Morning Joe - Morning Joe 1/29/25

Episode Date: January 29, 2025

Pentagon pulls General Milley's security detail and revokes clearance

So my message to federal employees who receive this is, yeah, the president has tried to terrorize you for about a week and then gives you a little sweetheart offer. If you resign in the next week, we're just going to pay you for doing nothing for the next seven months. Don't be fooled. He's tricked hundreds of people with that offer. If you accept that offer and resign, he'll stiff you just like he stiffed the contractors. He doesn't have any authority to do this.

Do not be fooled by this guy. Democratic Senator Tim Kaine warning federal workers not to take an offer from the Trump administration to resign immediately in exchange for a buyout from the federal government. We're going to dig into the details of that proposal. Also ahead, we'll go through what's next for the federal funding freeze after a judge blocked it minutes before it was set to take effect. Meanwhile, the Trump administration is revising another funding pause that was causing a lot of confusion within the State Department. Plus, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth takes action against a decorated general who has

been a frequent target of President Trump. We'll explain what's happening with former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mark Milley. And before taking office, Donald Trump hinted at a government conspiracy connected to the dozens of drone sightings over several states. Yesterday, his administration gave an update, and it doesn't sound that much different

than what the Biden administration said. Good morning, and welcome to Morning Joe. It is Wednesday, January 29th. Ally made me feel like it was Friday. I tricked you, I'm sorry. It's a good thing. Along with Willie, well she just kind of, you know, has that Friday look.

The Friday jeans. The vibe, there you go. The vibe. Friday? Okay, so we've got the problem. What is today, by the way? It's only Wednesday. Oh good, we have three more days.

You tricked me, Ally Vitale. Two more days. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. Oh, that's true. We're not done yet. We've got four hours in front of us. So true. So true. Exactly.

Colonist at the fourth hour, Jonathan Lemire is here. He is a contributing writer at The Atlantic covering the White House and national politics. The host of Wait Too Early, Ali Vitale. President of the National Action Network and host of MSNBC's Politics Nation, Reverend Al Sharpton is here with us. And author and NBC News presidential historian Michael Beschloss joins us this morning. We have a lot going on today. I mean, a lot going on every day, right?

Really quickly, let's just get the headlines. New York Times actually picture of L.A. in the aftermath. And of course of course there's gonna be so much cleaning up to do. The Wall Street Journal again a conservative voice for conservatism the Republican Party it's fascinating going to their opinion pages Willie's because over the last couple of days they have been very clear about well first of all they called out the violent, the cop beaters as they said it, and them getting pardoned. Obviously, yesterday, RFK Jr., we're going to talk about that a little bit more.

They've had concerns about others today. This is what they write about Tulsi Gabbard very briefly. Voters want disruption in Washington, but it would be something else entirely for the Senate to confirm a director of national intelligence who has a record of defending those who subvert U.S. interests. When former rep Tulsi Gabbard testifies Thursday, will Republicans pose questions that serve the public interest or simply go along to get along with President Trump. The question isn't Mrs. Gabbard's patriotism, it's judgment. And what message would it send friends and foes to confirm a director of national intelligence who doesn't really seem to believe in protecting national intelligence?

And we're going to be talking again about Bobby Jr. That certainly seems to be in trouble, but Tulsi Gabbard, another one, Cash Patel coming up this week had some news coming out that I know has to concern a lot of Republicans, even Republicans that went along with Pete Hegseth. When, you know, it's just Sacros saying that when they're hostages and you're trying to get them home, nobody says anything until they're in U.S. custody. And he's out leaking to the Wall Street Journal while they're not in U.S. custody, according

to CBS News reports yesterday. And FBI officials were just absolutely furious that he, they believe he may have risked the lives of those people by being so reckless. So we're sure to hear about that, too, RFK. But here, Tulsi Gabbard, who I guess we keep hearing is the one that's in the most, the nominee in the most trouble right now. Yeah, if these nominees were Democrats,

these Republican senators rightly would be yelling and screaming about everything you just laid out. It was disqualifying to have had such a cozy relationship with Russia, disqualifying to have met with Assad in Syria, disqualifying to do all the things she's done. And the same goes for Cash Patel. But so far, the answer to the Wall Street Journal editorial board's question, will Republicans just go along to get along with Donald Trump, has been yes, with a few exceptions. Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins, but by and large enough Republicans have said this just is not worth it at the beginning of

Trump's second term for me to cross him right out of the gate. But if they're being honest and they really are concerned about national security, they will ask some tough questions and perhaps exercise their power to vote against somebody who is not qualified to have this job. Well, I think many people, Ali, believe that three people up this week may be three who pose the greatest risk, the greatest danger on all fronts, whether you're talking about Tulsi Gabbard, and most Republicans agree she poses great risk and danger RFK Jr. who whose nomination obviously even before the chicken in the blender story

came out and all the other yeah exactly also in danger and then Cash Patel who has said he will arrest members of the press, has an enemies list. Again, we'll see if there are four Republicans who actually don't think it's a good idea to have an FBI director who, first of all, again, according to other people in the FBI, risk the lives of hostages in the hostage release, said he was going to arrest members of the media, and has an enemies list he's going after. And we're finding out with Pete Hegseth, we're gonna get to this story too. Isn't it amazing? I mean, I think a lot of

Pete Hegseth's critics probably are thanking him this morning for proving that he's doing exactly what they said he was going to do. Because here's the guy who said, oh we're focusing too much on oh, we're focusing too much on woke. We're focusing too much on politics. We need to focus on the warrior culture and what he's doing. What's he doing? He's focusing on politics. He's focusing on political retribution instead of readiness,

instead of the warrior culture, instead. He's focused on going after the most highly decorated general soldier along with one or two others of our time. So unsurprising. But that's also what you have to do to stay in Trump's good graces at this point. It's the same game that senators are playing, and that's why despite serious concerns about Hegseth, about RFK Jr., about Tulsi Gabbard, about Cash Patel, the list could go on. But there's not a good faith debate going on in the Senate

because of that other permission structure that Trump has created, which is cross me at your own political peril. Joni Ernst would have had serious and legitimate questions to ask, given her background about Pete Hegseth, and ultimately was persuaded out of that, whether it was by Hegseth himself

or the political climate is up to us. But the Hill, and we've seen this before, yes, Tulsi Gabbard might be in trouble today, but we saw that same thing with Pete Hegseth. I remember when that nomination was supposedly on death's door, and they never pulled it. We went through the holidays and there it was.

There's a reason we're seeing all three of these nominating contests or nominating hearings on the same day, and it's to almost dilute the controversial so that people aren't quite sure where to focus, which has been the entire strategy so far. And I'd say it goes beyond serious concerns. It's evidence and patterns that these nominees have in their lives. Let's start with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as our top story, President Trump's nominee to be the next Secretary of Health and Human Services.

He'll appear before the Senate Finance Committee for his first confirmation hearing today. Now, ahead of that, his cousin Caroline Kennedy is speaking out, warning senators that while RFK Jr. is family, he is not the right choice for this job. In a video posted to social media, Caroline Kennedy accuses RFK Jr. of being a, quote, predator who should be rejected by the Senate. Now that Bobby has been nominated by President Trump to be Secretary of Health and Human Services, a position that would put him in charge of the health of the American people, I feel an obligation to speak out. Overseeing the

FDA, the NIH, the CDC, and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, agencies that are charged with protecting the most vulnerable among us is an enormous responsibility and one that Bobby is unqualified to fill. He lacks any relevant government, financial, management, or medical experience. His views on vaccines are dangerous and willfully misinformed. These facts alone should be disqualifying. I've known Bobby my whole life. We grew up together. It's no surprise that he keeps birds of prey as

pets because Bobby himself is a predator. He's always been charismatic, able to attract others through the strength of his personality, his willingness to take risks, and break the rules. I watched his younger brothers and cousins follow him down the path of drug addiction. His basement, his garage, his dorm room were always the center of the action where drugs were available and he enjoyed showing off how he put baby chickens and mice in a blender to feed to his hawks. It was often a perverse scene of despair and violence. That was a long time ago and people can change. Through his own strength and the many second

chances he was given by people who felt sorry for the boy who lost his father, Bobby was able to pull himself out of illness and disease. I admire the discipline that took and the continuing commitment it requires. But siblings and cousins who Bobby encouraged down the path of substance abuse suffered addiction, illness, and death while Bobby has gone on to misrepresent, lie, and cheat his way through life. Bobby is addicted to attention and power. Bobby preys on the desperation of parents of sick children, vaccinating his own kids, while building a following

hypocritically discouraging other parents from vaccinating theirs. Even before he fills this job, his constant denigration our health care system and the conspiratorial half-truths he's told about vaccines, including in connection with Samoa's deadly 2019 outbreak of measles, have cost lives. I can't even imagine how painful that must have been for, I mean she's a very private person and just from as a point of view of someone who's had a sibling who's nominated, this

is such a proud moment for a family when someone in your family is asked to serve and I can't even imagine what it took to say all those things and put them out in the public square, Willie. And this comes months after his own siblings. She's, Caroline, of course, is his cousin. His own siblings came out and spoke out against his presidential campaign and said he shouldn't be anywhere near the White House. Rev, as Mika said, Caroline Kennedy doesn't do this.

No. This was, this probably took a lot for her to get out in front of a camera and give such a detailed critique Not just of his views on medicine and vaccines, but of his character She's indicting the character of a guy she grew up with for her entire life and saying he just shouldn't be anywhere near Running our health system, and she's not that type of person. I've met her on several occasions and She's very private. She's not one you can enlist on a cause, whatever's hot at the hour, can you come. She's not that type of

person. She's very deliberate. So I would think that this was very painful for her and well thought out that she had to do this to call her cousin a predator who she grew up with and to say, yes, people can change what he hasn't. I remember, and I talked about this a couple of weeks ago, when we were doing the Choose Healthy Life during the COVID-19, and we were having vaccinations for people at black churches. At the historic Abyssinian Baptist Church Adam Clayton power pastor. We had a vaccine display of Reverend Calvin Butts who's passed now and I and

others with Debra Frazier House. Bobby Kennedy had people picket the black church against vaccines. We told people if you want one fine, if you don't know they picket this kind of venomous behavior while he was vaccinating his own children. Now, that's the insanity of it all. And during COVID, when I would have friends who were supporters of this new anti-vax lunacy, just total lunacy on the basics, I would remind them,

like, you vaccinated your own children six times before they went to school. You were vaccinated. Your parents vaccinated you. And now, suddenly, you know, you who was... Because the funny thing is, conservatives, we used to make fun of the hippies on the West Coast that were anti-vaxxers because it was so crazy.

You look, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, the states in the deep south, Arkansas, they had the highest vaccination rates and the truly disadvantaged were the greatest beneficiaries of that. And these diseases wiped out. Now, I'm gonna read another op-ed at some point, but this is Wall Street Journal editorial page, Jason Riley, and I'll read more of it later. I mean, he's very conservative, Trump-supporting guy, but he's talking about something that I've been thinking

about over the past couple days, and that is that every administration overreaches and every administration pays for overreaching, and you talk to people in the Trump administration, people around the Trump administration, they believe like everybody who walks through those gates that this is the end of the end of history. The smartest people ever walked through the gates and everybody. Meek and I will not say the administration we said this to, but you think you're the

smartest people ever? Do you not think the people that left with a 22% approval rating at the end of their administration when they walked through the gates also thought they were the smartest people ever? Yeah, you're not. We've seen this rodeo before. But this is Jason Rylow. This is quite a rodeo.

The distinction matters. Okay, we haven't seen this rodeo before. Yeah. Yeah. No. We've seen others. It's about power that comes and goes. For Magda Dyehards, there's no such thing as a president going through four. It wasn't Mr. Trump's base, however, who put him over the top in the election.

Swing voters who couldn't bring themselves to cast a ballot for Kamala Harris for the major reason, Mr. Trump won the popular vote in the presidency. The distinction matters. Trump loyalists don't care if the president's pardons on January 6 protesters who assaulted police officers after he condemned George Floyd's protesters who assaulted police officers. It doesn't concern them that Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the president's nominee for secretary of health and human services declared as recently as 2023 that quote, there's no vaccine that's safe and effective. 2023. They may not care, but a hell of a lot of Americans do.

So let's move on now. A federal judge in D.C. yesterday temporarily prevented the Trump administration from carrying through with its plans to pause trillions of dollars in federal loans, grants and other financial assistance just minutes before it was set to take effect. The judge ruled the courts need more time to consider the ramifications of Trump's order, which is part of his administration's push to unravel programs that don't align with his agenda. The stay only affects the disbursement of government funds that have already been authorized,

not money that was being sought. A decision is expected to be issued on Monday. The ruling was seen as a win for nonprofit and public health groups who filed a lawsuit earlier in the day. However, the order does not touch on the legality of Trump's freeze on grants and loans. Meanwhile, the move sparked chaos as to whether the pause would impact Medicaid reimbursement, which provides health insurance to more than 72 million people. Several states reported portals were offline yesterday afternoon. The White House blamed an outage for locking out agencies. Later in the day, Medicaid programs reported they were finally able to resume accessing

their payment system. At one point, there was also concern about the sudden suspension of SNAP benefits, Social Security and Medicare. But the White House says those benefits are not impacted. Well, I mean, there's so much to talk about here. The chaos is kind of the point. Well, one of the points. You know, I mean, there's so much to talk about here. The chaos is kind of the point. Well, one of the points. You know, I absolutely.

I think on Medicaid, especially, Jonathan LaMere, don't know what caused that outage. Maybe you can provide us more insight. Medicaid, though, you know, it must be said, Medicaid drives rural health care. Medicaid drives even you know even for middle-class Americans a lot of nursing homes a lot of other things that that that Americans don't understand Medicaid helps on. It keeps a lot of hospitals open all across

America especially in rural America. So when it went offline yesterday, obviously devastating. But, you know, John, I was thinking yesterday, and when the judge stepped in, it wasn't a surprise at all. You know, we used to have this debate about line item vetoes. Pass the budget, but give the president the power to do line item vetoes. It didn't get through, it didn't pass. There's no way, I could be wrong here,

but that courts would allow Congress, the Article I branch, to do what Madison said is one of their most important powers, and that is to fund government programs and then allow the Article II branch, the president, in effect, to line item vetoes and say, I don't like this, so we're not going to allow that funded. We don't like that. So just as a matter of law, as a matter of the Constitution, I don't see any court, any

serious court holding this up. Yeah, that had been the legal speculation, is that this was an overreach of the presidential powers here. That he does have the ability to pause funding streams, but not to end them. And certainly this judge yesterday, though, did not rule on the legality of the matter, put this freeze in effect until Monday. But I can't stress enough as we sort of sift through this. This has been the story here in Washington

the last couple of days. I mean, yes, the Medicare funding, the White House has said that was a coincidental glitch that had nothing to do with these pauses. Some Democrats not so sure, Senator Chris Murphy, for instance, suggested there was more to it. We have heard from several states that they went down. Also, some Republicans, some red state governors

raising alarms saying, look, my constituents need this. And that's part of this here. So many of the programs that were targeted, directly, intentionally targeted here, freezing their funds, impact Trump voters, as well as other Americans. And it's a long list here. It's SNAP benefits, WIC, subsidized school meal programs,

USAID programs, homeless veterans programs, mental health programs, victims programs, the amount of social services that depend on this federal funding. Federal funding, it's a really complicated process and time-consuming process to get that money approved in the first place. These sort of organizations have really been left wheeling here. It's the first moment I'll also close with this, where the Democrats do, to Mika's point earlier, have sort of not been able to find steady footing to combat some of the chaos. And some of that is a deliberate strategy, as I reported yesterday as well. But this is, though, this is a moment where they found their voice, at least for now, saying, look, this is too far.

And they were joined by some Republicans while doing so. Now, and you are so right. People that are running around going, Rev, what's the Democrat strategy? What's the Democrat strategy? Why aren't they doing anything? What's the... Well, you talk to top Democratic leaders on the Hill,

and they're like, we're going to see. We're going to wait. Nobody's going to be able to say that we came out early. We're not going to interrupt this. And we did what we did in 2017. We're not the resistance. We're the loyal opposition. We're going to wait.

And they are waiting. And every day, they believe they're getting something, another powerful political tool to use against Republicans. And yesterday, I mean, when the Medicaid portal shuts down, when PEPFAR is frozen, and now unfrozen, all these things that are happening, these Democrats that are telling everybody, hold, wait, hold on, it's all bunker hill thing, wait till you see the whites of their eyes. It's very interesting how this is happening. No, it is very interesting and I think for those seasoned Democrats that's been to battle before,

they knew just give it time. These people were hurting themselves. I told Hakeem Jeffries, who I know well, he grew up in National Action Network, I said that when I was younger, you talk sports all the time, I was a big boxing fan, I knew Muhammad Ali. Oh yeah.

And I asked Ali, I said, how did you beat George Foreman? He was much younger than you, stronger than you. You went to Africa, how did you beat this guy? He He was much younger than you, stronger than you. Yeah. You went to Africa. How did you beat this guy? He said, well, I'll tell you. He says, I couldn't fight like I used to. I couldn't dance. I laid on the ropes and let him punch himself out.

We call it the rope-a-dope. Right. He says, and then when I saw the opening, I knew I had to get him now. And I hit him when I knew he was tired. I think the Democrats have rope a dope Donald Trump. By the way I I would tell you it's it's very early in this political battle. I was a sock clip the other day I've never

seen it before of Ali before he's about to go on stage inside here against warming. And he's turned it all as people and they're sitting there looking glum and he's like right what are you doing. We will you he's basically says this jump's not gonna beat me you all look like we're going to a funeral it's like smile come on none of them thought he was gonna win no they thought he was gonna get crushed that's right

74 yeah so Michael Beschloss I just it's very very early it's very, very early. It's very, very early. Early in the morning, early in the administration. Early in President Trump's administration. And early in the administration. We don't know where this is going to go. We don't know how far it's going to go. We just don't.

We do know this about power in Washington, D.C. It is fleeting. I'm old enough and I've been around long enough to see one administration after another go in, and they go in thinking that it's the end of history, that they're smarter than everybody that ever walked through those gates before them, and they have figured out the secret. And I see them leave quite differently.

I'm not saying that's happening here. Yeah, we don't know. I am just saying, though, that for Democrats who are thinking this is the end of history and this is it, and for Trump supporters is, as Wall Street Journal, this Wall Street Journal op-ed says, they think they can do whatever they want to do, because 35% of the MAGA base is excited about it, may in fact, as Mr. Riley says, may in fact be badly misreading not only the political situation now, but just politics in general.

Of course, no, that's absolutely right. And I agree with all of you that, of course, this is not the end of history. And no one can predict, you know, every time you have a president who is asserting strong presidential power, you know, all the way back to Andrew Jackson and presidents in this century like Roosevelt and Reagan and LBJ, the story unfolds. You can never predict. I keep on remembering that LBJ, as you all know, who knew Congress so well at the beginning of 1965, the beginning of his big legislative year, the Great Society,

he was talking to Hubert Humphrey and Humphrey was saying, isn't it great we've got this enormous landslide, we've got huge control of Congress, we've got a very sympathetic Supreme Court, and at the same time Johnson, who was a lot wiser and realized that you can never predict in advance, he said, well, that's all great. But I'm asking, for instance, a lot of members of Congress who want to run for reelection to the House, for example, next year to make some sacrifices that they might not

want to make. And probably after I ask them for all these strong, great society programs and also to escalate the Vietnam War, they're going to get tired and start striking back, so they did in the fall of 1965. And LBJ suffered a big reversal in the midterms that, you know, going by what you've been saying, Joe, could not have been foreseen. You know, what we heard yesterday, the explanation from the White House about these cuts, the

freezes of the federal grants and the House about these cuts, the freezes of the federal grants and the federal loans was this was the president's mandate. He was swept in to do these things. Well, that's not how this works. There's a Congress, as you just explained very well, that controls the purse strings. But to your point, they believe because he won seven swing states, he won by a point and a half with a plurality of the vote, not a majority of the vote, that he can do whatever he wants. And so you get statements like the one from the acting director of OMB yesterday explaining

these freezes of trillions of dollars that affect everyone from hospitals to Head Start programs saying we need to stop quote, Marxist equity, transgenderism, and then start talking about the Green New Deal, to which parents who don't have Head Start today for their pre-K children and not sure where to leave them so that they can go to their jobs and say, what the hell are you talking about? Exactly. What are you talking about? And Democrats sitting back making sure it's very clear to the American people, no need

to distill this for you, no need to influence thinking. This is on the Trump administration. There you go. This is the will of the people. Well, again, I just, sorry, Alex, I'm going to finish reading this. I think it's so important because I keep hearing how it's the end of history. No one just said that here. No, I didn't say you just said this.

Okay, I didn't say you just said that I heard it over the past week where people are the triumphalism is just I just say, oh my god, they did they just fall off the turnip truck. So Jason Reilly continues. They're not talking about the Magna Base, they're not bothered about Bobby saying there's no vaccine that's safe and effective in 2023. They're not bothered that he ain't security protection for former key advisors involved in planning the lethal drone strike on Iran's leading terrorist, Soleimani, not because it's no longer needed, but because he simply doesn't like them anymore. Mr. Trump can't be confident that all of his supporters will ignore such rank hypocrisy, foolishness, and petty behavior.

Joe Biden badly misread voter sentiment after winning the 2020 election, and he left office with an approval rating in the mid-30s. If Mr. Trump has learned nothing from his predecessor's mistake, it could be a long four years. Could be. All right, presidential historian Michael Beschloss, thank you very much for coming on this morning. Thank you, Michael. And still ahead on Morning Joe, the latest on the Trump administration's

immigration crackdown and how enforcement operations could play out in the days and weeks ahead. Plus, President Trump is doubling down on his push to have Jordan and Egypt take in Palestinian refugees from Gaza. NBC's Keir Simmons is standing by from Jerusalem, which joins us with more on that controversial idea. We're back in 90 seconds. As immigration and ups continue across the country NBC News has learned the Trump administration is planning to carry out what's being described as major immigration operations in at least three American cities every week. That's according to three sources familiar with the planning.

These so-called major roundups already have begun, beginning in Chicago on Sunday, followed by New York City yesterday. Sources say Aurora, Colorado will be tomorrow. Newly sworn in Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was on the ground in New York City yesterday to observe immigration enforcement operations there and posting on social media about it. Additionally, sources say ICE's 25 field offices were told last weekend... Was she wearing a flak jacket? Yeah, she was wearing the gear that the ICE and ATF agents wear on the raids. Did she go on the raids with them?

Is that why she's wearing the jacket? Well, she was live streaming them anyway. She was live streaming the raids. Did she go on the raids with them? Is that why she's wearing the jacket? Well, she was live streaming them anyway. She was live streaming the raids. Yeah, yeah. On social media. Very good, smart move then. Sources say ICE's 25 field offices were told last week to enhance their routine operations

by meeting a quota of between 1,200 and 1,500 arrests every day. That news was first reported earlier this week by the Washington Post. Meanwhile, NBC News also was learned the Trump administration officials are actively considering pulling funding from the TSA to make up for a budget shortfall facing ICE. Joining us now with more in that report, NBC News Homeland Security correspondent Julia Ainsley. Julia, good morning.

What more can you tell us on this? Well, look, ICE is facing a $230 million shortfall because they are obviously burning more than they can right now. That shortfall was even under the Biden administration, and they actually did an estimate about how much it costs to deport one migrant from arrest to the time they're on the plane. It's about $10,500. So you can do the math. Trump has promised to deport millions of millions a year.

Basically, they need more money. They're trying to ramp up detention space, so they have someplace to hold them. But in the end, they're going to have to really ask Congress for more money. But the low-hanging fruit right now is to reprogram. So they're looking at pulling from TSA. That might get some backlash if people are looking at longer travel lines. Of course, you also have national

security threats to worry about. And then they're also looking at pulling from CISA, that Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency that Trump has criticized because he thinks that they put their finger too hard on the weight when it came to judging what was misinformation around the 2020 election. He's also looking at pulling from the Coast Guard. That's often a place where money gets dragged from during tough budget times at DHS. So this is just to show how big this operation is, but how little funding they actually have to pull it off.

And especially as you look at these plans to come, we understand they want to do three all-hands-on-deck cities every week, where they pull in lots of law enforcement agencies from across DOJ, like the Marshalls and ATF, but then when they don't have the manpower, they're gonna be doing things in smaller cities. So you will still hear of raids in places like Los Angeles

and the DC area, but what happens is these are the places they really wanna make that show, like what you saw from Kristianom in New York City yesterday. So we should just remind viewers, of course, that the TSA created after the September 11th terror attacks. And the idea of de-funderly defunding that, what could that give?

Tell us a little more about the security implications here for an agency that, yes, we all sometimes groan when we have to stand in a long line. But in its core mission, at least in terms of these airports, has been extremely successful. Right. DHS itself was created after 9-11 and they boosted TSA as a result of that

to try to prevent terror attacks. It's its number one mission. Of course, it's really grown into take on what a lot of people would criticize as being too much of an immigration mission. But TSA, yes, they're responsible. When there's intelligence coming from overseas that we shouldn't be bringing liquids or a laptop

or all these things that we can't bring on a plane, that's up to them. And those lines people are groaning about could get a lot longer if they start to cut some of those agents from that line, Jonathan. All right NBC News Homeland Security correspondent Julia Ainsley. Thank you so much. All right, the Trump administration has reversed course on its order to pause nearly all foreign aid, and it's now exempting core lifesaving programs that involve medicine, medical services, food and shelter, the Wall Street Journal reports citing a State Department memo. A State Department directive last week called for the broad suspension of foreign assistance while a three-month review of the aid programs was carried out.

That move caused confusion and concern among humanitarian organizations who worried that the distribution of vital assistance, everything from food to vaccines, would be disrupted. The journal notes state department officials have yet to clarify whether the pause applies to the agency's financing of weapons purchases for Taiwan and Ukraine. President Trump is doubling down on his proposal to relocate Palestinians from Gaza to Jordan and Egypt. Over the weekend, Trump suggested Palestinians leave the Gaza Strip in order to, quote, clean out the enclave.

He elaborated on his plan Monday night telling reporters he has spoken about it with the president of Egypt. We helped him a lot. He helped us. He's a friend of mine. He's a rough part of the world.

As they say, he's rough there, but I think he can do it. And I think if you were to tell me what you think, I would be very happy. I would be very happy. I would be very happy. I would be very happy.

I would be very happy. I would be very happy. I would be very happy. I would be very happy. I would be very happy. I would be very happy. I would be very happy. I would be very happy. It's a very rough part of the world, to be honest. It's rough, as they say, it's rough there, but I think you can do it, and I think you can do it if you do it. Now Egypt and Jordan have rejected the idea, and a group of 22 nations known as the Arab League said Trump's proposal would only prolong the conflict. Let's bring in right now from Jerusalem outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office

as NBC News chief international correspondent. Keir Simmons, Keir, what can you tell us? Well, there was no sign of that language from President Trump about cleaning out Gaza in the readouts after conversations between his Secretary of State Marco Rubio and King Abdullah of Jordan or the Foreign Minister of Egypt, what those readouts, at least the readout after the conversation with the Egyptian Foreign Minister, did say is that as far as the US is concerned, the Secretary of State told Egypt that Hamas can play, as far as America is concerned, no part in any kind of future for Gaza.

And at the same time, and it's quite a split screen, you're seeing Hamas officials in Gaza as thousands return to the north to their devastated homes. You're seeing Hamas soldiers and officials on the streets. You're seeing them in clean uniforms, taking selfies, holding babies. So I guess that's Hamas's response to that. The question might be, what is President Trump trying to do here? Is he kind of setting up a maximalist position in order to try to negotiate or is he genuinely thinking that he could push along a policy that would be incredibly, possibly, existentially destabilizing for Jordan and

Egypt? And in terms of those negotiations, his envoy, Steve Rickoff, is here now in Israel. He has said that he wants to go to Gaza. We are expecting him today to meet with Prime Minister Netanyahu. As you mentioned, this is Prime Minister Netanyahu's office behind me here. We did see an IDF helicopter fly in just, I guess, about 30 minutes ago. Whether that was carrying Steve Witkoff, we cannot say. But certainly certainly it's clear that the situation here in Israel and Gaza is perhaps the main foreign policy priority for the Trump administration. Prime Minister Netanyahu has been invited next week to see President Trump in Washington. He'll be the first foreign leader to visit President Trump since the inauguration. So that is a sign, I think.

But this is stage one. And the ceasefire is fragile. And the Trump administration, for example, has withdrawn support for UNRWA, the UN organization that has been supplying food and medical supplies to Palestinians in Gaza, in which the Israelis accused of being infiltrated by Hamas. So that just that simple question raises the question, how do you continue this deal if you can't send important life supporting materials, supplies into Gaza? I mean, of course, the Israeli government would disagree with that and say it's still possible.

It's stage one. Maybe there are three Americans who are still hostages. Keith Segal is one of them. Maybe he will be released this week. But then we have stage two and stage three. And then what future for Gaza? To say it is on a knife edge is underestimating. So, you want to find better words.

Yeah, so here, from officials I've spoken to in the region estimating on it. So, yeah, you want to find better words. Yes. So here from officials I've spoken to in the region over the last 24 hours, the proposal to quote clear out Gaza was met even by those who quietly supported Donald Trump's return to the White House with something far more than skepticism, almost a laughing contempt. He said, that is not going to happen. It's not going to happen in Jordan. The Saudis are not going to support it.

The Egyptians will not support it. I mean, there seems to be the deepest, I can't underline the word deep enough, the deepest of skepticism that this would ever happen and that these countries would ever absorb the Palestinians living in Gaza. What have you heard? Yeah, but keep in mind also that many of these governments, autocracies after all, were in power during President Trump 1.0. So they've kind of seen this before. I've spoken to diplomats in the Gulf.

And remember, in the Gulf, there was enthusiasm about the arrival of President Trump. I've spoken to diplomats in the Gulf who kind of are shrugging and saying, well, that's just not going to happen. And so that's just President Trump for you. And I think it's notable that Steve Witkoff, his envoy, was in Saudi Arabia, I'm told by a senior Gulf diplomat, before he came here to Israel. I wouldn't be surprised to see him

in Doha before. I suspect he will return to Washington for that Benjamin Netanyahu visit next week. So the negotiations continue on all sides. All sides are still talking to each other. While President Trump uses this, frankly, inflammatory language, language that, you know, ostensibly you would think is just going to make things harder. Does it focus minds? Does it kind of set the table for someone like Steve Wittkopf to say, okay, but let's, here's what we propose that is more of a compromise. I mean, in the end, if you're going to have a deal, if you're going to have a permanent ceasefire, there has to be compromise.

And really, that is one of the reasons why it's so fragile, because how on earth do you get compromise after 15 months, almost 50,000 dead, killed in Gaza. All right, NBC's Keir Simmons. Thank you, Keir. Thank you so much for reporting. Greatly appreciate it. When Donald Trump says things like that, and Keir just talked about that possibly being an opening position or whatever, it's always important for those around Donald Trump.

So it's important what they say is often the first thing he says, the first shocking thing he says, whether it's about the Palestinian people or tariffs or the freezing of aid is always the opening offer and the negotiation. All right, coming up, Tom Brady says he will fulfill his contract with Fox Sports as a commentator, but does that pose a major conflict of interest for the future Hall of Famer? Pablo Torre and Mike Barnicle are here to discuss that, and yet another addition to the already stacked LA Dodgers. Morning Joe will be right back.

Well, that's a beautiful live picture that's got to be chopper for our good friends WNBC. Thank you, Chopper. They do it every morning. It's 365 days a year. Look at that shot live picture in New York City. Did you see the numbers for the AFC Championship game? Unbelievable. You know, just one million city. If you see the numbers for the FC champion, I know you know just 1 million behind. Ali the tallies gave you. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, we're saying number when the Beatles John Paul George played Ed Sullivan. Yeah, and the match finale is in there.

I got that. So Sunday's game between the Chiefs and Bills now crazy most watched AFC championship game in NFL history. The CBS broadcast average more than 57 million viewers 57 million broke the previous record set last year between the Chiefs and the Ravens. The game also had substantially more viewers than the NFC title game, which aired in the afternoon on Fox, not bad though.

That one, 47 and a half million viewers. How about the NFL? In these days of fragmented viewership, absurd. The NFL, this is beyond anything that we've ever seen. I do have to ask, how much longer? It's kind of like the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry pre-2004. Yeah.

We thought it was a rivalry. But the Yankees didn't, because the Yankees always won. At what point did people like me stop thinking that Wiley Coyote is going to catch the road runner and Josh Allen is going to win what how long it's like he's in Jim Kelly territory great quarterbacks for the bills that just can't do it's heartbreaking I love so close

what they have to do is get the best record in the AFC so that games in Buffalo exactly that's the key to the whole thing let's bring in Pablo Torre. He really doesn't need an introduction anymore but he's the host of Pablo Torre. He finds out on Metal Arc Media, also an MSNBC contributor, Mike Barnacle with us as well. Hi Mike. 57 million. Yeah I appreciate you guys having me here because you could have put a football on the table and drawn 35 million. Yes, exactly. Just on that basis alone. But would they be wearing a shocking blue sweater like? I know. I don't think so.

This is good. What is this? Is this cobalt? I believe this is a cobalt blue. Thank you for noticing. I think it's a little less. I don't know. I like a giant blue. Pablo, I remember a couple of years ago when people were saying in 2000 2001, yeah, never going to watch NFL again now and I'm like you do okay, I say and then and then like I call like 6 months later

and they're they're moaning about the Packers I thought you weren't watching the NFL anymore. I went to so many panels in and around Brooklyn. I don't want to put Malcolm Gladwell on blast out of nowhere. Very smart guy. But at one point, I listened to him predict this is going to be over in about 15 years, 15 years ago. So smart people were saying, look at the concussion problem, look at the controversies,

look at the way that Roger Goodell needs to be a Supreme Court justice punishing people, night court style, you might even say. And instead, you have the most important piece of real estate in literally American culture. Broadly speaking, it's the NFL and they are ascendant somehow despite being already incumbent. Let me ask, we all grew up watching the NFL. When did we get to this tipping point

where it became so culturally dominant that 91 out of the top 100 TV shows in the year are NFL games? I think it is concurrent with the fragmentation that you reference because there is no monoculture anymore. Again, if you're playing along with a drinking game and listening to me talk about football, I say the word monoculture as I always say it, because there is nothing communal left, because there are no ecstatic collective experiences anymore, because the pandemic taught us I was talking to Barnacle over there. When you took fans out of the building and you realize we actually need lots of people to be around a fully enjoy sports, the NFL came along and said, here's a reminder, we fill coliseums and also we're the only thing that you will

watch with the person who vehemently disagrees with you on literally every other cultural issue. And so they are eventizing, to use another word of the day, in a world of fragmentation. They are making things feel like you've got to watch it to be included, which is just a rare American station. I there's not to. Yeah, well I agree with public the things that bring us together have been elevated go to a Taylor Swift concert right. She's on the list feels

good to be in the stadium. So how does the NFL sincerely feel about the Super Bowl because we're seeing ticket prices are down there's chiefs exhaustion. Here we go again here we go again. The Eagles and the chiefs, they kind of wanted a new story. The Bills, are they gonna do it for the first time? All that. But the NFL likes Mahomes, it likes Travis, it likes Taylor, of course.

It's a really good Eagles team. So how are we feeling about the game? Yeah, look for me, this is the least interesting matchup of the ones available because we've seen it before. But when you see those numbers, I mean, when almost 60 million people watch the Chiefs and the Bills, the NFL has to be thinking to themselves,

yeah, we'll take it. We'll take the part of that matchup that is going to take Taylor Swift again into a yet another luxury box for us to gaze up at on top of the fact that Travis Kelsey, look, if you talk about the most famous football players in America, Travis Kelce, I think it's probably tied with Patrick Mahomes,

one A, one B in some fashion. So if you're the NFL, that plus a bunch of people trying to climb Greece's lampposts in Philly. There is just enough psychosis. The Philly family. No, this is going to be great. They're going to bring it. They're going to bring it. Right away, for idiots at home that are saying, not that there are any idiots who watch this show because they're very smart above average, intelligence is amazing.

But anyway, for those saying that Travis Kelce is only big because of Taylor Swift, I bought Jack Scarborough a Travis Kelce jersey for Christmas five years ago. That guy, one of the great tight ends of all time. There's no doubt about it. Two quick things. I really want to talk about the Dodgers, but I think we have to talk about Brady first. I'm just curious. How do you rate Tom Brady this year? He says he's going to stick it out. How did Tom Brady do? Got much better as he went. I mean, listen, that's a, you go go from the field to the booth he knows the game clearly as well as anybody but the broadcasting side of it is something completely different. I thought he got better Pablo and I think now he's gonna call the Super Bowl there's all this

talk about whether a guy who owns a portion of a team like he does with the Las Vegas Raiders should be calling games the Raiders aren't playing in this game so you can put that to the side. Not even close. But what no but what they got Pete Carroll now, though. Things are about to change. What's the consensus about Brady the broadcaster? He now appreciates how hard it is to speak in public about even the thing

that you know better than anybody else, maybe, who's ever played the game. Like, there is a giant difference between describing live with millions of people watching versus doing live with millions of people watching. And, look, I don't want to take this to Michael Jordan running the Wizards, but we have in sports lots of experiments we've run

where it's like, hey, here's the greatest of all time. They must be able to transfer this skill set to any part of the industry. And Tom Brady has gotten better over the season, but it's still remarkable. The guy was processing as a quarterback faster and better and more precisely than anybody else has ever done it. And yet, when it comes to translating that verbally, he's just not nearly as good as lesser players. I think Mike, the problem is, and I've noticed it throughout the season, at times his broadcast re gets in his head. He should just talk.

He's got to learn how to tune out the critics and he's got to just talk. Because when he's just talking and he's not in his head, he's really good. Yeah, he is really good. But would you be surprised? Would you be surprised if the Super Bowl, he does the Super Bowl and that's it? So this has been a rumor to the point where Tom Brady almost in the way that he would as a player declared, wait a minute, how dare you doubt me? I'm going to stick it through for the rest of this contract. But the subplot here, which Willie mentioned, he's the minority owner of the Las

Vegas Raiders. And that does not indicate a merely ceremonial position. According to everybody who's been paying attention, reporters are now saying this, the dude is the guy making the decisions. No, no. Didn't one of the greatest quarterbacks, the guy that I would say was the greatest quarterback in our fellow history before Brady, didn't he walk off at halftime, Joe Montana, in his Super Bowl? He was broadcasting. He was terrible.

Yeah. And just at halftime, he said, no moss and walked off, right? Right, yeah. Brady is doing something that I think is unprecedented. He is actively running, de facto running, an NFL team and also- GM, coaches.

Yes, picks them. Hiring Pete Carroll, the guy that Mark Davis, the owner of the team, is consulting on these decisions. He's in the Zoom calls interviewing people. And he's also going to call the Super Bowl. Like again, I get it. He's Tom Brady. Give him all the real estate. But it's an interesting experiment that we have not seen of power and publicity.

Let me ask you another question. You referred to this earlier in terms of the ratings for Sunday's game, highest ever, enormous numbers of people watching the game. Do you think that part of the draw is the fact that our politics, our government, the world around Americans is so shatteringly crazy and divisive that Americans still are looking for communal experiences and ah, here we are. I think there's no question about that. There's no question. It makes us feel together as we talked about. It's also, I feel this when I get to come in and you guys are talking about very serious things, it's like a palate

cleanser, right? It's just, hey, we're not just our problems, we're also a nice cobalt sorbet sometimes. Exactly. I love a cobalt sorbet. Many such cases, yes. Yeah, and I saw you've got the NFL, you've got Taylor Swift concerts, and you've got way too early with Alivetel. That's right. The things America agrees on. Exactly.

So, look, this is just up into the entire table, and I'm serious. How many World Series in a row are the Dodgers going to win before Major League Baseball understands that this is destroying the competitiveness of baseball. Added another great reliever yesterday. I mean, they're they're an all-star team almost at every position. Everyone talks about the evil empire of the Yankees. I get that. I take that. The big budget but this is probably this is something else that we've never seen. Part of it is the deferred money in Otani's contract.

So they're not actually paying him today so they can pay all these other people. Now, they've turned the nation of Japan into their farm system, basically. And they have some great prospects coming out of Japan. The scariest thing in baseball now, again, for those not familiar, baseball, there is no salary cap. So spending is essential. But when you have a team that can spend, as well as a front office that is trained on fiscal discipline, like, the guys running the Dodgers

used to run the Rays, the Tampa Bay Rays. And so they know, let's be smart and judicious while also having the pocketbooks. If you don't have both, it's incredibly difficult to compete. And so, Joe, to your point, I don't know why you would pick against them in the foreseeable future. Well, yeah. And by the way, Mike, if you're a fan, you know, if you're in Pittsburgh, if you're in

Kansas City, if you're in Minnesota, I mean, you know, before the season even starts, you're never going to compete with the Dodgers. No, I'm not going to. So why doesn't Major League Baseball have a salary cap? And again, I understand the union's strong, but are they going to let the union destroy baseball? Saying the Major League Baseball players union is strong is a serious understatement. They control the game. They run the game. There's no doubt about it.

What this does, I don't think it ruins baseball. They run the game. There's no doubt about it. What this does, I don't think it ruins baseball. I think it encourages. There were other owners with a lot of money, the Red Sox being one, the Orioles now with, they now have money. Other teams have money. The Yankees have an enormous amount of money. The Mets have an enormous amount of money and he's spending the money. It's going to force owners to break out of the pack and unfortunately, well, the system of fines and taxes in baseball when you go over a certain amount of money on your yearly budget is so complex. I don't know anyone who can explain it, but a lot of owners live in fear of it. Well, it affects the deferred

the deferred force. What compensation the deferred. If you're selling a ton of $700 million dollars for 10 years that can't be deferred like it goes on your books for 10 years how the contract is signed goes on your book for 10 years. What we're seeing is a sophisticated financial instruments in that contract being introduced that I think is the interest of really nobody except for the Dodgers

so the question of you know what if you're a team that values the present tense at the expense of some future cost well, there's a real market inefficiency for you to seize as long as you're good to pay the bill later and it's it's a crazy thing to have the guy on the richest contract in the history of sports right I don't know what gladiators in ancient Rome made inflation adjusted right, but I believe that a tiny would be comfortably ahead. Yeah, probably so and with that we

say goodbye. Yeah, probably so. And with that, we say goodbye to our own sort of cobalt, Kansas City heroes. Cobalt, Torrey, Fines, now. Corvall, Sorbet. Yeah, that's true. That's something. Cobalt.

You really know how to, yeah. A palette cleanser. Okay, thank you. That's all I am. That's a little bit. I think you're more than that, Pablo. Thank you.