Morning Joe - Morning Joe 12/22/23

Episode Date: December 22, 2023

Trump recorded pressuring Wayne County canvassers not to certify 2020 vote

Outside in the parking lot is where this call from Ronna McDaniel and Donald Trump was received. And they instructed these two individuals and pressured them. You voted to certify demanding this audit. But if you don't, don't sign this certification, you cannot sign the certification, because if you do sign the certification, you'll never get the audit that you're pressing for. That was a reporter from the Detroit News. Speaking about audio recording, he says he heard, which reportedly captured Donald Trump telling Michigan officials not to certify the 2020 election results.

We're going to dig into that explosive new reporting. Plus, as Trump continues to double down on his anti-immigrant rhetoric, a recent poll shows Republican voters say that his racist language makes them more likely to vote for him. Also ahead, America's mayor is broke. Rudy Giuliani filed for bankruptcy just days after being ordered to pay $146 million in his defamation case. And regrets, he's had a few. What Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis is saying is the one thing he wishes he could change about the GOP primary. Here's a hint. It's not anything that he did. Good morning and welcome to Morning Joe. I'm Jonathan Lemire, along with the BBC's Katty Kay, in for Joe, Mika and Willie. And with us,

we have former White House Director of Communications to President Obama, our friend Jennifer Palmieri. She's also the co-host of the MSNBC podcast, How to Win 2024. You just saw him fill in on way too early, White House editor for Politico, Sam Stein is here, and sitting with me at the table, NBC News correspondent, Vaughn Hilliard. So, Katty, we've known for a while that Donald Trump tried to overturn the 2020 election results, but now we've got some more specific evidence, it would appear. Yeah, we may be inching towards the Christmas holidays, John, but the news is not stopping. And we begin with another reported example of Donald Trump, as you say, trying to overturn that election loss while he was the president. This time it involves the certification

process in Michigan's most populous county. We're not talking about Georgia here. We're talking about Michigan. The Detroit News reports that on a mid-November 2020 phone call, Trump pressured two Republican members of the Wayne County Board of Canvassers, telling them not to sign the certification of the county's 2020 results, which Biden won by nearly 40 points. The conversations were captured in recordings reviewed by the Detroit News. NBC News has not heard or verified those recordings. During the phone call, which included RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, Trump reportedly told Monica Palmer and William Hartman they would look terrible, quote, if they signed the certification,

because in an earlier Canvasser meeting, Palmer and Hartman originally voted against approving the county's election results before switching to votes of support during that same meeting. Following that meeting and the call with Trump, Hartman and Palmer tried unsuccessfully to rescind their votes in favor of certification, saying they were pressured to do so. The Detroit News reached out to spokespeople for the former president, RNC chair McDaniel and canvasser Monica Palmer. None disputed a summary of that call.

The other canvasser, William Hartman, died in 2021. I mean, John, it does. It sounds similar to Georgia, right, with the you've got to find me those votes. And, you know, who knows what impact this will have. But it is another example, this recording of the kind of pressure that election officials were under to switch the 2020 election in favor of Donald Trump. Yeah, Michigan, like Georgia, a battleground state again next year. And Vaughn Hilliard, you know, we know we've known for a while that Donald Trump personally got involved in Georgia, spoke to the secretary of state there, asked Brad Raffensperger to find the precise number of votes he would need to flip, put Georgia in his column.

And I think that's what's so striking here is that it's Trump himself with the power of the presidency behind him, potentially calling from the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office, trying to lean on state officials to commit fraud. Right. Behind the scenes. Don't forget, he literally called Arizona Governor Doug Ducey as he was signing Arizona's certification. But Doug Ducey turned over his phone and didn't take the phone call. He also called up Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bauer. Just take in Michigan here. You're talking about the Wayne County Board of Canvassers. These are public servants, if you will.

These are folks that are nominated by their local political parties. Then the local county clerk says, hey, you're going to be the one to ultimately certify the results. And it is under law, their obligation to do so. But you just heard it. Those two Republicans, they attempted to go back and rescind their certification of Wayne County's results. This is the overwhelmingly Democratic county that was responsible ultimately for giving Joe Biden the win. After Donald Trump's phone call, along with RNC chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, they tried to rescind their certification. This is at the crux of not only the 2020 election, but concerns about elections in the future because it's those local officials that folks

wholly understand and political parties now are essential to the democratic process and being able to certify the election results. Yeah, I'm with Vaughn. You know, at first I was like, this doesn't sound, this sounds obviously like something Donald Trump will do, would do, because we know he did it before. And then you sort of step back and you think about the severity and enormity of it and the idea that the president, the sitting president of the United States, would call these two low-level officials who were doing a civic duty and the amount of pressure they probably felt vis-a-vis that phone call. And I guess, you know, I've thought a lot

about this, and I would love to get Jen's take on this because she's actually served on a campaign. But if you were the Biden campaign, would the idea that this would happen ever cross your mind? Would the idea that you have to prepare for something like this ever cross your mind? And will this irrevocably change how campaigns operate going forward? Now, in 2024, will the DNC, will the Biden campaign have to resort to expending resources, doing the type of educational stuff for poll workers to make sure that they aren't influenced or that they are immune to this type of pressure. Yeah, you would. You would have to do that. I mean, they have I think starting in 16, we had pretty aggressive training for legal training for volunteers, people who were going to be at, you know, for poll workers, people who were going to

be at polling places, just not administering the vote, but helping being on standby in case voters had problems with the vote. So you will have to, you'll have to have a whole legal operation alongside the campaign that is thinking about the the you know, what happens once the voting stops. So everything from counting to certifying to, you know, all the processes that we became familiar with in in 2020. And, you know, Trump failed with Georgia. He failed with Arizona when he appealed to higher level officials like the governor and the secretary of state. But with lower level, you know, with all of our county officials or even party officials that are on these county boards, it worked. So what can we expect to happen in 24?

You expect a lot of this. So it is going to have to be it's been a big priority for campaigns for a while to build this kind of to have this kind of operation to like to to look at legally what's happening post vote. But it'll be a bigger deal in 24. Now, a key difference next year, of course, is that Trump this time won't have the power of the presidency behind him. But certainly Democratic staffers and the Biden reelection team are preparing for all sorts of chicanery. We want to turn now to get an update on a big story we've been tracking the last couple of days. And Vaughn, you've been following the timing of former President Trump's legal team's expected appeal of the Colorado Supreme Court decision that removed the ex-president from the 2024 primary ballot. Vaughn, what's the latest?

Right. Timing is everything here. You're looking at all of these primaries beginning. I was going first on January 15th, New Hampshire, one week later on January 23rd. And if the Supreme Court were to affirm the Colorado Supreme Court's decision and disqualify Donald Trump from the ballot in Colorado, that had a far reaching impact, likely removing him from the ballot in all 50 states. And of course, the concern of the Republican Party is the potential nullification of Republican electorates votes as they're trying to select their presidential nominee. I am told that his team does, in fact, intend to file the appeal and take their chances, take this to the U.S. Supreme Court. We expect them to not file that appeal until after Christmas.

So sometime most likely next week, but before January 4th, which is the requirement under the Colorado Supreme Court's ruling for them to appeal if, in fact, Donald Trump were to stay on the ballot as part of the stay as part of that initial order. President Biden hasn't weighed in on the merits of the case, but we heard from him this week, Katty, saying that it was clear that Donald Trump inspired an insurrection. But there's been a lot of debate about the political fallout here, with many Democrats worrying this will just make Trump all the stronger. Yeah. And of course, Donald Trump fundraising off the back of it. I'm sure your email box, John, is full of email campaigns from the Trump campaign saying, please give us money because of all of this that's going on.

And this latest one, just another one that they're trying to raise money out of. Meanwhile, of course, Donald Trump, legal issues aside, is continuing to use dehumanizing language about migrants, rhetorics that has historians drawing comparisons to phrases that were used by Adolf Hitler. Here's what he said in one of 17 videos posted on social media just last night. Illegal immigration is poisoning the blood of our nation. They're coming from prisons, from mental institutions, from all over the world. Without borders and fair elections, you don't have a country. Make America great again.

We must win in 2024, or we will not have a nation. Thank you. So it's been pointed out to Donald Trump where this comes from and what the rhetoric has hints of, and yet he keeps on using it. So why does he keep saying things like that? Well, maybe because recent polling shows that those anti-immigrant comments are helping him more than they're hurting him, specifically with Republicans in Iowa. In the latest NBC News Des Moines Register media.com poll, which was conducted earlier this month, 42% of likely Iowa Republican caucus goers said Trump's poisoning the blood remark made them

more likely to support him. That's compared to 28% who said those comments made them less likely to caucus for Trump and 29 percent who said it had no bearing on their support for him. I mean, I think, Jen, I guess the question for Democrats here is how do they counter this? Because just pointing out that this has echoes of Adolf Hitler, I've just come from spending a few days in Vienna and remarkably people were talking about these comments in that city where you can imagine the residence is so vibrant. What did what did Democrats do to counter that? That polling that shows that more people will vote for him because of those comments. Well, it's more people within the Republican Party.

Right. And it's not even a majority. It's not. I mean, I look at that. I'm like, OK, it's 42 percent of Republicans. That's not a majority of Republicans. And that's certainly not a majority of Americans. And I think and this is I mean, I think we all know that this is what the media struggles with and what I think the Biden White House tries to calibrate is how hard do you go after defining Trump and how early?

Because people become because because because the things that he says is so extreme comparisons. You know, how long can you how long is your runway that you can continue to that people don't start to tune out because they've heard time and time again? This is the most extreme thing ever. This is the most racist thing ever. This has this has this is calling back to think to to to to phrases from Hitler. And so it's like it's hard to calibrate that. But I think what they have decided to that they need to do. And, you know, you see the president do do this in fundraisers. And when the campaign really gets underway soon, you know, soon, because this campaign is going to start

soon because Trump is going to probably knock up a rapid nomination early. They're going to be that tough on him because they're, you know, the president's words are going to have resonance even when we keep hearing over and over again just how dangerous Trump is. It's really the only option you have. Sam, it's usually a rule of politics that if you have to say things like, I haven't read Mein Kampf, that means you're probably losing. But that does not appear to be the case this time around. Trump has had to issue that denial in recent days. But yet certainly his polls, his poll numbers haven't slipped. So that was a Jen just touched upon how the Biden team is going to approach this. And we've been writing on that as well, that they're going to be called out as they see it. But what do you think other

Republicans might do? Those, you know, who reliably stand up to Trump? We heard from Mitch McConnell this week saying that he condemned these kind of remarks. But what about the Republican primary field, those who are, you know, at least in theory, trying to beat Donald Trump? Oh, we've seen it, right? Nikki Haley, Ron DeSantis, sort of tepid pushback, I would argue, saying it's language they would not have used, inappropriate perhaps, but nothing along the lines of comparing Trump to Adolf Hitler, which the Biden campaign has done. I mean, Biden campaign literally put together a graphic with Trump's image and Hitler's side by side and comparing the quotes. That's not a fairly aggressive, that's a highly aggressive campaign attack

from the Biden campaign, which they say is justified. They said the historians are pointing out that this is fascist authoritative rhetoric, authoritarian rhetoric, I should say. But yeah, the Republicans have not gone to that length. I think part of the reason is obvious. The polling, as we noted, supports in the context of Republican primary, supports what Trump is saying. You know, I find the more interesting conversation to be the one that Jen had, which is like, where does the Biden campaign bring this? And one of the things I've been trying to grapple with and trying to figure out is,

you know, are they worried at all that because by fact that we've been through four years of Trump and came out on the other end and here we are, that maybe the voting public doesn't take these threats of, you know, fascism and the loss of democracy all that seriously. They lived through it. They survived it. They came out on the other side. You know, maybe when they hear the Biden campaign say, hey, this guy's evoking Ada Filler, echoing Ada Filler, they say, yeah, we dealt with Trump for four years. We know who he is and it didn't ruin us. So why are you saying that now? And I do wonder if that's in the back of the Biden campaign's mind.

Yeah, there's certainly a fear that voters have desensitized and the Republicans have done a really good job in downplaying what happened on January 6th, for example, whitewashing that. And there is a fear that that could be the stakes of a Trump presidency may not be quite known to all the voters. We're going to come back in just one minute and bring you Vaughn Hilliard's new reporting on the possibility of a coalition government deciding the presidency next year, an idea that's being pushed by the group

trying to mount a third party campaign. Morning Joe is back in just 60 seconds. only pay for what you need. Liberty, Liberty, Liberty, Liberty. Switch to Shopify and sell smarter at every stage of your business. Take full control of your brand with your own custom store. Scale faster with tools that let you manage every sale from every channel. And sell more with the best converting checkout on the planet. A lot more. Take your business to the next stage when you switch to Shopify. He hits his mark center stage and is crushed by a baby grand piano.

You're replacing me? Customize and save with Liberty Bibbidi. He doesn't even have a mustache. Only pay for what you need. Liberty, Liberty, Liberty, Liberty. Oh, to the people of Auckland, New Zealand. I've been there. I'm a little teapot, short and stout. Happy birthday, Molly. I understand your birthday's coming up. This is my handle. Here's my spout. You are a big fan of and dedicated to make America great again. Beautiful part of the world. Anytime you want to invite me back, invite me. I'll be there.

It'll never get better than the teapot one. But those are just some of the short videos that Rudy Giuliani, the man once known as America's mayor, has been making on Cameo for the last few years in an effort to make a little extra income. Yesterday, Giuliani filed for bankruptcy after he was ordered to immediately pay nearly $150 million defamation lawsuit judgment to those two former election workers in the state of Georgia. The judge lifted the typical 30-day waiting period over concerns that Giuliani might try to hide his assets, which in the filing Giuliani lists as being between a million and $10 million, with his current debt at more than $150 million. The filing also noted that the former New York City mayor has other lawsuits pending against him with up to $500 million in total estimated liabilities.

A spokesman for the former Trump lawyer released a statement that reads in part this. The filing should be a surprise to no one. No person could have reasonably believed that Mayor Rudy Giuliani would be able to pay such a high punitive amount. Chapter 11 will afford Mayor Giuliani the opportunity and time to pursue an appeal while providing transparency for his finances. In a statement, the attorney for the former election workers called the filing unsurprising, adding, quote, it will not succeed in discharging Mr. Giuliani's debt to Ruby Freeman and Shea Moss. So, Jen Palmieri, no surprise here that Giuliani would say, I don't have the money to pay these two workers. And I think there are fears as to just how much those workers will receive.

But again, I can't help but see this and think about the incredible, swift and steep fall from grace from a man who was such a hero to so many Americans on 2001 would be hard pressed to find a comparable slide anywhere in American history. Yeah, I can't. Certainly, I don't. Yeah, not one doesn't come to mind. And I think that if if you don't have deep exposure to the sort of Trump and MAGA world, you might not appreciate how much the grift props helps to prop up for President Trump and his whole operation. You know, there are millions and millions of Americans that are true believers and really committed to Trump and believe what he says. He says what I think. And this is what I hear all the time when I'm on the road. And then there are people like Giuliani and others that, um, you know,

help prop up this whole operation because they are making money off of it. And it really is a big reason why, um, why the whole machine, um, continues, but that, uh, I mean the teapot, wow. I just, I mean, I, you know know Sam said it in the 5 a.m. hour. You can't make it up. And I it's so humiliating. It's so humiliating. I mean, how how the mighty have fallen. I just you know, I hope that none of us are ever in a position. We are so desperate for money that we have to go on television to people in New Zealand and say, I'm a teapot short and stout. Anyway, I do it. Sam, no shame. It's a good song. OK, none of us except for Sam Stein would do such a thing. OK, let's move on. And it's kind of related. No labels. The organization working on a third party presidential unity ticket is floating the idea of forming a coalition government after the 2024 election.

If no candidate reaches the 270 electoral college votes necessary to win the president. I mean, what are you hearing? Is this even remotely plausible? OK, everyone work with us here. America, work with us. This is under the situation that no candidate next November gets 270 electoral college votes. Now, no labels is that organization that has flirted with Joe Manchin potentially being a presidential candidate. They're trying to build what would be a bipartisan unity ticket with a Democrat or Republican on the president MVP ticket. Well, they think that they've got a real shot. They haven't announced their candidates, but plan to this spring. They think they have a real shot to win some states around the country.

And if no candidate gets 270 electoral college votes next November, well, what happens? This is where from my conversations with the group, including Tom Davis, who is a former Republican congressman from Virginia, as well as a co-founder of No Labels, we were talking yesterday, and he told me that they foresee a situation where they would build what he's calling a coalition government, where they, at the Electoral College vote count on December 17th, 2024, begin negotiating with either the Republican Party or the Democratic Party using unbound electors, faithless electors. There are 33 states that require electors to vote for the candidate that their state's population voted for.

But then there are 17 states that don't have those requirements. So they say, OK, no labels. We have a few electors that either Donald Trump or Joe Biden will need. What can you give us in return? And Tom Davis told me that they believe that either policy concessions are on the line or even potentially the VP slot or cabinet positions or, you know, in the situation that he provided me was, OK, you commit to us that you're going to build the border wall or not run up a deficit. We will give you our electors. This is a complex situation.

And then if I may, the next step that they're also actively talking about would be in the scenario in which the U.S. House selects who the president is. Let's say the Electoral College vote that sticks there. Well, then it would come down to state delegations. Each state delegation in the U.S. House has one vote and a candidate would need 26 state delegations to side with them. Again, that is where the negotiations begin here. And this is very complex. The last time it happened was literally 200 years ago when Andrew Jackson actually won the plurality of the popular vote around the country. But then when it was left to the U.S. House to decide, the state delegation sided with John Quincy Adams.

And that is how John Quincy Adams became the president of the United States. This is complex. But what everybody needs to know is that there is a group that has tens of millions of dollars in their pockets, and they believe that they have a shot to really throw this presidential election in 2024 into a complex state of being and potentially pull off what would be a gigantic, chaotic, wild conclusion come January 2025. Yeah, chaotic doesn't begin to cover it. We should note, of course, Republicans control the House of Representatives. Slim margin, but they do. Sam Stein, we should also note that Joe Manchin, who has been rumored to be a no-labels possibility, is having a pretty high-profile event in New Hampshire in the coming weeks,

although under the umbrella of another organization, his own sort of super PAC. So give us your read on this. I know that most Democrats that I speak to are in pure panic about third party candidates, including no labels, believing that no matter what the scenario, no matter how complicated the plan at the end of the day, one of these candidates, a third party candidate, hurts Biden more than Trump. I don't know. The way Vaughn laid it out seems pretty simple.

He should probably prepare for a unity ticket, you know, it's straightforward. You know, they can't even figure out how to trade immigration policy for Ukraine aid right now. The idea that you would trade a border wall for a presidential ticket is absurd, obviously. It's not going to happen. But, you know, I think the larger story is the kind of macro story that we're getting at, which is that this group, which does have, you know, actually, we don't really know how much they have because they don't reveal their finances, but they say they're going to raise something like $70 million or something like that. You know, they're still around. They're still, you know, holding out the threat of,

you know, having a third party on the ballot in a number of different states where they already do have ballot access. They've said at some points that they don't want to play spoiler and they recognize that Trump's a threat. But at others, they're talking about now, you know, a disputed election that will go to the House where a unity ticket will somehow through like sheer will and weird policy concessions win. Like, you know, it's out there. And I think it gets to how chaotic this election will be. And yeah, Jonathan, you're right. I mean,. And I think it gets to how chaotic this election will be. And yeah, Jonathan, you're right. I mean, like the Biden people, what they want is a one on one contrast with Donald Trump. That's what they want. And anything that disrupts that, whether it's some

bizarre no labels fantasy or RFK Jr. or Cornel West is not good for them. And I think, you know, they want to simplify it. And this doesn't simplify it. Yeah. And that cannot be underscored enough. The Biden campaign's theory of the case is when it becomes a one on one, we win. Anything else that gets messy? NBC's Vaughn Hilliard. Thank you for all the reporting this morning. We really appreciate it. Coming up next here on Morning Joe, Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis says that one key issue has made Donald Trump stronger in the GOP primaries. We'll tell you what that is. Plus, the Los Angeles Dodgers capture yet another prized free agent. We'll have the details about the latest report and signing it happened overnight when Morning Joe comes right back. We love it!

I won to the right side. Looks that way. Throws that way. Caught! Nakua. Touchdown. Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford getting the scoring started last night against the New Orleans Saints with that touchdown pass to Puka Nakua at the end of the opening quarter.

It was the first of two TDs in the game for Stafford, who threw for 328 yards last night. Bonapua had nine catches for a career-high 164 yards. The Rams rode that strong start to a 30-22 win over the Saints. LA's fifth win in six games puts the team above.500 for the first time since week one. They took a significant step forward in their push for a playoff berth. To the NBA now. The Detroit Pistons are on the cusp of a dubious record. This has flown under the radar for a while, but the Pistons last night fell to the Utah Jazz 119-111, extending the team's losing streak to 25 straight games.

That's one short of the single-season record. Calls from the crowd to sell the team could be heard as the Pistons drop to a woeful 2-26 on the season. And a Major League Baseball super team appears to be taking shape in Los Angeles. The Dodgers are reportedly in agreement with star Japanese pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto on a 12-year, $325 million contract. It marks the biggest starting pitcher contract ever for a player who has never thrown an MLB pitch. It comes in slightly ahead of Garrett Cole's contract with the Yankees. And let's remember, the Dodgers also signed Shohei Otani to a 10-year, $700 million deal.

So that means the Dodgers' free agent spending has surpassed $1 billion. Sam Stein, that is a lot of money. Here is, for you and I, the good news. The Yankees didn't get him. That said, Yamamoto is, you know, we've never seen him pitch in the major leagues, but scouts say this guy has top-of-the-line ace-type stuff. And the writing had seemed to have been on the wall, that when Otani's deal was announced and it realized that it had all that deferred money, which allowed the Dodgers to keep spending now,

it seemed like the most likely target was his friend and countryman, Yamamoto. That team is going to be loaded. Yeah, and I'm sorry, I'm a bit sassy today. I don't mean to be, but when you do host way too early, you get up super early, and that causes this stuff. Tell me about that. Is that what happens? We all know how this is going to end, right? The Dodgers are going to win like 114 games.

Yamamoto's going to have a great year. They'll get to the playoffs. He'll give up five runs in the first inning of game one. Otani will end the series three for 23 or something like that. And he'll be bounced because that's just how it is with the Dodgers. I'm with you. The great news here is the Yankees didn't get the guy. But let's just be upfront about it.

We only view this stuff through the prism of the Red Sox. This is a disastrous offseason. Full throttle. This is like, you know, one-tenth throttle. I don't know what to say about ownership. Is there a pulse in Fenway? Like, what is going on? I'm having like early morning panic attacks about our rotation right now. Yeah, there is deep, deep unhappiness in the fan base for a while. The Red Sox are simply not spending and haven't spent for a while,

with the one exception of locking up Devers to that long-term deal. They are clearly the last-placed team in the American League East. Clearly. And as far as Yamamoto goes, early reporting is the Mets offered a similar deal, which he then took to the Dodgers and stayed there. The Yankees came in a little bit less. So it's disappointing for the Yankees as well. But you're right. The Dodgers, as good as they've been for the last decade,

they just have that one World Series title in that short COVID season. Fluke title. Fluke. Fluke title. And they certainly have playoff woes and more needs to address. Sam Stein, we appreciate your sports insight there and pure anger at the Red Sox and anger that I share. Still ahead here on Way Too Early, the CDC director says that the United States isn't yet near peak COVID or flu levels for this season. Sam said way too early. That's director says that the United States isn't the yet near peak COVID or flu levels for this season. Sam said way too early. That's why it was on the brain. This, of course, is Morning Joe. Dr. Vin Gupta joins us to talk about the top health headlines as we head into the holidays. I'll laugh at myself while the tears roll down.

Beautiful shot of New York City with the sun about to come up on another beautiful day on the East Coast. In fact, so beautiful, many of us are wondering what is happening to the weather. Unlikely that we are going to get a white Christmas on the East Coast. In fact, of course, millions of people around the world this year were impacted by extreme weather events. NBC's Al Roker takes a look back at some of the biggest climate stories of 2023. 2023, the hottest year ever on Earth. Oh, my God. A year of climate and weather extremes.

In the U.S., the number of billion-dollar disasters tallied 25, more than any other year. New Year's rang in with thousands of records shattering across Europe. At least eight countries had their warmest January day ever. Back home, things were no better. A siege of atmospheric rivers lashed the West Coast through March. Destructive flash floods swept through parts of California, burying the Sierra under 60 feet of snow and brought a historically dry Tulare Lake back from the dead. When spring arrived, so did the tornadoes. The strongest and most devastating twister of the year was a ferocious EF4 tearing through Rolling Fork, Mississippi, carving a 59-mile path across the

state and packing winds as high as 195 miles per hour. Just days later, a two-day tornado outbreak spawned the third largest outbreak in U.S. history. A shift to the east in what's known as the traditional Tornado Alley is making higher density and more vulnerable populations a target for these types of disasters. In June, wildfire smoke was choking the Big Apple, making it seem like a Mars landscape, shrouding iconic landmarks like the Statue of Liberty and Empire State Building. Both Chicago and New York had the dubious distinction

of worst air quality in the world during that hazy week. Climate change making wildfire smoke outbreaks more frequent. As northern cities suffocated, southern cities broiled under relentless days of dangerous heat. At the end of July, Phoenix hitting a record 31 straight days of 100 degrees or hotter. The previous record, just 18 days. Miami's extreme heat and tropical humidity resulted in 46 days registering a heat index over 100 degrees. More than a dozen U.S. cities recording their hottest summer on record. The tropics lit up in late August when Hurricane Adelia rapidly intensified over the Gulf of Mexico,

striking North Florida as a high-end Category 3 with winds of 125 miles per hour. Fueled by record warm sea surface temperatures, the fourth most active in history. By November, the brutal heat plaguing the U.S. was now broiling the southern hemisphere. The heat index in Rio de Janeiro hitting an astonishing 138 degrees, the highest ever recorded there. And for the third year in a row, deadly tornadoes ripped through the South just days before Christmas. Oh, my God. 2023, experiencing so many extreme weather events, we couldn't include them all here. Climate change driven weather leaving its mark all around the globe.

We know it's happening, but you have to see those pictures to get a reminder and you have to wonder why it's so hard to take action. Thank you to NBC's Al Roker for bringing that important report to us and that important reminder with those images. OK, let's bring in NBC News medical contributor, Dr. Vin Gupta, a pulmonologist and health policy expert. Vin, we know that this is having a huge amount of impact on infrastructure, people's homes, cities, farmers, for example. What's the impact of climate change on all of us in terms of our health? Well, Cathy, good morning. I'm glad you're bringing this up and platforming this. This is the issue of our time. Climate change is the biggest threat multiplier on human health in our times. And what we're knowing now, these last five years

have been enormous in terms of the data that we've accrued, the ways in which the heat is impacting us beyond just heat stroke. We know it's having impacts on increasing aging, impacting our cognition, increasing, frankly, irritability and crime. We're characterizing this. I think it's allowing us to tell a better story here that's going to be able to reach more people. That's why they had a health day, the first of its kind on December 3rd during the last COP28. We're now talking about climate through the lens of health to allow us to reach more people. We're now talking about, say, indoor air quality in a way, of course, prompted by the pandemic. But now everybody's thinking about, well, indoor air quality in a way, of course, prompted by the

pandemic. But now everybody's thinking about, well, gosh, do I have air filters? Not just because there might be another respiratory pandemic down the road, but because we have indoor air quality issues across the country, not just on the West Coast. So now we're having these conversations. We're talking about this in a more meaningful way. I'm hoping that's going to help with the change aspect that you talked about. Yeah, I mean, I don't see any chance, Dr. Diou, of this improving anytime soon. It doesn't seem that there is much political will to do very much to bring temperatures down in a way that would stop these extreme events. So you mentioned air filters.

What could we do as individuals when we know that there's a wildfire in our area, when we see these extreme floods? Are there things that people could be doing to think about their own health to try and protect themselves? Well, I think the thing that's going to be most tangible that you probably could take the most preventive action on is poor air quality. That's going to be the thing that's going to impact all zip codes across the country. Flash floods, probably more regional, more geographic, depending on where you're at. Air quality issues, what can you do? Especially now in the dead of winter, HVAC companies, these heating ventilation companies have a little less to do. And so this is a time maybe where if you can afford it to upgrade your ventilation, increase your filters, if you do have AC to MERV 10, MERV 13, that's just going to allow you to have better preparation for the summer seasons. Definitely invest in N95s if you live in a wildfire-prone area.

And frankly, that's as much New York City as it is San Francisco. Those are some things that you can do here. And I highly recommend air filters, HEPA filters especially, for your living room and for your bedroom, especially if you have young kiddos. Because, Katty, as we're learning, just short-term exposure to poor air quality, just five days, can increase your risk of asthma, especially childhood asthma. So if there's one thing you can do as a family, is invest in HEP filters for your indoor room or indoor bedroom.

Dr. Gupta, let's switch gears. The holidays are almost here today, one of the busiest travel days of the year. People are going to be all over the country and the globe gathering with loved ones. Give us an update, if you will, on sort of the illnesses that people should be aware of and what we can be doing to mitigate the spread of disease, the flu. And also there's a new COVID variant that seems to be popping up. Well, that's right, Jonathan. I'm here in a hospital setting right now. And what we're seeing is we're seeing a steady uptick of COVID, flu, and to some degree, RSV, not just amongst children, but adults. What can you do to keep yourself safe? If you're medically higher risk, underlying condition, if you're over 60, if you're on prescriptions, make sure you have refills. 30% of Americans don't have refills on hands.

Make sure if you're traveling, you have refills for your inhalers. If you're taking oral medications, make sure you have those on hand. If you do not have durable access to healthcare, that's at least 20% of America. Often, individuals in the southeastern United States, that's where we see less access to health insurance, less access to a primary care physician. Go to test2, the number two, treat.org. This is a government-funded program. You can get free telehealth services, free treatment for COVID-19 or flu should you need it. So a lot of it is about knowing your own body, making sure your medications are on hand. Something that people don't recognize here is that early recognition that something is wrong, shortness of breath, coughing, high fevers. That doesn't mean that you just want to treat with Tylenol and get some bed rest here.

There's this notion here that I'll just go away. You're battling, say, the common cold. No, it's important to know what you're having, what your diagnosis may be, because early diagnosis paired with early treatment can keep you away from somebody like me if you're medically high risk. So that's why it's important to present to medical attention. Lastly, Jonathan, I'll say for expectant moms, have a conversation with your obstetrician about a Rexy. This is a vaccine that is meant for those 60 and older, or if you are pregnant for RSV prevention, or if your child,

if you didn't get it and your child's less than eight months of age and you're having a conversation with a pediatrician, there is a monoclonal antibody you can give your child against RSV. This is something that we're just talking about now. So awareness is low. NBC News medical contributor, Dr. Vin Gupta. Thank you so much as always.

Happy holidays to you. We will speak to you again soon. Coming up next on Morning Joe, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is weighing in on Donald Trump's mounting legal woes and the impact that it's having on the 2024 presidential race. We'll play for you his comments.

Plus, we'll break down the numbers from a new GOP primary poll that shows Nikki Haley continuing to gain ground on the former president in the state of New Hampshire. We'll be right back with that. Oh, look at that. The tree at 30 Rock looking so pretty this morning, getting us into that festive season. Time now for a quick look at the morning papers for you all. In Connecticut, the Hartford Courant is reporting on the record number of people experiencing homelessness

in the state and across the country. It's estimated that more than 1,000 people are currently living without shelter in the state. Advocates point out that the true number is likely much higher. Remember them this holiday season. In Kansas, the Wichita Eagle is highlighting TSA preparations for the holiday travel surge, despite three different weather systems making their way across the country. The agency says it expects to screen over two million passengers on the busiest day. That's a six percent increase from last year. TSA advises passengers to give themselves extra time at the airport, be patient, and to double-check prohibited packing items

to streamline that nightmarish security process. And in Iowa, the Gazette reports that Christmas tree farmers say they're feeling the effects of climate change too. Experts say that warmer soil tends to breed fungal disease that can infect and kill the trees, which is what happened to evergreen farms in Washington and Oregon last season. Get those trees while you can.