Morning Joe - Morning Joe 12/22/22

Episode Date: December 22, 2022

Zelenskyy says Ukraine is 'alive and kicking' as he appeals to Congress for continued support

They threw everything against us, similar to the other tyranny, which is in the Battle of the Balch. Threw everything it had against the free world, just like the brave American soldiers, which held their lines and fought back Hitler's forces during the Christmas of 1944. Brave Ukrainian soldiers are doing the same to Putin's forces this Christmas. Вітаємо святку. surrender. A remarkable speech, a remarkable occasion. Ukrainian President Zelensky addressing an extraordinary joint session of Congress, pressing Republicans and Democrats alike for continued support as Republicans prepare to take control of the House. We're going to have much more on this address from the Capitol and from Zelensky's meeting with President Biden. Plus, a major winter storm set to impact just about every corner of America.

Millions bracing for heavy snow and freezing temperatures. And it's set to arrive at the peak period for holiday travel. Good morning and welcome to Morning Joe. It's December 22nd. With us, we have former aide to George W. Bush, White House and State Department's Elise Jordan, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, Richard Haass, and U.S. special correspondent for BBC News, Katty Kaye and staff writer at The Atlantic, David Frum. Mika and Willie have the morning off. Katty, obviously, as you know, I'm a bit of an Anglophile and I've grown up listening to speeches of Churchill in the darkest days of 1940 going into the winter of 41.

I think we've all read the history of that, the history of this relationship between Churchill and Roosevelt. Churchill coming to the White House, understanding that the new world needed to step in and save the old world in his words. And I'm just wondering, with parents and grandparents and an entire generation that shaped your life, having this as the defining moment, a World War II, victory in World War II, a war in Europe against a foreign tyrant, what were your thoughts last night, the parallels that you were drawing in your mind when President Zelensky was addressing a joint session of Congress? Yeah. And of course, even the timing, right, that President Zelensky himself referred to, the fact that he was coming here just a couple of days before Christmas. Churchill came here to make a similar plea to the Americans just the day after Christmas.

Zelensky's English is not his native language. He was speaking in Ukrainian, but, I mean, as a Ukrainian, speaking a foreign language. And yet that didn't diminish the power of what he said. And he was very conscious of that. He was conscious that this was a historic moment. He referred to historical figures as he was making that plea of a European leader coming to America amid tight security to ask the great American power for help to defend his country from an oppressor. It felt so similar to Churchill coming to America. The difference perhaps was that Churchill drank an awful lot before the speech because he was nervous.

Zelensky, if he was nervous, didn't give very much sign of it. And I doubt very much that he'd been slogging back the whiskey beforehand, as Churchill had been. But the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, entered the House chamber. You can see it right there, to thunderous applause last night, shaking hands with lawmakers from both sides of the aisle. Here is some of that historic address. Against all odds and doom and gloom, scenarios Ukraine didn't fall. Ukraine is alive and kicking. Thank you for both financial packages you have already provided us with and the ones you may be willing to decide on. Your money is not charity.

It's an investment in the global security and democracy that we handle in the most responsible way. If Russian missiles attack us, we'll do our best to protect ourselves if they attack us with iranian drones and our people will have to go to bomb shelters on christmas eve ukrainians will still sit down at the holiday table and cheer up each other and we don't don't have to know everyone's wish, as we know that all of us, millions of Ukrainians, wish the same. Victory. Only victory. Standing here today, I recall the words of the President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, which are, I think, so good for this moment. of the President Franklin Delano Roosevelt,

which has, I think, so good for this moment. The American people, in their right-toes might, will win through to absolute victory. The Ukrainian people will win too. Absolutely. There you see Republicans and Democrats alike giving President Zelensky a standing ovation. Richard Haass, I'd love to get your insights on the speech, what it means.

Also, something that we've talked about an awful lot, something that you've said that one of the great challenges for America doesn't come from overseas, but right here at home. Republicans and Democrats needing to work together at foreign policy, at politics ending at water's edge. And I look at last night as a positive sign for America, for Washington. You look at the bipartisan legislation passed over the last two years. You look at the negotiations and the legislation that may be going through in a bipartisan manner coming up. It actually

shows a Washington that is working. There was considerable bipartisanship. The pending omnibus spending bill, which includes considerable funds for Ukraine, being part of it, just as a 10-second aside, also reform of the 1877 Electoral Count Act, which doesn't get a lot of attention, but might be the single most important thing Congress does in the run up to the 2024 election. I thought Mr. Zelensky last night, President Zelensky made a real appeal to explain why this was in America's interest. I thought the line that money be spent is not charity, but was an investment. And essentially in our own extended self-interest was exactly right. It might have been the most important line of the of the speech, Joe. It was an educational line. And I think that was a big part of his

purpose, was to shore up support. Obviously, worried about what a Republican House might do, worried about the left side of the Democratic Party. So I think part of his message was to appeal to Congress, both sides, to the American people, but also to put some pressure on the administration when he basically said about tanks, about missiles, about airplanes, we can learn to use these, we can use these responsibly. And part of the backdrop to this visit was continuing friction, if you want to call it that, or some disagreement about how aggressively to prosecute this war. The Ukrainians want to prosecute it aggressively, if quote unquote, to win. The Americans have clearly, the United States has given them enough support so they don't lose, but some unease about being too aggressive,

concerned about how the Russians might react, about the possibility of escalation, and also some friction, or again, not exactly on the same page, about what the definition of victory is. Mr. Zelensky obviously talking about getting back all of their territory for some people in the administration again, or for outsiders, say Henry Kissinger, who wrote a piece the other day that puts Russia in a corner and again could risk escalation. So I thought it was a really positive speech. Hard not to be emotional watching that. And I agree with you. I like the signs of bipartisanship all too rare. But I think we shouldn't kid ourselves. There are some big unresolved issues in the backdrop. Well, Richard, I think you make an important point talking about

the unresolved issues because President Zelensky really couldn't have done a more incredible job of the emotive part of the argument and what the stakes are for the Ukrainian people. And my question is, did he answer the question why this is in the interest of the American people successfully? And did he make that case successfully enough to Congress that this new billions of spending that is going to be spent, that's going to be used responsibly? And I guess I'd go to David with that. Did he successfully make that case to the American people that our continued aid is in the American national interest? Well, President Zelensky came to say thank you. And maybe he knows and maybe he doesn't, that one of the talking

points of the MAGA right, the anti-Ukraine faction in American politics, has been to criticize him as ungrateful, maybe even a little uppity, and to seize on details like his clothing to say that he's not grateful enough. So he expressed gratitude over and over again. I don't know about others. As he did that, I felt a pang of something like shame that the United States has given generously of money. It's given generously of equipment. But in the end, these are only things. Zelensky's people are giving their lives.

They are suffering through without heat and without light to defend their country. A democracy, an American partner. And I think at some point we need to say thank you to them. I mean, they're shedding blood. They're giving their sons, their daughters, they're giving everything. And I hope that there was just that there was a little like, you know, the seasonal stories we tell this time this year. He touched something in the American heart when he said thank you. Maybe that one too many time. Yeah. Yeah. You know, the thing is, though, it's so interesting. I had referenced Churchill. And by the way, just to be very clear.

Yes, Churchill did drink before delivering that speech. But in his defense, he drank after the speech as well. And well into the morning, he drank in the bathtub. It was balanced. He drank in the bathtub. He drank all the time. But, you know, I've mentioned it before on this show, and I will say this during it with absolutely no with no reticence. I say this during the darkest moments of of 2017 and 2018, when I thought our backs were against the wall and asked whether we would, this democracy would survive, I would listen to Churchill at night as I was going to bed.

And I would listen to his speeches. And I sat there thinking, but there's just such an immediacy there. And I can't imagine what it must have been like. Well, you can imagine it now because Zelensky actually and Zelensky's wife and Zelensky's family and the Ukrainian people are actually in just as harrowing a position, if not more. And the bravery from that very first night when they went out in the streets of Ukraine and they took that video and put it up on Instagram. It's been nothing short of extraordinary.

And we would hope, looking at their courage, that it would reflect back on us as a people, too, and remind us of all the things that we have done as a people together through the years, whether it was fighting the Nazis, fighting the communists. And this is something that David touched on in his latest piece. Zelensky recalled us to ourselves. And this is what David wrote. Maybe our ideals were not so out of date. Maybe our institutions were not so broken. Maybe the people the Ukrainians needed to be, maybe those were the people we could be again. What the Western world is getting in return for its aid to a powerful recommitment to be its own best self. We didn't believe Ukrainians could do it, in part because we didn't believe we could do it, but they did. And so did we. And we now look at both Ukraine and ourselves in new ways. The extremists and conspiracy theorists, the populists, the authoritarians, the kleptocrats, the theocrats who've gained so much ascendancy in recent years, they do not speak for us.

Sometimes Americans forget that. And Richard, I have spent my adult life. David, let me go to you first and then Richard. David, I've spent my adult life. I met you as a young man when I first got to Washington. I met you one of the first days I got into Washington almost 30 years ago, and we had a talk. Since that time, I have spent my adult life telling Americans it's going to be okay. Madisonian democracy will see us through. Our court system will see us through.

Our military will see us through. How many people told me Donald Trump would never leave the White House? And I had to say, you just don't know the men and women in the United States military. And you don't know people in the Secret Service, do you? Bad apples? Yeah, there's some bad apples. But you don't understand the essence of America. And let me expand that out. You don't understand the essence of Western civilization. Yes, I just said it. Western civilization, like all civilizations,

terrible sins in our background that we should confront every day to become a better people. But let's remember, we, just we as a nation, we Americans, we have fed and freed more people than any country in the history of this planet. And we have done it with our most steadfast allies in Britain and across the in France, across the West. And you are right. That's something that we forget too easily in these days of of podcasts and cable news shows and screeching editorials and screeching social media posts. We still we still are resolved to spread freedom across the globe and to help our brothers and sisters in Ukraine. Well, it was touch and go for some minutes. And one of the symbolic significances of President Zelensky is he's a man who has defied not only Putin, but also Donald Trump. That if it had been up to Donald Trump, he would have squeezed Zelensky,

broken him, and used him to corrupt the American political system. That's what the first Donald Trump impeachment was about. It was about Trump's attack on Zelensky. And I think a big part of the rage that the pro-Trump forces and the remains of the Trump family express toward Zelensky on social media everywhere there can is their awareness that he stood up to Trump and that he foiled Trump's scheme. The whole Hunter Biden, that's the epilogue to the big play, which was to break Zelensky and use him as a weapon in American politics. And Zelensky refused. He defied Trump. And that was our first indication of the measure of Zelensky refused. He defied Trump. And that was our first indication of the measure of Zelensky's courage and leadership. He would not go along with one

bully. And then he turned around and was and he led his nation to fight an even more dangerous, more heavily armed, more aggressive bully in Vladimir Putin. I agree that we may have dodged something of a bullet, to say the least, here domestically. I also think there's been some salutary international consequences, Joe, and you were getting at it. One is it's a reminder that there still is a West. Second of all, that American leadership still counts, not leading from behind. We've actually led from ahead here. Europe would not have done much of what it did without the United States. It shows the value of American leadership.

It shows the centrality of alliances. Essentially, a lot of the things, a lot of the policies that led to the Cold War ending on terms that were so supportive of our interests and values, we're seeing something of a revival of those things. And I think that's important. And it makes the case, again, across the political spectrum, that the United States has to stay involved. It gets back to Zelensky's line, not as a favor to others, not as a form of philanthropy, but as the best way to protect ourselves, our interests and our values here at home. That's the lesson that has to be repeated again and again and again. And, Caddy, how fascinating that in the age of autocrats, the rise of autocrats, I remember the foreign affairs cover that talked about the age of autocracy. And there was a rise in autocracy over the past

five years or so. But how fascinating that Americans, the British people, the French, of course, the Poles and and those in the Baltic states, regardless of what was going on internally, there was almost an immediate return to first principles. Wait a second. This is who we are. We push back against aggression, against a country that is trying to break out and move toward the West and move towards democracy. Yeah, I mean, I think the big question, the reason that Zelensky came when he did was how long that unity of commitment lasts, not just in words, but in terms of military supplies. Obviously, there's been fewer military supplies from Europe than there has from the United States. And with the change of Congress coming in now after the new year, Zelensky is aware that America may not be as generous and the new Congress may not be as generous as the previous one has been.

And he needs to try and rally those forces. At the same time, it's, you know, we can't be Pollyanna-ish about this. Last night was a moment of celebration and triumph and applause for Zelensky, who has been a remarkable leader. But he goes back to a country that is very well aware that Russian troops are massing on the Belarusian border, that there could be a new incursion even towards Kiev in the new year. His people will be going to bed tonight without any heat and it is freezing cold. Think about that cold storm that is sweeping through America right now. And imagine those people without heat and without light. That is the kind of conditions that Ukrainians are living in.

And back in Russia, Vladimir Putin has a reasonably strong economy. It hasn't collapsed. The sanctions have not destroyed the Russian economy yet. He still has access to markets for his oil. He is still managing to resupply his armed forces, even though he is heavily sanctioned with things like supply chips. And those don't seem to have, as of yet at least, had the kind of impact that Europe, that the West thought they would have. I mean, the expectation would be that the Russian economy would really be on its knees by now. And it isn't. So yesterday was a triumph in terms of the relationship

and a very important moment, a historic moment, in U.S.-European relations. But let's not underestimate the kind of challenges that Zelensky, and I don't think Zelensky would want us to for a moment underestimate the kind of challenges that he is flying back to. Well, great challenges ahead, obviously, for the Ukrainians. And there will be challenges in the United States relationship

with the Ukrainians as we move through the winter into the spring and perhaps talk of a negotiated peace comes to the forefront. It's going, there's going to be a challenge to see

whether all of our interests align perfectly. I suspect they won't. So much more ahead here. And we have much more ahead from Ukrainian President Zelensky's visit to Washington, including a stop at the White House. Plus, new remarks from Russian President Vladimir Putin, who admits the situation in occupied Ukraine is complicated. But he says the war will go on. But first, let's go to meteorologist Angie Lassman for the major winter storm that's

going to impact millions of holiday travelers. Angie, it's rough out there. Tell us about it. Yeah, rough to say the least, Joe. It's going to be a bitter cold couple of days, a busy couple of days when it comes to snow and rain. And you can see those windchill alerts are up for almost all of the country. Millions are going to be impacted by this. And when we look at exactly how cold it is right now in places like Pierre, minus 49 for the windchill. You look to Denver, it's minus 34. Denver had a temperature drop of 67 degrees in 24 hours.

Just incredible cold working in. And it's not just the midsection of the country. This is going to spread out east into the northeast. New York coming in at just zero degrees for your wind chill on Saturday. Minus one for Atlanta and places like Orlando. Maybe you were heading south, getting away from the cold for the holiday weekend. No, you aren't. It's still going to be a single-digit kind of day,

with all 50 states going to feel below freezing through the next couple of days. And it's not just that. The winds are also going to be an issue with snow. That means blizzard conditions expected in places like Michigan. We'll see some snowfall in Chicago, which will impact travel. So just be aware of that if you're traveling to any of those major hubs in the Midwest. Also, though, the rain that could potentially cause some flooding around the I-95 corridor, again, not great for travel. And those winds, they will be impressive. 63 mile per hour winds in Buffalo. This is going to make travel a nightmare for folks, not to mention

that rush of cold air that's expected for the Northeast. That's going to cause problems, Joe, when it comes to flash freezing on the roads. It's not just the air travel that will be impacted, but it will also be those roadways with black ice. And boy, like you said, the temperature is just dropping. The numbers out of Denver, incredible. They're going to be pretty rough in the northeast as well. Angie Lassman, thank I get. Do we say thank you? Yes, we say thank you for warning us of just terrible weather. We greatly appreciate it. And still ahead, we're going you for warning us of just terrible weather. We greatly appreciate it. And still ahead, we're going to dig into the new transcripts released by the House Select Committee investigating January the 6th, which includes one witness after another pleading the

fifth hundreds of times. But but I thought, as Donald Trump said, that only the mob pled the fifth. What's he saying about his own people? You're watching Morning Joe. We'll be right back. Hey, make it Joe Willie. look at this. Happy anniversary to you and the gang. You got a bit of a gang there. You know, you're lucky. I don't have a gang. I wish I had a gang. Anyway, happy anniversary. And, you know, every conversation I have when I bring up anything political, I take it from your show. And I don't attribute it to any of you. But you're making me seem a lot smarter than I am.

So thank you. No, thank you, Larry. We appreciate that. It's funny, Larry. You told me this is a terrible idea. Don't do this show. It won't last 15 minutes. Anyway, thank you, Larry. The full report from January 6th committee is expected to be released today. It was supposed to come out yesterday, but the panel pushed it back a day with some logistical problems in printing the 800-page report. Others didn't want to take the attention away from Ukrainian President Zelensky's speech to Congress as well. The committee did release some new information yesterday, though, a batch of transcripts of 34 witnesses who repeatedly took the Fifth Amendment while testifying before the panel. Here are some of the notable names on that list. Answered few or no questions at all. John Eastman. I hope you get him a good lawyer. The Trump lawyer. The committee is called the

mastermind behind the fake elector's plot. Also, he cited his Fifth Amendment right 155 times. Trump adviser Roger Stone responded the fifth more than 70 questions. There is also white nationalist Nick Fuentes, former National Security adviser Michael Flynn, conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. The panel also questioned leaders of the far right militia groups, the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys. But both used the Fifth Amendment. All of these people use the Fifth Amendment. So, Donald Trump, I'm curious. What do you think about people who plead the Fifth? Taking the Fifth, I think it's disgraceful.

What happened? He pleaded the Fifth. Right? He pleaded the fifth. Right. He pleaded the fifth. Fifth Amendment. Fifth Amendment. Fifth Amendment. Fifth Amendment. Horrible. Horrible. The mob takes the fifth. If you're innocent, why are you taking the Fifth Amendment? Well, and that's, of course, a question, that he can ask everybody around him that worked with him to overthrow a peaceful election, a fair election, an open American election. Only the mob takes the fifth, Katty, is what Donald Trump says.

It's a good only the mob. You know, with Donald Trump, there's always either a tweet or thankfully a piece of video that directly contradicts whatever it is that he's saying in the present. We have found that over the last six years, haven't we? Meanwhile, Mike Pence continues to come to the defense of Donald Trump, despite the former president reportedly saying Pence, quote, deserve to be hanged on January the 6th. In an interview this week, the former vice president spoke out against charging Trump with crimes relating to the Capitol attack. Instead, Pence suggested it was Trump's lawyers who were responsible for efforts to overturn the 2020 election, not the former president himself. But during the House January 6th hearings, we heard from one of those lawyers who made it clear that he opposed plans to challenge the election results. Here is what Pence had to say this week

and what we previously heard from White House lawyer Eric Hirschman. I would hope that they would not bring charges against the former president. I don't, look, as I wrote in my book, I think the president's actions and words on January 6th were reckless. But I don't know that it's criminal to take bad advice from lawyers. He started to ask me about something dealing with Georgia and preserving something potentially for appeal. And I said to him, are you out of your effing mind? I said, I only want to hear two words coming out of your mouth for now on.

Orderly transition. And he screamed and said, I don't want to hear any other effing words coming out of your mouth no matter what, other than orderly transition. Repeat those words to me. And I screamed and he said, eventually he other than orderly transition, repeat those words to me. And I figured out in a second, eventually he said orderly transition. I said, good, John, now I'm going to give you the best free legal advice you're ever getting in your life. Get a great effing criminal defense lawyer. You're going to need it. And of course, he does need it now, and they all need it. And they're all pleading the fifth, as Donald Trump would say, like the mob, because, of course, Donald Trump doesn't understand the Constitution and the protections that the Constitution and the amendments give us.

It's interesting, you know, I think one of those fascinating moments here is when Pat Cipollone, the president's attorney, was asked, did anybody in the White House, any lawyers, any staff members, did anybody agree with what was going on at the Capitol or with Donald Trump trying to overthrow an election? And Pat Cipollone said, no, not one. And yet here we have Mike Pence trying to blame the lawyers. We just saw the lawyers right there. We heard the lawyers all against this horrible plan, all desperate to get Donald Trump to call the insurrectionists and the mobsters off when Mike Pence's life was in danger. And all despaired when he refused to do it. All of them. Every single one.

And yet, David Frum, you and I have known Mike Pence for a long time. So discouraged for such a long part of Donald Trump's administration, how he just he shamed himself. He humiliated himself. And on January the 6th, I was so proud of him standing up for American democracy. I was like, OK, well, all's well that ends well. And now we have him back in the old role of really humiliating himself and lying for Donald Trump. Yeah, he might as well speak his mind instead of, as you say, he did the right thing at the moment that it counted and honor to that. But since then, it's been like he's writing op eds after op eds, the case for hanging Mike Pence by Mike Pence. But let's also keep an eye on who those lawyers really are. Pat Cipollone, who said no one defended what happened on January 6th.

Pat Cipollone led President Trump's defense in, then President Trump, in the first impeachment trial when Trump was being charged for trying in advance to pervert the election. And if he'd succeeded in that scheme, he wouldn't have needed to use violence, trying to pervert the election by blackmailing, extorting Ukraine and its president, Zelensky, in order to corrupt the American election of 2020 in advance. That was okay. That was not an impeachable offense. If the impeachment before the election

had put Michael Pence into the role of the incumbent president in 2020, none of this would have happened and we would have had a fair election. We would have had a peaceful transition, no matter whether Mike Pence won reelection, as he as he should have done, or whether Joe Biden defeated him. I have two reactions listening to all this on Pence. He actually has to make a decision and he's failed. He should be running in some ways as the anti-Trump candidate, but he can't quite bring himself to doing that. So he's caught in between. And it seems to me this is it's bad on every level from the legality to

the to the politics. The other is this, Joe, there's got to be some irony here. All these people citing the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution in order to defend their ability or protect themselves from the consequences of everything they did to undermine the Constitution. Maybe that's what makes it so great that we even allow it to provide protections for those who would destroy it. But that's what we're seeing here. No, I mean, to what you're saying, Richard, the politics of the moment, Pence just seems to be stuck in the past. And every candidate at some point has to get over their presidential ambitions. You look at what Mitt Romney did and ran for the Senate and is going to be remembered well in history as standing up against Trump. You look at what Liz

Cheney did, standing up to Donald Trump and giving up her political future in the Republican Party. Joe, why can Mike Pence not move on from his presidential ambitions? Or do you think it's something else? Well, it just comes down to the fact that he doesn't understand. I said it yesterday. It's like a political version of the sixth sense. He doesn't know politically that he's dead. He's not going to win anything.

He's never going to be elected to office again. Donald Trump will make sure of that. There are enough Trumpists in the base. They'll never forgive him for that. So if you're not going to get elected because you did the right thing, do what Liz Cheney did. Liz Cheney, who, by the way, other than Anthony Fauci, I say that and I know it triggers the snowflakes on the Trump rights of snowflakes. Please lock yourself in a freezer

so you don't melt. Anthony Fauci, the most popular man in America when it comes to public servants. Number two, please, snowflakes, don't get triggered. Liz Cheney, because Liz made a decision. She knew she could do the right thing or she could get reelected. So Liz has lived politically to fight another day. We don't know when that's going to be, but that's the decision Mike Pence needs to make right now. We don't know what the political landscape is going to look like in two years and five years and 10 years. Mike Pence could still have a future there, but he's trying to get elected in Donald Trump's Republican Party. It's never going to happen. As old Texas politicians would say, there ain't nothing in the middle of the road in Texas but white lines and dead armadillos.

There's not going to be a way to work the middle path here for Mike Pence. He just needs to do the right thing. And that, at least, is what he's trying to do right now. And he's going to fail. So on that happy news, not happy because I mean, I like Mike. I wish you'd keep doing the right thing. But David Frum, he just doesn't he doesn't seem to understand he's not going to be president in in Donald Trump's party. So, again, why not keep doing the right thing like he did before and during January 6th? Yeah. Well, if you won't believe in your own accomplishments, and that's been, I guess,

maybe the theme of this show. If you can't believe in yourself, who else will believe in you? He did the right thing on January 6th, and he should believe in that. And that is his message. That is his legacy. That's the most important thing he did in his whole political career. And if he can't take ownership of that, then really, what is the point of him? If your best moment does not define you, then what are you going to be defined by?

And, you know, I don't want to be too melodramatic here, but we started by talking about Winston Churchill. Churchill, the famous saying from one of his friends, when Winston's right, he's right. And when he's wrong, my God. There are many my God moments throughout Winston Churchill's career, but he got 1940 right. And he saved Western civilization from, from Nazism until the new world could come to the aid of the old, as he would say. Mike Pence got January 6th right. He needs to make that his legacy. David Frum, thank you so much for being with us and coming up. The spending bill to fund the government is stalled in the Senate. We're going to tell you what's holding it up and how senators are feeling about getting it passed. Plus, Elon Musk is defending his massive cost-cutting measures at Twitter,

comparing the social media site to a plane that's about to crash. Well, that's certainly going to make investors feel better. Meanwhile, a former billionaire accused in one of the largest financial frauds in history is back in the U.S. this morning. But how long will he be behind bars? We're going to have the latest on that case and much more on Morning Joe. Hey, it's Ken. There are so few moments left in the country right now where we feel like we are part of something together.

For 15 years, Morning Joe has been a meeting place for so many of us who care about politics. It's a place where smart conversations take place. It's a place where America matters, good or bad, and where we are connected by shared values, even when we may disagree on certain issues. I'm so very, very grateful for that. Thank you, Joe, Mika, Willie, Mike and the whole Morning Joe team. Congrats on this accomplishment. that make you feel like a woman. 6.45 in the morning, Elon Musk is defending his massive cost cuts at Twitter as necessary for the social media giant's survival, saying in a call Tuesday, quote, this company is like basically you're in a plane that is headed towards the ground at high speed

with the engines on fire and the controls don't work. The Twitter CEO placed partial blame for the company's financial status on the roughly $12 billion worth of debt payments tied to his overall $44 billion purchase of the company. The multibillionaire also blamed the recent interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve. Musk said without a strong paid subscription service, Twitter may be operating with a $3 billion negative cash flow next year. This revelation comes as Musk announced he will resign as CEO as soon as he can find a replacement. However, he says he will stay with the company

to oversee Twitter's software and service teams, a position that still holds significant power. Meanwhile, not a great day for Sam Bankman-Fried, the former crypto mogul accused of one of the largest financial frauds in history, is back in U.S. custody this morning. The 30-year-old was extradited from the Bahamas and flown to New York last night, accompanied by federal law enforcement officials. Bankman-Fried could make an initial appearance in federal court as soon as today. The big question is whether he'll be granted bail. His lawyers have reportedly discussed an agreement that would allow him to be released pending trial.

He faces charges including wire fraud and money laundering, stemming from the dramatic collapse of his massive cryptocurrency exchange FTX. And coming up, more from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's historic visit to Washington, D.C., and its potential impact on future U.S. aid for his nation's war effort. But will anything Zelensky said yesterday actually matter to the incoming Republican House majority? The chair of the Foreign Relations Committee, Congressman Greg Meeks, will weigh in on that. And up next in sports, Yankee slugger Aaron Judge is getting more than a massive contract this offseason. We'll tell you about the exclusive group he

just joined. You're watching Morning Joe and we'll be right back. What a beautiful, beautiful shot of New York City. Why, looks like it's going to be a beautiful Christmas. Well, actually, it's not going to be going to the weather is just going to be absolutely tough the next couple of days. So make sure if you're traveling, you get on the road early enough. And as Mika likes to say, pack your patience. So the New York Yankees have named Aaron Judge as the new captain of their team. At a conference yesterday, the Sluggers' new nine-year, $360 million contract was announced, and Judge was named the 16th captain in franchise history and the first since Derek Cheater,

who held the title from 2003 through 2014. Meanwhile, across town in Queens, Mets fans are still buzzing over the surprise acquisition of superstar Carlos Correa. The team's latest offseason signing, a 12-year, $315 million contract, puts the team's tab for the upcoming season at nearly half a billion dollars. The figure, which includes payroll and luxury taxes, makes the Mets the most expensive team in North American history. And Richard, by my calculation, the Mets payroll next season will be higher than the GDP of eight countries. I think we should give Steve Cohen a vote in the U.N. General Assembly. But he's basically undoing everything Jay Powell's tried to get accomplished. Every time rates go up, Steve spends more and the economy overheats.

Look, the Aaron Judge thing is great. Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Don Mattingly, Thurman Munson, Derek Jeter, as you said, what a great tradition. And so I actually like the idea that this is one of the things. It's not just, yes, it's 300 million dollars plus to get him to stay in New York. But this is a great this is a great tradition. So I'm excited, Joe. I'm excited. And I think it increases the chances that yet again, we we dominate your team and that will make for a good, warm, comfortable summer. Well, dominating our team's not hard. You're not going to be hard. Wasn't hard last year. It's not going to be hard next year. The only way to put it is the front office is trying to be a poor man's Tampa. And they're succeeding quite well. Coming up,

Donald Trump's hold on what once was considered one of his most loyal voting blocks. That hold appears to be slipping. We're going to dig into a new report on why evangelicals are ditching the former president's bid to retake the White House. This morning, Joe, coming right back.