Morning Joe - Morning Joe 12/2/22

Episode Date: December 2, 2022

In major setback for Trump, appeals court ends special master's review of seized Mar-a-Lago records

Since the last time I was here, Mr. Walker has been talking about issues that are of great importance to the people of Georgia. Like whether it's better to be a vampire or a werewolf. This is a debate that I must confess I once had myself. When I was seven. In case you're wondering, by the way, Mr. Walker decided he wanted to be a werewolf, which is great. As far as I'm concerned, he can be anything he wants to be, except for a United States senator. Wow. Former President Barack Obama. The hits keep coming with him. Campaigning for the reelection of Senator Raphael Warnock ahead of Tuesday's runoff. We're going to play more from that event. He was on fire. Plus, there's a great line there. Yeah.

It's a debate. Michael Steele, it's a debate that I had myself one time. When I was seven. Yeah. I chose vampire. Plus, Michigan in, Iowa out. President Biden calls for a major shakeup in the way Democrats choose their presidential nominee. We'll have the latest on that. Also, another legal defeat for Donald Trump after an appeals court overturns the appointment of a special master in the Mar-a-Lago documents case.

We'll explain what this means for the investigation going forward. And Congress passes last minute legislation to keep railways moving. So what happened to the request from workers concerning paid sick leave? We'll have the latest on that. Were you thinking about calling out for sick leave today? I was. We were out very late last night.

Well, for us. We were never out. We were out late. Watching Wheel of Fortune and then going to Slade. Then something's wrong. But it's a lovely evening at the state dinner with French President Emmanuel Macron. And it was just beautiful. And I kind of can't remember an event like this at the White House for about six years, really, given covid.

And then obviously the Trump years. And but it was very joyful. It was joyful. It was great to have everybody back. I mean, it was a little late for my taste. I mean, Mika, I got to tell you, George, Mika, she tricked me into going. She said we were going to a steak dinner. I was like, okay, we'll go to Quincy's. I'll be back by 6.30.

But maybe put on a tux. Well, she said it's the good Quincy's. It's not the one you usually go to. And so we went in and it was fantastic. I will say, though, Michael, when they got up and gave their statement, it was another one of those surreal moments. It was another one of those surreal moments where for a second you stop

and say, wait a second, we're in an extraordinary time. Yeah. Joe Biden gets up. He talks about the sort of things that all presidents have talked about, but really hasn't had the resonance because you've heard it so many times being for freedom, being for for for for Ali, being for liberal democracy, and talked about all these values. And then Macron got up, basically reiterated it, and said, I'm holding in my hand the Constitution, and talks about liberal democracy. And he said, it's not just a fight in Ukraine.

It's not just a fight across parts of Europe. It's a fight in our own countries. And he just held it up and he said, we the people. We the people. And I just thought back. And everybody started clapping. Clapping. It's a good party track.

Beautiful. Yeah. I mean, it's incredible how much you hope you'd like to get outside of a room like that. Right. So that everybody can see how democracies work. In English, right? In English. Spoken English.

Both at the White House yesterday. In English. And the resonance also of the fact that he said that we the people at a time when the United States had, I kind of think against most odds from what I expected, the United States rejected, the American people rejected every significant election denier. Said no, not you, wacko secretary of state, not you, bizarre, you know, gubernatorial candidate, not you, conspiracy theorist freak. We the people, we the people. It was very moving. Yeah. It was a beautiful night. Very moving.

So with us here in Washington, we have former chairman of the Republican National Committee, Mike McNeil. Can I stop for a second? Yes. You're interrupting me. I know, but he's messed up.

Can you believe this? I just want to give everybody a tip for young reporters. I want to give people... When somebody throws an opinion at you... Yeah. ...and you're a reporter,

you don't have to respond. Right. And you're a reporter. You don't have to respond. Do you see what Elizabeth just did? Nothing. A polite smile. The most elegant reporter in Washington. She said, that's your opinion. And maybe I agree with it. Maybe I don't. I'm just going to smile. You don't have to talk. That's power right there. You don't have to tweet. You don't have to respond to opinion. No, that's actually a really good point. It's not. Thank you, dear.

Elizabeth Miller is here. Good morning, everybody. Good morning. Attorney and contributing columnist for The Washington Post, George Conway, is with us. And congressional investigations reporter for The Washington Post, Jackie Allemane. She is MSNBC's Twitter. They're all going to just nod and smile this morning. No, George, you have to give your opinion.

No, I'm going to nod and smile. I'm going to be exhausted. I don't know if I can make it through the four hours. I think you can. Is this show four hours? We also have White House Bureau Chief of Clinical, John Athan Lemire. Hello, John Lemire.

It's very interesting. We have Prince William and Princess Kate. Wait, how do we get here? Up in Boston today. They're going to be meeting the president. Oh. But you and Barnacle and everybody else in Boston, we're just talking about one thing yesterday,

about how their visit is going to impact a part of Boston. What was it? We were, well, first of all, I should say, guys, that you both looked great last night. Cleaned up very nicely for the dinner. My invitation, perhaps, lost in the mail. Yes, Mr. Barnacle and I are concerned. guys that you both looked great last night cleaned up very nicely for the dinner my invitation perhaps lost in the mail um yes mr barnell and i are concerned uh about the uh prince and princess of wales being up in boston uh particularly ahead of celtics and bruins games they attended the

celtics game the other night uh and let's hope that they stick around joe saturday morning to watch in boston team usa and their do or die World Cup game against the Netherlands. But you're not concerned about Market Basket? Market Basket is, yes. I will happily take the lead. So Market Basket is a beloved New England chain of grocery stores. Market Basket, as it's known up there, as you might imagine. I spent a year there working as a high schooler at the one in Tewksbury, Massachusetts.

Mike Barticle spends most mornings there. Unclear what he's doing. There was, though, a very amusing social media post. The prince and princess are going to be at the one in Somerville. And people were concerned deeply about the traffic. That they would have a hard time getting to the Market basket because of the traffic created by the king and queen. And now the president's coming, too. So get your groceries early this morning, folks.

You won't be able to get near market basket later. You're going to be griping. Somebody tweeted, the most Boston thing ever. Here you have the future king and queen in a picture. Everybody in Boston is complaining about the parking for my hockey basket. I see Mike Barnicle is on later, so we'll talk to him about that. Also, we'll talk to him about his little mishap last night at the White House. No, let's not do that.

Mike. We have another major legal loss for former President Donald Trump. This one stings, and it certainly stings for a certain district court judge in Florida who really made a fool of herself pretty early in her career. Yes, a federal appeals court ruled yesterday that a judge's order appointing a special master to review documents seized from Trump's Mar-a-Lago home and club over the summer should be dismissed. The ruling made by a three judge panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals lifts earlier restrictions on the Justice Department's examination of classified documents and other records and allows investigators to proceed with the probe more quickly. We all were surprised by that decision. And now here we are. Insane decision. The panel stated that U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon's order to appoint a special master and prevent the government from using the trove of documents that were to review the materials retrieved from Mar-a-Lago.

We'll politely call him a skeptic. After Trump's team argued it couldn't rely on a so-called filter team at the DOJ to set aside any privileged documents. In a separate order, the three-judge panel, made up of two judges appointed by Trump and one appointed by former President George W. Bush stated its ruling will take effect in seven days, barring any intervention by the Supreme Court. So Donald Trump could appeal, but just a couple of things, George. And I, as you know, I revere the rule of law. I don't like speaking ill of any federal judges because I'm not there. As you know, it's just like a jury. Try not to second guess juries here.

This was obvious from the beginning from from from jurors, from from legal scholars on the left and the right. This woman was being a hack. She was being a political hack for Donald Trump. She was making a fool of herself. She had no basis in law for anything that she was doing. Right. And what a validation. The bigger story here is once again, the rule of law holds in the United States of America. What a validation that you have the 11th circuit, which is a very conservative circuit, but also no

nonsense. Absolutely. And they, they, they shut her down again. The Supreme court will as well. He doesn't have a snowball chance in the Supreme Court. Yeah. He's lost all his personal cases in the Supreme Court, essentially. This judge is an exception. That's the point we need to remember. I mean, there's there was a lot of suggestion that, oh, my gosh, it's going to go up to the conservative 11th circle, all these Trump appointees. This this decision never had a chance. I mean, it was based upon a legal complaint by Trump that even his own former attorney general, Bill Barr, said was a crock of, I won't use the word, the New York Times did print it. And her decision was just even worse

because it went even farther than Trump did. And what's great, I mean, you mentioned that two of the court of appeals judges on this panel were appointed by Trump. The first one is a great judge from Alabama, appointed by George Bush, George W. Bush, Bill Pryor, who is actually one of the names that Trump floated during the 2016 campaign from the list that he was going to choose from. And the opinion was just brutal. Oh, it's blistering. It was just it just eviscerated her and basically said that we have three choices. One here is to do follow the law.

The second is to make a rule that basically says that every drug dealer who gets who has stuff found in his basement can have things with a special master or special rule for ex-presidents. And that was the end of it. So can Trump delay this, though, by appealing? No. So what's the timeline moving forward? The timeline is just is going to be the timeline of the Justice Department. It's controlled by the Justice Department. It's controlled by the Justice Department. In fact, it was already controlled by the Justice Department because Trump essentially already lost this case on a stay

application with three earlier judges on a different panel in the 11th Circuit, also dominated by Republicans. Basically, the restrictions that were placed on the Justice Department were already lifted. Isn't it amazing, Elizabeth, that everything amazing to me, my opinion to you, you just got it any way you want. But but but so many losses from Donald Trump legally have come from Republican judges, Republican judges, Republican supervisors of elections, Republican secretary of states, Republican governors, Republican. And I listen, I've got problems with my former party. So many problems with my former party. I do think once in a while, the age of Twitter, we should draw a deep breath and say, wait a second.

A very conservative Supreme Court has just said no to Trump time and time again. A ridiculously conservative. I won't say that a very conservative 11th Circuit. No. The Secretary of State of Georgia will probably in the end be the person responsible for Donald Trump being indicted in the state of Georgia. There have been Republicans

that have held the line for democracy, and we can't ever overlook that fact. I mean, this is just another loss for Trump on all fronts. I mean, we can go on and on about all the Republican candidate, the Senate candidate, the candidates of his who lost. You know, there's the the investigations are heating up, especially the documents investigation at the Justice Department. There is. And then, you know, so what and all the Republican officials

who are now denouncing him. So he his Republican Party is shrinking and shrinking and shrinking. We had a piece this morning by Peter Baker about how Trump's Republican Party is really shrinking to the far to that, you know, intense, tiny, you know, anti-Semitic, in many cases, minority. Look what happened last night. He sent a video to a fundraiser for the families of the defendants in January 6th. He sent a supportive video. This is three or four days after Stuart Rhodes was convicted of sedition. So, you know, he is now in the most extreme corner of the Republican Party. And so I don't see where this goes in 2024. Right. Michael Steele, you do look. He does continue to shrink the party.

And unfortunately for a lot of Republicans who want to start winning elections, I'll put Newt Gingrich in that category. I don't know if you saw Newt's column yesterday, but he said Republicans keep making the same mistake. They keep underestimating Joe Biden. What Joe Biden's done with a minor with a small majority has been nothing short than awe inspiring. He should be compared to Reagan and Eisenhower. And if they want to keep making fun of his memory or the way he walks or the way he talks, they can do that. Joe Biden will just keep beating them. And so you add to that Donald Trump's insanity. His association with Kanye, which. Oh, my God.

I didn't get started. Let's set that aside. There's more there. And the extremism of the Republicans that are taking over. You know, if it's just backbenchers. Right. You know, we can say for four years, we're not going to say Marjorie Taylor Greene's name on this show. Why?

Why give back? It's just not the case anymore. You look at the Judiciary Committee, still a tweet up praising Kanye West. They deleted it. Oh, did they delete that last night? Oh, so after he went on to tweet that swastika. After he did and made those comments about Hitler.

So they finally deleted it. It took praise of Adolf Hitler for them to get to do this. And a swastika. I think we know where that line is. Here's my takeaway on all of this at this point. We've gone past

Donald Trump. I think people kind of appreciate that now. Let me explain how. It's not the media and others don't want to focus on the man and, you know, what he's trying to do or what he's trying to say. We're past that. I'm now looking at where the party leadership is trying to move itself. And the more telling thing for me was not the dinner that Donald Trump had with with Fuentes and Kanye.

It was the lack of response from political wannabes who want to be president. Right. The governor of Florida, which I still don't think he's put a statement out on that. Wow. The leadership of the party with the sort of milquetoast. Oh, we don't like anti-Semitism without saying that the anti-Semitic former president is the case to be made against. And it's not fit. And to draw that very bright line and say this is not who we are, nor is it who we want to be. Right. I have not heard it.

And you won't for the very reasons you said that that small fraction of the party still has political, financial and other sway and control over the leadership. Marjorie Taylor Greene will be the most powerful speaker, speaker of the House because she will have the opportunity to control what comes out of Kevin's mouth around the things that matter to that small cadre. You're saying she's going to be speaker? No, I'm saying she'll be the puppeteer. I just call the thing what it is.

So, I mean, you call it shadow. I call it the thing. It's the job. Because when you can't make that separation, when you're dragging her to your events and you're propping up and you're telling her, now that we're going to put you back in committee, we're going to give you a powerful leadership role. I'm going to make a bumper sticker out of this and put it on my Prius. Does anybody here think I have a Prius? I just call the thing what it is.

I like that. I just call the thing what it is. I like that. I just call the thing what it is. The fact does speak. That's it. That's what he meant. Okay. Well, I mean, Marjorie Taylor Greene has more Twitter followers, Facebook followers, a bigger social media following than any Republican in the House and probably the Senate. James Comer told us in an interview a few weeks ago that she was going to be an asset to his committee

because of that reason. And that being able to elevate their message of what they're doing from an investigative perspective was going to be helpful for him no matter what. But this is exactly the game that Trump played all four years that other Republicans are now mimicking, condemning something just enough for people to sort of say, OK, he he denounced it. And for that allows other Republicans to say the media is splitting hairs

when you say it wasn't a forceful enough condemnation, you know, and and that's what's happening right now with people like Kevin McCarthy, who, you know, you had his allies trotted out around shows all this past week defending him, saying that he denounced Trump forcefully. He didn't. And that is a game that he is playing so that he can become speaker of the House and get these remaining House Freedom caucus votes. And it's the game that presidential candidates in 2024 are going to continue to play up until they're the nominee. It's so funny. They say that the media splitting hairs, they're the ones splitting hairs. Right. I can play you Johnny Ernst's condemnation and say she wasn't splitting hairs. Can play play Mitt Romney's condemnations. He wasn't splitting hairs.

There's some people that aren't, you know, splitting hairs. So Jonathan Lemire, what's so fascinating is it's so hilarious that there's still somebody that's trusted with a voting card that believes that power and influence is and standing that would help a political party is connected to how many extremists somebody has following them on Twitter. This is the mistake that Donald Trump has been making. The Republican Party has been making for six years now for every extremist that that Marjorie Green brings to a cause. She offends five, you know, 10, maybe 100 suburban voters in Atlanta and suburbs of Philly, all over the country. Again, this is a losing proposition. And I said yesterday, it's not like I didn't have these extremists when I was at town hall meetings.

You know, you're sitting there talking about an issue and somebody screams, they're going to have to pull the gun. You're laughing because, you know, pull the gun out of my cold, dead hands. I said, yes. So if you index capital gains to you, don't go over and hug them and say, come on up and talk. You know, you're talking about indexing capital gains. You just kind of keep walking on. But they're running to that. And again, for my dear former Republican colleagues, I say this to help you. For every person you pick up with Marjorie Taylor Greene, you lose 10 to Joe Biden in 24. This is basic math. They can't figure that out. And Jonathan, I don't know if you saw the new Gingrich op-ed yesterday. It was remarkable. It was, you talk about a guy who's actually finally telling the Republican Party the truth about what they're up against

and why they keep losing. Yeah, Mike Allen and I discussed that column earlier on way too early. And Gingrich says he was watching Thanksgiving football, had a clarity, clarifying moment about the winning versus losing. And he's like, Joe Biden is winning and we are losing. Biden, can I just ask a question? OK, let's winning. Can I just ask a question? Okay. Let's self-clarify. If you lose in 2017, if you lose in 2018, if you lose the governorships in Louisiana, in Louisiana, in Kentucky in 2019, and if you lose in 2020 the House and the Senate,

and you lose in 22. It's like that Geico commercial where those people, those kids are running away from the axe murderer and they keep running toward him. If I said this, you would say, I'll take some. Go ahead, Jonathan.

You can mention all those electoral losses, but for Newt Gingrich, it was when the Giants lost to the Cowboys Thanksgiving afternoon. That's what clarified. Oh, there's winning and losing. So that's what happened. But I will say, this debate, all you're having around the table right here about whether to elevate the rhetoric of these extremists, the Marjorie Taylor Greene's of the world, that's the same debate that's been happening within the West Wing over the last few weeks.

Now the Republicans are poised to take control of the House of Representatives next month, and they've made a decision they're going to. They, for the first year of the Biden presidency, remember, he would barely even mention Donald Trump's name. They would ignore the backbenchers. They've decided now they're going to put a light on what they're saying. These extremists believing they can effectively make the Marjorie Taylor Greene's of the Republican Party the face of the Republican Party because of that exact calculation. They think that'll turn off the voters and the moderate voters. The Biden White House will be doing so. No, I didn't see her. Can I tell you how Republicans used to be? How was that? So I got elected in 94. I wasn't supposed to get elected.

Ninety six. The AFL-CIO threw like 100 million at us, which was a lot of money back then. And it was like we were going to destroy Medicare because, you know, we were kind of worried. A lot of freshmen lost in 96. I get 73 percent. Next morning, my dad says, hey, let me let me pick you up. We'll drive around and pick up pick up a sign so we won't, you know, declutter people's neighborhoods. I said, that sounds like we're driving around and we're listening to WCOA. The announcer comes on and he goes, and in the congressional race, and I'm puffing up with a cry, Joe Scarborough won a massive landslide, 73 to 27 percent. My dad, like his hand starts shaking and he turns off the radio. Who the hell

were those 27 percent? And I swear to God, that's how we thought. So I still think so when I just how do the Republicans put up with all this? I'm not saying they're losers as people, but how do you put up with so much? I couldn't deal with only getting 73%. How do they deal with

losing year after year after year after year for a failed reality TV host? I swear to God, this is a legitimate question. George knows this is not, you know, this is not how we think. That's not how we think. In fact, when I became chairman in 2009, the animus for what animated my chairmanship

was the fact that we had just lost the midterms in 06 and the presidential in 08. Right. And the party was on the ropes for that. And the question became, how do we reimagine the party for the American people? And to your point, like you did as a congressional candidate in 94, as we did with our congressional team and our statewide team in 2010, we were on the ground talking to voters and putting forth in front of voters what we believed in. Of course, the big debate was health care. So we had we had a political slash policy conversation.

Where does the party go when it has no platform? Now, where does the party go when the best biggest idea is, gee, let's convene a meeting and we're going to do a review of what we know you lost. The evidence is obvious. And why he lost. Mitch McConnell already told you the lack of a message. These things do matter still in politics. And Newt Gingrich is exactly right. Joe Biden, despite all the hiccups and the problems, was able to pivot off of that in a way, cut through that and resonate with the voters. You're from one of these gerrymandered Republican districts. If you're Jim Jordan, if you're I mean, it's just a matter of your own survival. And there's enough of those districts and enough of them that I mean, I'm not suggesting it's the right thing, but it's what motivates them.

And they still need Trump's base. Right. Well, those gerrymandered districts have gotten you a four seat majority in the House. Well, correct. So much for that. Everybody's today. And New York, if they'd won in New York, that wouldn't have happened. And Colorado's still out.

So we'll see. They're not. Yeah. And they're not even winning. You know, Kevin McCarthy thought they were going to get 60 votes. But again, George, it's it's the antithesis of what I thought Republicans were about, which was winning. Like, you know, people would ask me my strategy. I said, we're going to burn their campaign to the ground and then we're going to salt the earth. So nothing ever grows up there again. Well, they're and they go, what does that mean? And so we're going to beat them so bad their dog's embarrassed to walk down the street? Like it was that we've got to win.

But that's what's happening to them. We can't do anything if we don't win elections. And they just keep losing. And reason is. And it's the voters also in Senate races, not just gerrymandered House races. No, but this is, I want answers. I don't understand my old party. It's simple. It's simple is that they're hostage to the 20, 30, 40 percent of the party that is completely high on this toxic Fox News propaganda and besotted with Trump still.

And that's the problem. The problem, as Elizabeth just pointed out, is that you cannot piss these people off. You're going to get primaried and you're going to lose your election. So that's why you see this lack of courage. You're a congressman in one of these districts. You don't care. You just want to win your race. You don't want to get primaried. And it doesn't matter what happens in these swing, swing, swing districts. And the other thing is, you know, we have this we have this former president who's going to run again, who is running again, announced he's running again, who's going to be indicted at least once, probably two or three times. And he's going to get the nomination because we the only way he can be beaten is one on one. If you get all these people, I mean, there was something about Asa Hutchinson going to Iowa or somewhere in New Hampshire. I mean, all these people run.

Trump's going to win with 30 or 40 percent. You've got an indicted presidential candidate. Do you think that that is possible? And that is just not... It's possible. And that is... It's not going to stop. It's not going to stop. The indictment's going to come down before the primary. Right. And what do you think that means? Those people are going to say

they're picking on him, and I'll show them I'm going to vote for Donald Trump. No, that's true. That will happen. And the vote gets split. Ten other ways? Five other ways? five other ways. We'll see. Still ahead on. Everybody stay right here because you guys are keeping us awake. This is good. Thank you very much. Still ahead on Morning Joe, President Biden leaves the door open to a potential meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

We'll show you his new comments about that specifically. Plus, as Republicans argue amongst themselves, over continued support of Ukraine, former President George W. Bush weighs in on the ongoing war, what he's saying about U.S. involvement there. Also this morning, we'll be joined by Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, who just survived the challenge to his leadership post. You're watching Morning Joe. We will be right back. When the crowd began to wander. Dave Davis in the end zone. Bills quarterback Josh Allen on the run, chasing the sidelines before throwing a second touchdown of the first half. Allen is now the first player in NFL history with three seasons of 25 passing touchdowns and five rushing scores.

The AFC East leading Bills earned their first division win of the season, the 24-10 victory over the New England Patriots, after which Newt Gingrich realized losing is bad. That's pretty funny. after which Newt Gingrich realized losing is bad. So let's – That's pretty funny. Jonathan O'Meara, you know, the Bills, we won't talk about your Patriots. It's a new era. But, you know, the Bills and Josh Allen, it's interesting.

Here's probably one of the three best teams in the league, and they've got nothing but – what? I can't say the S word. They've just got nothing but, like garbage, crap, the whole season. Oh, Josh Allen, he doesn't play well in the clutch. Oh, the Bills. No, they're playing at a great conference. They're going to be there at the end.

I mean, he looked great last night again. Yeah, he'd been battling an injury for a few weeks, but you couldn't have told last night. He was great with both arms and his leg. Yeah, the Patriots were outclassed less said about them the better the bills are good like let's remember they lost that heartbreaker to the chiefs in last year's playoffs they kind of went into this season as super bowl favorites they're playing well but they've stumbled here or there right uh and they do the miami dolphins and

your command tua at qb uh are you know explosive that's gonna be a great race to win that division and of course kansas city still looms out west. But that's probably your three best teams in the AFC. And a year that feels really wide open, Joe. There's no overwhelming favorite. Yeah. Are you a Ravens fan? Ravens and Commanders.

Oh, nice. Because let me tell you something. Come on, dude. Yeah, dude. You can't like the Orioles and the Senators. Sure, I'm a native Washingtonian. I like the Commanders. You like the Commanders?

Yeah, really. Is Dan Snyder going to ever lead? You know, I was talking about it. There have been negative articles about Dan Snyder for like decades. I know. Is he going to ever lead? I think that footprint is being created for him now. I mean, I don't even know.

I mean, the fact that he made the statement that he did. He just needs to leave. The fact that he came out publicly and made the statement he did about getting Bank of America involved in the search or finding the financing for sale. Yeah. Tells you there's a lot of pressure internally inside the NFL ownership. Yeah. There's certainly a lot of pressure externally when there are more of the opponent's fans in the stands than the stands. Yeah. So, yeah, the writing's on the wall. Remember, never say never. Right.

Right. Never change the name. Never going to sell. Well, we've changed the name. Yeah. You know, so so for people that haven't been around that weren't around Washington before Dan Snyder took the team. Oh, my gosh. It's hard to explain. I mean, I'm not an NFL guy. I'm an SEC football guy. But it's hard to explain. In the morning, people would pick you up. You'd go to RFK.

People would be jumping up and down. The entire stadium would be moving. It was really the most exciting NFL games I've ever been to in my life. And then Snyder takes it over. They build a mausoleum up in Maryland. I mean, it's hard to explain, isn't it, how the, well, then Redskins games brought this entire community together every Sunday. It was incredible. Those are the Jack Kent cook years.

And that was the, the stadium was his legacy. He wanted something big built before he passed. And that's what they got out in, in Largo. But the reality for the, for the commanders, then Redskins was that was a franchise that had a waiting list, a 35 year waiting list of people who wanted season's tickets.

Yeah, that's all gone. Right. Fan base is broken. Well, you need to send Jeff Bezos a commander's jersey. Well, I guess he's getting more than one commander's jersey at this point. A lot of folks like the Bezos opportunity here. We'll see if that's put together in a way that brings minority ownership to the table and works for the city. Because remember, the goal is to put a new footprint over at the RFK Stadium, the old RFK Stadium. That's where they want the new stadium to go. The city wants a new stadium to go there, but not until there's probably a change in ownership. Yeah. So, Jackie, last night from talking about switching gears very quickly, but really not the White House and Capitol really averted disaster yesterday by getting by getting that deal done.

And even got Republican support. We saw Bernie Sanders and Ted Cruz. Yes, we did. Fist bump, which I think dogs and cats. Wow. That right there makes my eyes hurt. OK, we'll take it. But I think another example of of what Newt Gingrich was saying about Joe Biden's ability, while oft criticized for maybe his style and his not so artful way of speaking, the way he's able to navigate these situations that I think if there was potentially a Republican majority in the House and the Senate would cause some sort of meltdown. The big issue was paid sick leave, one of them, and they didn't really get exactly everything they wanted. No, but it does, I think, open up a potentially national conversation for this going forward.

And I think that's the plan from people that I've spoken to, that it's not over, that they, you know, averted disaster yesterday, but those issues are not dead. But I mean, I mean. Seven day paid sickly. If you work for if you're a worker, you cannot get paid time off to go to a doctor's appointment. This is nuts. It's just ridiculous. Which is why you had progressives

voting against it along with Republicans. There was an interesting meeting of people who were opposed to it as well on both sides. You're Yeah. But you're right. I mean, that's something that I think every American would agree that seven day sick leave or to go to a doctor's appointment. I mean, they deserve that. They they need that. So in the end, it's still a win for Joe Biden to Newt Gingrich's point. I know. Well, you know, he averted at going into the holiday Christmas season, averted something that would further disrupt the supply chain and create a lot of hardship for families

in America. But this goes, though, Jonathan Lemire, to the fact that this guy knows how to win even when it hurts, even when it hurts him. There was a lot of union representation last night at the state dinner. That's his base. And he had to go against his base. But you know what? When you've been around long enough, people trust you,

that you'll go back and make things right. And here's another example of how, you know, he said he can make things work. He said he could pass legislation. He said he could work with both sides. People were skeptical of that on the right. The media was skeptical of that. You have a lot of Democrats, a lot of progressives that early on were saying, the hell with the Republicans, don't deal with the Republicans.

This guy's kept his head down and he keeps, he keeps, as Newt Gingrich said, winning while Republicans keep losing. Yeah, it's a win that pained the president. You could tell he spoke pretty candidly about this yesterday. His news conference with Emmanuel Macron ahead of the dinner that he knows these are his people. These are his base. He's a trained guy. Yes. But he's also a labor guy. He's a union guy. This White House is really prided itself on being the most pro-labor in generations. And there were a lot of union workers pretty unhappy this morning about how this went down. But there is a sense, to Jackie's point, that it may have opened up a national conversation. This could be revisited sooner than later. There were some good things in

the deal for workers, too. But the president spoke yesterday about how paid sick leave is something that should happen. He knew this deal wasn't perfect, but he wasn't going to let good be perfect, be the enemy of good. And he made sometimes being president is about making the tough decisions. And aides tell me he agonized over this, but recognized it had to be done because the economic impact of a strike, particularly now, right before the holidays, as the nation still grapples with supply chain issues and inflation, would just be too devastating. He had to make that call, even though he wasn't all that happy about it. You have to count votes. You have to get to 60 in the Senate. He couldn't get to 60. So, you know, he could have shut down a good chunk of the economy or taken the deal that was in front of him. And he did what responsible presidents would do.

Jackie Alimany, always good to have you on with us. We just found out about Jackie's coffee habits. Yeah. Sugar problem. If my dad's watching, it comes from him. Oh, really? You're blaming your dad. Dunkin' Donuts.

He gets like five pumps of caramel. No. Five pumps of caramel. And they put so much cream, they go. And you do four of. Three to four. Three to four. White mocha.

White mocha. She's wide awake doing the jumps. That'll keep you going in the morning. All right. Jackie, thank you. Coming up, the Biden administration is pushing for a change to the primary calendar. We'll tell you which state it wants first and how lawmakers are responding. But up next is another win or go home game for Team USA.

We'll have a preview of tomorrow's big match versus the Netherlands. Morning Joe, we'll be right back. Yeah, Middle Point Cows is for you. Oh, baby, for you and me. Back for the captain, Tyler Adams. Austin McKinney, Des making a big run. It's meant for him. Des is stuck in behind jessie in the middle pull attack scores and as the ball comes across it's captain america to the rescue for the united states and he runs right into the goalkeeper at the end of this but

lays it all on the line for his team and for his country and gets his moment. What did it feel to you now that you have that forever moment? Because a lot of talk is about that London goal against Algeria. And now you had your moment, your first big moment. How do you feel about that? Feels great to score in a World Cup. Timmy knows what that's like. I think I'm hoping I haven't had that moment yet, to be honest. I'm hoping it's in front of me.

So it feels great to be where we're at right now, but there's still more to come. Wow. Okay, so that's American soccer star Christian Pulisic discussing the goal that sent Team USA, a pastor on into the World Cup round of 16 and sent him directly to the hospital. He's OK for a what contusion? Pelvic, pelvic, pelvic contusion. Yes. Now, don't focus on this. It's early in the morning. It's hard for some of us guys not to focus on it. I'm worried for him. It's all good.

The United States is going to play in a must-win match now against the Netherlands tomorrow. Kickoff's at 10 a.m. coverage. Begins at 9.30 Eastern. It's streaming, of course, on Peacock. Very cool. Meanwhile, the rest of the World Cup knockout round continued to take shape yesterday in Qatar. Unbelievable. It's not going to include Germany.

How many times have they won? Four? Two? Three times. Three times. No. We going to include Germany. How many times have they won? Four? Two? Three times. Three times. No. We really don't know. You're supposed to be the expert. Germany. Do we see three stars on there? I think we'll see. Alex, figure out how many and make it sound smart. They were eliminated. This is the second time they've been eliminated in the past four years from the group stage, despite a 4-2 win over Costa Rica. Mark's back-to-back early exits for them. Oh, the four-time champion.

Maybe I should read the script. We don't do scripts here. Instead, Japan. I love watching Japan play the beautiful game. They claim the top spot in Group E with a 2-1 win over Spain. Spain. Though Spain still advances. Runner-up based on superior goal differential to Germany.

You know what? Belgium could not find the net in a scoreless draw against Croatia. Was eliminated from the tournament, which is pretty shocking. I'm tired of reading scripts. Let's talk. All right. So, first of all, why don't we start with who's out? Belgium.

Yeah. They're a great team. Yeah. They're great. They're a great team. Yeah. There's Frank Ford, by the way. Staff writer for The Atlantic. For The Atlantic. And he wrote the best book on football and soccer I've read, How Soccer Explains the World.

And also a staff writer at the New Republic, Alex Shepard, who just wrote an extraordinary piece. Must have written it minutes after the win. Extraordinary piece on Team USA. And spoke for all of us when we said they never really seemed like they belonged in the past. But this team seems like they belong because they have some beautiful moves. But let's just go through this really quickly. Belgium, first of all. Yeah. Out.

A shock. Yeah. They were the number two ranked team according to FIFA's rankings. But, I mean, those are kind of bogus rankings. They had this golden generation. That's the cliche that you hear applied to this team constantly. They have these Kevin De Bruyne, one of the greatest playmakers in the modern game. They have Romelu Lukaku, one of the greatest strikers in the game.

And yet they couldn't put it together. They played reasonably well yesterday against Croatia. But the beauty of these last games in the group stage is that you have these teams that are hanging on for dear life. By the way, the great example that I've never seen anybody. If you look in Webster's dictionary next year, winning ugly next to it will be the Polish men's football team. That was the ugliest. Let's just stall for 80 minutes. Hope we don't get eviscerated by Messi. And hope something good happens on the other side of Qatar.

Yeah, just throw our bodies on the line. And yeah, so that's the way you play if you're in one of these games. And you have these banana moments like yesterday where there was this possibility that both Germany and Spain would have been eliminated. We're going to get eliminated. Unbelievable. And Alex, and by the way, guys, anytime we have any VO of people kicking balls, running up and down pitches, we can put that up. Japan. I mean, I love I've always loved watching Japan play. They are just so precise. But Japan, who would have believed yesterday that they would have almost gotten Spain and Germany out of the tournament? Same day.

It's extraordinary. They also, you know, they won with 22 percent of possession. They also lost to Costa Rica, a team that lost their first game to the spanish team that they beat yesterday seven to nothing and yet in the games against spain and germany they were just perfect they were clinical they barely had the ball but when they did uh they just were perfect and i think you know that uh the goal that they're showing right now or the you know 99.5 percent of the ball goes over the line that uh that sums it all up like when it mattered they they got it done yeah so it's a ball over the line, that sums it all up. Like, when it mattered, they got it done. Yeah.

So it's a ball over the line. Play to the whistle. No. You know, a ball, let me, if I could do a physics, a ball is a sphere. Right. And just because part of the ball is not over the line, maybe the overhang, the little far part is over the line. Alex was ball over the line.

Kissing line. Kissing line. It was not over the line. Alex was ball over the line. Kissy line. It was not over the line. The ball was still in play. It was very much still in play. Yeah. All right. Very good.

It's great. Okay, so let's talk about Team USA. Alex, you, again, you talked about how you were Mary Magdalene and Jesus Christ superstar. I don't know how to love him. You don't. I haven't known, like many people, if you spend our weekends, as we do, watching Premier League football and watching some of the best football in the world,

sometimes it's been painful watching Americans play the sport on the biggest stage. That's not the case this year. You kind of feel like we have finally come into our own and we've got a team that that that belongs on the big stage. Yeah, I think in the past there are moments where I would watch the group stage or the round of 16, this U.S. team like through my hands. It was absolutely abject, particularly defensively. It was never clear what the tactical plan was or if they didn't have the players to execute it. This time, it's very clear that they

have a plan and that they have the players to execute it. The midfield in particular is extraordinary. It's a funny thing to say about a team that scored two goals in the World Cup, but they are fun. They're dynamic. They're always moving. And Greg Berhalter, a coach that I had pretty serious doubts about coming into this tournament, has, I think, actually laid out some pretty clear tactical masterclasses in the first three games. So I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm confident with the U.S. playing the Dutch. Can I ask a question? Can I ask a question? So what has changed over the years for U.S. soccer that the U.S. team has come to this moment? Yeah. I mean, how has this changed over the years for U.S. soccer that the U.S. team has come to this moment? Yeah.

I mean, how has this changed over the decade, for example? It used to be we'd have maybe one player that would play at a top team. Right, emerge. In Europe. Now suddenly you're calling out one of the best players from Chelsea, one of the best players from Leeds, one of the best players. Is it money? You have a generation of guys who've gone over

and they've joined the most elite European soccer academies at a very young age. And so they're tutored in how to play the game at the highest level. They play in the Champions League week in, week out, where they're scoring goals. So they've proven themselves already in Europe. Yeah, and so we just can play more on the competitive level.

They're playing against the best. We have more guys that are playing against the best in the world, and they know how to move. They see the lanes. They push it up. I will say one of our big problems still is people go, oh, you've got 320 million people. Every star, it seems, that you hear about, Tyler Adams,

and I remember hearing the same thing about Clint Dempsey. Everybody has the same story. Oh, well, he woke up. He had to drive four hours to an academy here and four hours back every day. We still our guys still have to go far too far to get training. The great ones are in, you know, rural parts of the country and they have to drive. American youth soccer, like much of American youth sports, is a total racket.

It's run for profit by people who don't have necessarily the best interests of the game at heart. And so that's something I think that needs to fundamentally. Really quickly, we got to go, but really quickly, does the U.S. win?

Do they have a shot? They definitely have a shot. I don't know. I mean, Holland is one of the royalty of A's. They have a storied coach. They have Van Dyke. Your guy, Virgil Van Dyke. Yeah, amazing.

But maybe. Alex, what do you think? I think the U.S. wins 2-1. I think this is not the Dutch team of all. He's very clear. Yeah, I believe. He's decisive. Cody Gakko is looking good, but he's the only proven goal scorer on this team right now.

All right. You know what? The converted has a certain tenacity. I love it. He let it spring for. I'm just going to say that this bodes well for the future of soccer in the U.S. With this U.S. team. You're going to want women's soccer, too.

And the New Republic's Alex Shepard. Thank you both very much. New York Times Washington Bureau Chief Elizabeth Bumiller, thank you very much. And George Conway. Thank you both very much. New York Times Washington Bureau Chief Elizabeth Bumiller, thank you very much. And George Conway, great to have you on as well. We'll see you all again soon here in Washington. And still ahead, former President Obama on the campaign trail in Georgia, explaining why it is not time for the party to rest with four days until the runoff election. Plus, we'll be joined by House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn after the South Carolina Democrat secured another leadership role in the next Congress.

Morning Joe, we'll be right back.