of the seldom news rule after the Broncos were called for fair catch interference you saw just there that would have been the final play of the second quarter. The rule though

allows a team that just made the fair catch to try a free kick for three points. The rule states the kick has to be taken from the line of scrimmage while all defenders must line up at least 10 yards away. So you have a clear line of sight and with the flag moving the ball to the Denver 47 for untimed down, LA knocks one through the uprights from 57 yards charges rally from it for a 34 to 27 win keeping the Broncos from clinching a spot in the postseason while increasing their own chances at a playoff berth. L.a. can secure its second trip to the playoffs in 3 seasons on Sunday if both the cults and dolphins loop that fair catch

kick truly bizarre thankfully we have someone here who specializes in truly bizarre sports. That's right. The host, Pablo Torre, finds out on Metal Arc Media, MSNBC contributor Pablo Torre. Pablo, I followed the NFL my whole life. I know you have too. I didn't know that rule existed. And yet it gave the Chargers three points in a key win.

Yeah, definitely. I was familiar with this. No, you weren't. Absolutely, no. I study the fact checking. The parliamentary rules of NFL special teams studiously. The NFL is part, you know, a violent spectacle. It's the Coliseum brought to modern day, and also tax law sometimes.

And you realize, oh, wait a minute. This is a thing that we have not seen happen at this distance. A successful free kick, fair catch, free kick since Paul Horning, John, in case you were wondering, Green Bay Packers legend. I didn't know you could do this. I didn't know you could do this. It was crucial. It's ridiculous. Apparently, both coaches claimed after the game.

Of course, they practice this, which is either psychosis or just reality. The only person on the planet who knew about this rule was clearly Bill Belichick. UNC will specialize in this play next year. I will say, though, this was an eyebrow-raising headline, this play. Another one, though, in the NFL came hours earlier, when we learned that the New York Jets apparently make personnel decisions based on players' ratings in the video game Madden. Yes, the New York Jets,

much like our Congress, you could argue, apparently run actually by teenagers. Woody Johnson is the owner of the Jets. Woody Johnson, you may recall him, as also President Trump's ambassador to the UK. He goes away for a while. He has some young boys. He comes back from that appointment.

And those boys are teenagers. And one of them named Brick, which is just a thing we do now. You call your teenage son Brick, and you allow him to basically take over the postgame huddle. Look, I'm not the guy who comes on this show and praises Aaron Rodgers very often. But there's a story in this piece in which it is, it is the postgame huddle in the locker room

and Aaron Rodgers is about to give the game ball to a defensive player who is unheralded and deserves it. And in comes Brick with a profanity laden celebratory toast to Garrett Wilson and he gives Garrett Wilson StarWide receiver the ball instead leaving everybody mystified on top of allegedly recommending that they not sign Jerry Judy

acquire him because the Madden rating was not high enough not high enough and this is why the New York Jets each and every year continue disappointing have the longest playoff. So good. And by that I mean they're so

bad. No it's so good. I'm going to stay with it. So good. So let's turn from the pros to the college game. The 12 team college football playoff kicks off tonight in South Bend with number 10 Indiana visiting nearby Notre Dame which is ranked number 7 in the first round opener. The winner advances to the quarterfinals against second seeded Georgia in the Sugar Bowl on New Year's Day.

But the Bulldogs are reportedly preparing to play without starting quarterback Carson Beck. Beck, who had been considered a potential first round pick in next year's NFL draft, has not practiced since he was hurt in the first half of Georgia's SEC Championship game win over Texas earlier this month. ESPN is now reporting the quarterback is exploring surgery options to repair an injury to the elbow on his throwing arm. So that's a blow potentially to one of the favorites in this tournament. First time, expanded 12 teams. I see you brought with you your bracket. I am Steve Kornacki on some sort of psychedelic. It's just really messy. I've been crossing out names, updating it based on the injuries and all that, John. Georgia, can we just start there?

Because I am picking them, just to spoiler alert you here. And the reason I'm doing that is because as much as Carson Beck is the guy who is the incumbent, Gunnar Stockton, which is a name that's also just great, Brick and Gunnar just dominating Morning Joe. I'd watch that show. On the Friday before Christmas. Gunnar Stockton is arguably even better. He's the younger guy, a dual threat guy,

Carson back, more of the conventional passer. Gunner Stockton was the guy who helped them beat Texas. And then of course got brutally concussed as well because football again is the Coliseum in modern day. But that guy I believe is, he's got enough to pilot a team that is the most feared team in the SEC, which means I'm old enough to remember when that used to mean you won the national title. So Eugene Robinson

I know you'll be watching these college football playoffs. I know you won't be picking Ohio State, but otherwise you got well, you know Georgia I like Georgia too. And I like that kid, Gunnar. I am not, you know, I don't have a bracket filled out. And I doubt that I'm going to because it's frankly too complicated. I can't keep, you know, which bowl is what and a bowl is actually a quarterfinal or a round of eight now or whatever and also Michigan's not in it. So why am I going to invest that much time.

So Pablo in your latest episode of Pablo Torre Finds Out you spoke with frequent morning Joe guest Paul Feinbaum about the passionate college football fans who call into his show. Let's take a look at some of those calls all pertaining to the University of Alabama and running the full gamut of human emotion. The tide just hired the board and I smell a natty in 24. Rolled in tight, Paul. See you later, buddy.

Paul, I'm in sports hell, brother. I'm in sports hell. I never thought I would utter these words. Bandy is my daddy. Coach Saban, you built this thing, baby. You built this thing from

the ground up. Please come back, Nick. Come back! Come back! Hey, Cow Turd, you are just... I don't even have a name for you anymore, except Cow Turd. How dare you? Don't you dare come down on the University of Alabama! I will eat your ass for lunch, and I can make that a promise. Are you there. I am I'm listening to every word and nodding my head.

That was Phyllis and there with some anger got the call previous to that was a man named legend, yeah, we didn't have time to play Joe's frantic phone calls to Paul the most unhinged complaining about the University of Alabama most traumatized yeah, but talk to us more about just the sort of singular role that Paul Feinbaum has played for such a long time yeah look it is telling that whenever I come on to revel in Alabama's misery Joe Scarborough is nowhere to be found but the thing you should realize is that sometimes Paul Feinbaum joins us on Monday mornings to talk college football at this very table

and then he goes off and he talks to an audience that is the most important and influential base in sports when it comes to the American South. This is a very different demographic. And this Christmas season, I have never been more interested. John, they are miserable. They are populist. They are a little bit Occupy Wall Street and a lot of bit crazy.

And when it comes to why this job in Alabama is so hard and so glorious, it's because of these people. And this show, just for people who are not familiar, there's a guy who literally called into the show while in the emergency room, was having a heart attack to tell Paul Feinbaum, Paul, I love you. And Paul says, are you really in the ER? And a nurse's voice comes on the line,

and it's very clear that he is. This is when we say life and death. This is not a metaphor. This is actually real. And this is a sports radio show that's unlike any other. So we went behind the scenes of how it is that these people are the way they are. And why Alabama is this sort of demographic?

That encapsulates why college football is in fact the second most popular sport in America behind the aforementioned gladiatorial NFL it is absurd and a note how the college football not shying away from head-to-head matchups with the NFL over the correct week or so Yeah, but let's turn for a second to baseball For me life or death the Red Sox. I know your Yankees, after missing out on Juan Soto, have been busy. So weigh in what you think of the moves they've made to replace Soto, using the money freed up

when he chose to go to the Mets. And also, we sort of hit a, after a very busy stretch, hit a bit of a lull in the hot stove. But there's a lot of big names still out there. Yeah, freed up. I see what you did there, Max Fried. Look, I believe that the Yankees ultimately dodged a financial bullet.

I fully believe this, John. My text messages to you are not admissible in court. Do not use them against me in this conversation. I currently believe that the Yankees are pieces to get. Look, when I went to game five of the ALCS and I myself had a Jean Robinson style trauma watching my team lose the game. I realized I needed a closer. We needed a closer. Guess what we got? We got a closer in Devin Williams. Guess what we got? We got a new starting pitcher. We

could use one of those. Now, of course, I would like another slugger. I would like to show the largesse that made the Yankees what they are. I would like to out Steinbrenner Steve Cohen, who is one of the 100 richest men on the planet. A bit of an uphill battle, but it's not yet over. How are you feeling, by the way? Briefly, the Garret crochet trade was good. That's a good step for a direct direction. They got a lot more to do. The ownership for a few years now has promised to spend money,

has promised to compete. That's right. Let's see it. They also need a starting pitcher. They need a righty bat. They need a couple of relievers. Those guys are all available out there. Spend the money.

Make it happen. So the theme of today of this week is actually, can we please spend more money? There we go. In lots of places, maybe. No doge for the sports world. No. For sure.

The latest episode of the Pablo Torre Finds Out podcast is available now. You won't want to miss that. MSNBC contributor Pablo Torre, thank you as always. Roll Tide.