Morning Joe - Morning Joe 1/4/24

Episode Date: January 4, 2024

Trump is reportedly worried about SCOTUS Ballot ruling

Good morning and welcome to Morning Joe. It is Thursday, January 4th. We have a lot to get to this morning, including Donald Trump formally taking his fight to remain on Colorado's ballot to the Supreme Court. We'll tell you what his lawyers are arguing and why the former president is concerned about how the justices may rule. Plus, back in 2020, Donald Trump hired an expert to prove election fraud. Instead, that person found the 2020 election was not stolen. We're going to speak with that expert about what his data firm actually uncovered. Also ahead, we'll dig into the new ultimatum from House Republicans following their visit

to the southern border. Do they really want a deal? Do they want a deal? Along with Willie and me, we have the host of Way Too Early, White House Bureau Chief at Politico, Jonathan Lemire, and MSNBC host Jen Psaki. She's a former White House press secretary.

Good to have you all on board this morning. Willie. All right. Let's start in Colorado. Former President Trump's legal team officially has petitioned the Supreme Court to overturn last month's Colorado Supreme Court ruling that Trump engaged in an insurrection on January 6th and therefore is barred from the state primary ballot by the 14th Amendment. The Colorado Republican Party already had appealed the decision, and because of a stay on the ruling, Trump's name will appear on the ballot until the U.S. Supreme Court takes action. Trump's lawyers argue the 14th Amendment statute does not apply to the presidency. He slammed the ruling that, quote, if allowed to stand, he said, will mark the first time in the history of

the United States the judiciary has prevented voters from casting ballots for the leading major party presidential candidate, end quote. In a separate statement, the Trump campaign wrote, Democrats are obsessively violating the American voters' constitutional right to vote for the candidate of their choice. This is an American unconstitutional act of election interference which cannot stand. End quote. That's from the Trump campaign. The Supreme Court still has not announced whether it will accept the case. Joining us now, conservative attorney George Conway and NBC News legal analyst Andrew Weissman. He's co-host of the MSNBC podcast Prosecuting Donald Trump.

Guys, good morning to you both. Andrew, let me start with you on this appeal up to the Supreme Court. Where does this go from here? Do you suspect the Supreme Court will hear any of this? I do think that they will take this. I think it's one where the government is not going to oppose and it's going to think that it's appropriate. As we know, there's another case in Maine that will bubble up as well. So this is one where if you're not going to have a patchwork of decisions within the states with no Supreme Court guidance, I see the Supreme Court taking it. You know, this is one where Donald Trump actually has a fairly good chance, I think, of prevailing.

But you wouldn't know it from the brief that he filed, which is much more of a political statement. I mean, you would think that a brief like this filed by the former president would start with the point that he did not engage in insurrection. That is not his lead argument. I mean, you'd think that should be something that you would want to declare loud and clear, but that's not where we are as a country. That's sort of buried in his papers as almost a throwaway argument

because, in fact, there's so much evidence that he did. Instead, he leads with the argument that you quoted, which is that you would disenfranchise so many voters in the Colorado case, over a million voters in the Republican primary, which is, of course, a very ironic argument for him to be making, given that he is currently criminally charged with attempting to disenfranchise 80 million people who voted for Joe Biden. So that's the irony is, I think, not going to be lost on a lot of people in the Supreme Court. So while former President Trump presents confidence in public that he will prevail against the cases challenging his eligibility to be on the ballot in those two states. Privately, new reporting says he's worried that the Supreme Court,

he stacked with conservatives, will not rule in his favor. The high court has ruled against him several times in high profile cases, including when Trump tried to stop Congress from obtaining his tax returns and when Trump wanted a special master to review the classified documents seized from Mar-a-Lago. Trump lawyer Alina Haba acknowledged the former president's concerns in an interview yesterday. Yeah, that's a concern that he's voiced to me. He's voiced to everybody publicly, not privately.

And I can tell you that his concern is a valid one. You know, Republicans are conservative. They get nervous. They unfortunately are sometimes shy away from being pro-Trump because they feel that even if the law is on our side, they may appear to be swayed, much like the Democratic side would do. Right. So they're trying so hard to look neutral that sometimes they make the wrong call. And I just encourage them to really look at the law and the Constitution. George Conway. So let's from former President Trump's point of view, what is worrying about this to Andrew Weissman's point? His lead argument is more of a campaign,

you know, argument campaign slogan that he's used for anything that comes his way that he doesn't like. And it's not actually countering the eligibility question, the issue of engaging in insurrection, which doesn't mean a crime has to be committed and a conviction has to happen. Just whether or not he engaged in insurrection and whether or not he is eligible. Yeah. I mean, this is a bizarre document. And I think it reflects — I think it reflects the weakness of Trump's position, actually. And let me explain why.

When you — if you took a seminar on appellate advocacy, the first thing they tell you is you have to focus an appellate court at any level on the two or three, and sometimes four, we'll be pushing it, key issues, the ones that you think are the weak spots in the decision that you're challenging. And that's on steroids when you go up to the Supreme Court of the United States and file a petition for a writ of certiorari, because there, the Supreme Court doesn't take whole cases. It's not like 1803, Marbury v. Madison, where Chief Justice Marshall can look at everything in the case. They only look at discrete issues, and they choose those issues on the basis of their

importance. And here, what Trump did, on page one, on the front inside cover, you're required to put the question presented. And the question presented here is this blunderbuss. Did the Supreme Court air the Supreme Court of Colorado air in ordering President Trump excluded from the 2024 presidential primary ballot? He's basically just throwing stuff up at the wall or throwing stuff up in the zoo cage and seeing what would stick. And so what this reflects, I think, is three things, the third of which is the most important. The first is I don't know that he has real appellate advocates here of the sort that if I were a former president and a billionaire, I would want to have. I mean, Mark Meadows the

other day hired one of the best advocates ever to appear before the Supreme Court, Paul Clement, who was a former solicitor general in the Bush administration. Trump can't do that because people can't work. People don't want to work for him. The second is, I think this question reflects, you know, they're channeling Trump's narcissism. Oh, poor me. I was screwed by many which ways. And then the third reason, though, I think, is the fundamental weakness of his position. The fifth point in this brief, point five, Roman numeral five, is he didn't engage in insurrection. It's not number one. And the reason is it's because his arguments are very, very weak. If you look at the question of in terms of

should President Trump be removed from the ballot, it's kind of you look at the question of, in terms of, should President Trump be removed from the ballot, it's kind of a shocking notion to those of us who haven't lived in an era, hadn't lived until now, in an era where public officials engage in insurrection. But it was familiar to the people who enacted the 14th Amendment. And when you go through the issues, one by one by one and the way lawyers are supposed to, his case looks terrible. So, Jen Psaki, at the same time, the woe is me works for Trump supporters. It's just another reason why they're coming after him and they they don't want to take the time for the details because they're they believe in him and he has them in this, you know, some call it a cult, but some truly believe that, you know, Joe Biden is the

end of the world and Donald Trump is a victim. So I don't know what the White House does with this besides watch it play out. But this one is really interesting because instead of going after Trump dead on, you committed a crime. Here are the five crimes you committed. Here are the 10 crimes you committed. They're going after eligibility, just like someone who's too young to run for president or someone who wasn't born in this country can't run for president. That's right, Mika. I mean, it's such an interesting case. As George just said, I mean, we're not familiar with a president who has been a part of an insurrection because this is an unprecedented moment. That's why these are unprecedented potential actions, which is so important for people to remember.

If you're sitting in the White House right now and you're watching this, you watch it. You don't do anything publicly. They're focused on the speech the president is going to give on Friday and laying out the contrast on democracy and somebody who's going to stand up for democracy and somebody who is not. You don't engage in this publicly. But what this does do for the campaign without them engaging in it is it reminds people of Trump's role in the insurrection. And one of the challenges you have if you're sitting in the Biden campaign right now is that people haven't tuned into the legal cases entirely yet. Right. They haven't focused on it. So, yes, he's using this his campaign and Trump are using this effectively in the Republican primary to excite people. But we're about to move to the

general election. And the more people are reminded of Trump's engagement in an insurrection of the battle against democracy has had, that is better for the Biden campaign. But if you're sitting in the White House, you do nothing. You watch it. You focus on the speech. I did have a question, Mika, for Andrew, because I think for people who are tuning in, they're, you know, trying to have kale salad after their Christmas cookies or whatever it may be. A lot of people are wondering, friends of mine at least, what happens now, right? Because it feels like there's been a lot of action by the Supreme Court. You just said earlier that you don't think they'll rule. Trump is probably in a good place. I don't want to put words in your mouth.

But what happens now? What's the timeline of this? What should everybody be watching? Well, there are sort of two really important cases that are sort of wending their way up to the Supreme Court. We don't know yet whether the Supreme Court will take either of them. One is this disqualification issue. It's coming to the fore in Colorado. It soon may be joined by a decision from Maine. So that's sort of one side. And I do think the Supreme Court will take it. And they don't actually need to rule sort of super quickly because right now the Colorado decision

is stayed pending their decision. But I do think that they will take it and that in relatively short order. Of course, I'm a lawyer and everyone always thinks that means it's going to be days, but no, it'll be weeks at the earliest. But that's one case. The other case has to do with Donald Trump saying that he has absolute immunity in connection with his criminal case in Washington, D.C. That is going to be argued this coming Tuesday. And that also may go to the Supreme Court. There, I do not think that Donald Trump has a good shot. That is definitely a long shot for him to say that as a former president, he could not be charged criminally. But those are the two cases to keep an eye on. So, Andrew, do you think, is it your assessment that the Supreme Court wants to deal with this massive question,

which in some ways, if you think about it, could dwarf Bush v. Gore in 2000 of whether or not states can pull Donald Trump off of the ballot? Would they rather have the states decide this? Do you think there's any chance they just kick it back to the states? So the answer of whether they'd like to, I'm sure that Chief Justice Roberts is not sitting there going, I can't wait. But the court at the center of this in two cases, he he can. However, if he is going to take both, there is a way to sort of split the baby and for the court to look like it's being even handed by denying one and granting the other. But I do think this is one where they, I think, will take one of them. And the immunity, that's the disqualification issue.

The immunity issue is one where I think everyone thinks, I think as well, that the D.C. circuit is going to rule against Donald Trump. It's a really strained argument that he is making. That's one where you could imagine the Supreme Court saying, you know what, we're going to stay out of that. Even though no Supreme Court case has directly ruled on the issue, there may be a reason there that they say, you know what, we do not need to be at the center of this. They have so many other controversial cases that came up last year and that are coming up this year that they may be very much thinking about just, you know, keeping some reputation intact and not in tatters. But it remains to be seen, obviously. The stakes couldn't be higher. NBC News legal analyst Andrew Weitzman. Andrew, thanks so much. We appreciate it. And John, as you said,

the president's speech at Valley Forge has been moved from Saturday to Friday till tomorrow because of weather up in the Philadelphia area. Clearly, though, a sign, this speech, as we turn the new year and into the campaign year, that the Biden campaign is leaning into this question of democracy, of January 6th, of the integrity of elections, of who we are. Yeah. To Jen's point earlier, they're not going to touch the legal stuff. They're not going to weigh in on the Supreme Court matters. We know they haven't talked about the criminal cases either. And they're not banking on one of these trials happening in time for voters to get a conviction or an acquittal

before Election Day. But they are focusing on laying out the stakes of this election. And they per the president and his team, they simply couldn't be higher. And his speech will no longer be on the anniversary of January 6th because of the snowstorm that might be coming to the Northeast. They moved it up a day. It'll be tomorrow. But at a historically symbolic site, Valley Forge, of course, that was George Washington's headquarters for the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War. And we're expected the president to again, as he has done several times in the past, including in Independence Hall in nearby Philadelphia, talk about just this growing sense that the nation's democracy is fragile and that things could change if Donald Trump and his supporters were to win again. In fact, I've got reporting that President Biden met with a series

of historians yesterday, including a couple of names familiar to the viewers of this show. And those historians talked to him about the need to urgently call out this moment. He'd had a meeting like this once before last year, ahead of that Philadelphia speech on democracy. And again, he's returning to those themes, saying that we need to stand, the nation needs to stand for its democracy. It's more important than ever. That is an animating principle of the Biden 2024 campaign. He'll also hit it on again Monday when he goes to South Carolina and speaks at the church

in Charleston that was the site of a racist mass shooting some years ago. So expect this again to be a familiar refrain from this president as now his reelection campaign is about to begin in earnest. We continue our conversation on the legal challenges against former President Donald Trump. And I have a question for George Conway, just listening to the entire first block of the show. Now, this latest now with Trump appealing Colorado.

When you look at Maine, you look at Colorado, you look at the documents case, you look at Georgia, you look at election interference, you look at the civil fraud suit in New York City. You look at E. Jean Carroll. You look at Stormy Dent. I mean, there are I can't think of someone who has more legal challenges facing him. I don't know how many lawyers he has or can get, but Chris Christie has always said, George, on this show that he's staying in the race, even if he's in qualifying for the Iowa debate stage. He's staying in the race because one of these legal cases, if not multiple, will catch up with him. Is that true in terms of the timing of all of these cases? Well, in terms of the criminal cases,

I think he's always had this fear of being prosecuted. I mean, one of the things, I didn't realize it at the time, but I flew down to Washington on a plane with him before the inauguration, and he asked me, should he fire the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York? You know, this is a man who is, I didn't realize it then, but he had to be thinking of not wanting to be investigated. And Maggie Haberman of The New York Times said a couple of times in 2020 that one of the reasons why

Trump was running was to avoid prosecution because you can't prosecute a sitting president. And this he has to run here because, you know, it's a get out of jail card if he's elected. It would be constitutionally impossible. So you're saying he could beat the clock? No, I don't think he's going to beat the clock. I think that I think that this case in here in the District of Columbia, the January 6th case before Judge Shutkin is going to is going to be tried this summer at the latest. And I think he's not going to beat the clock, but he is running for his freedom. I mean, he's he's a man who's probably, in my estimation, going to spend the rest of his life in a federal or state prison.

So Donald Trump, as we know, was told again and again that the 2020 election was not stolen. Back in November of 2020, in fact, data expert Ken Block and his firm Simpatico Software Systems were hired by the Trump campaign to investigate allegations of voter fraud. Ken now has a new piece in USA Today titled Trump paid me to find voter fraud. Then he lied after I found 2020 election was not stolen. This book titled Disproven will be released in March. Ken, good morning. Thank you for joining us. So I do want to read a bit of your piece in which you write, quote, We vote anonymously with good reason. No candidate can credibly claim that a fraudulent vote was credited to their opponent unless the person who cast that vote tells us. This means a candidate trying to use voter fraud as

the reason to change an election result cannot show that the fraudulent votes caused their election loss. There is no doubt that voter fraud can animate people, but it is one thing to provide a rallying point for supporters and quite another to drag our election infrastructure and legal system into a foundationless set of false claims. So, Ken, let's go back to the days just after November of 2020, after the election, and explain for our viewers, if you could, the circumstances under which you were hired, by whom, and then ultimately what you found in your investigation. Absolutely. And good morning. I was hired by lawyers attached to the Trump campaign initially to look for voter fraud on behalf of the campaign. What many people don't know is that there were more than one camp

of lawyers attached to the campaign. I was reporting to a fairly careful group of lawyers who wanted to conduct proper due diligence ahead of filing any court cases. And my job initially was to look for voter fraud, look for deceased voters, look for duplicate voters, that sort of thing. And my mission changed over time because they realized that I had a lot of capabilities I could bring to the table. And they started running a whole bunch of claims that others brought to the attention of the campaign. And they asked me to determine whether or not those claims were true. And every single claim that I looked at, I was able to prove that they were false claims and not true. And so we're talking about dead voters was one thing. Mail-in ballots was something that

Donald Trump was crying about right after the election. He didn't like that system. All of a sudden, what were the specific claims the lawyers were making that you chased down? Well, there were about 15 of them. We're a little bit ahead of where the book comes out, so I'm going to hold those back a little bit. But I can tell you that some of the claims were really bonkers. They were wild claims. They were easy to prove that they were true, that they were false. And there were other claims that relied on complex mathematical theories. That took a little bit longer to figure out, but I was able in every circumstance to show the people that brought these claims forward that they just didn't apply and they

weren't true. So, Ken, I'm assuming that your company, when they take on a client, they do work for them. That is to stay private. That's part of the deal, probably, and part of making sure that you remain respected in the field. So I guess my question is, what prompted you to completely unearth everything that you did for the former president? Yeah. When I realized that the totality of my work was going to become public no matter what, the work, I was disclosed to the January 6th committee that my company had done the work. I've been subpoenaed by Jack Smith.

I've been subpoenaed by Jack Smith. I've been subpoenaed by Fannie Willis in Fulton County, Georgia. And ultimately, I don't have an NDA attached to any of the work that I did, which makes it possible for me to freely talk about my work now. So, Ken, we obviously are now in an election year again. So just as someone who's an expert on these on these matters, give, talk to the viewers here about the sense of confidence they should have that their votes this coming fall will be counted freely and fairly and that there wouldn't be much in the way of fraud. Or do you think there is reason to worry? It's a complicated question. We have an imperfect election infrastructure.

It can be improved in a great many ways. But the necessary improvements that we need to make are not responsible for anything that I've seen so far for massive fraud that can change the outcome of an election. So it's a nuanced answer that I give you. And what I ask everybody who's paying attention and has worries or believes that the election was stolen is you have to take a step back and you have to rely on facts. And you can't convict somebody based on hearsay. You can't change the course of an election because you think something bad might have happened. You have to be able to have ironclad proof that it has happened. And that proof is utterly lacking from every one of the claims that I've looked at attached to the 2020 election. So, Ken, is it fair to say that the

summary of your findings was clear to the Trump campaign's lawyers and that Donald Trump himself knew based on your findings that the 2020 election was not stolen. I communicated my findings, all of them to the lawyer that I reported to at the Trump campaign. That lawyer told the January 6th committee that he took the totality of my findings to Mark Meadows, communicated to Mark Meadows. Mark Meadows accepted those findings as true. And in response to those findings said, I guess there's no there there. And he was referring to the fraud claims. Mark Meadows, it was reported in the last couple of months back in April or May of last year, took those findings to the Oval Office. So I believe that, yes, my findings were communicated

to the Oval Office. They had to that, yes, my findings were communicated to the Oval Office. They had to have known because Mark Meadows certainly knew. And yet Mark Meadows went along for the ride as well. We should point out that Ken's findings, Simpatico findings, also have been subpoenaed by Jack Smith and Fannie Willis as well down in Fulton County. Ken Block, fascinating stuff. We'll look forward to your book on sale in March. It's titled Disproven, My Unbiased Search for Voter Fraud for the Trump Campaign. The data that shows why he lost and how we can improve our elections. Ken, thanks so much. Mika. Yeah, for sure. Republican majority whip Tom Emmer endorsed Donald Trump for president yesterday, less than four months after Trump torpedoed Emmer's bid to become House speaker. In a statement posted to X or Twitter,

the number three House Republican wrote, it was, quote, time to unite behind our party's clear front runner. Back in October, when the Minnesota congressman threw his hat in the ring to be the next House speaker, Trump wrote on social media, quote, voting for a globalist rhino like Tom Emmer would be a tragic mistake. Trump's problem with Emmer was because he voted in 2020 to certify Joe Biden's election win, something none of the other current members of House Republican leadership did. Among them is Majority Leader Steve Scalise, who also endorsed Trump's 2024 campaign this week.

Like he did with Emmer, Trump also derailed Scalise's speakership bid in October, suggesting Scalise was too sick to hold the position after being diagnosed with cancer months before George Conway. I'll tell you what's sick. I mean, yeah, I these these guys will put up with anything. And unfortunately, it's the American voters, I think, who ultimately lose. Yeah, I it just I never cease to be amazed at how willing these people are to sacrifice their honor and their dignity to worship at this man to keep, you know, a job.

I mean, don't these people have anything else to do with their lives? It's just crazy that you would. I mean, it's not worth being a member of Congress if you have to kowtow to a psychopath like this. But here we are. And that's essentially the state of the Republican Party where, you know, people are afraid. I mean, like DeSantis the other day, you know, chastising a voter who said, why don't you go after Trump? It's just it's just shameless pandering to people who have been greatly misled. Yeah. Jen Psaki, we've had this conversation with Joe on the show many times. At what point does personal pride enter the equation? How badly do you need the job?

As Claire McCaskill has made the plea to some of these guys on camera, said, guys, it's not so bad out here. You know, you can find other gainful employment. It's not it's not worth it. But but it seems to be well, it seems to be there's almost maybe nothing they wouldn't do for Donald Trump. I mean, Willie, it's a big world out there. As George just said, there's a lot of different things these people can do. And as he also just said, they're they basically look pathetic. I mean, they're putting they are

embarrassed. Their dignity is looking, you know, is being questioned here for good reason. And they did, at a moment, they did the right thing. And then they showed they had no spine because they're so desperate to stay in Congress. Is it that great? I mean, this is, it's sad and pathetic. And it's an addiction to Donald Trump by the core of the Republican Party, including people who at moments we have all applauded for standing up to it. And they just couldn't stay firm. That's what's sad. And this is the latest example of how we are just a couple of days away from the third anniversary of the January 6th insurrection.

And Donald Trump's more powerful now over the Republican Party than he was then. That he has an ironclad grip over the GOP. That, yes, I know there's a little momentum for Nikki Haley, but most believe the Republican nomination process is over. That Donald Trump will be the nominee. These criminal indictments have not hurt him within his own party. The general election, that's a different story. But in terms of within the Republican Party,

Trump is the dominant figure. And those few lonely voices, Mika, who had been standing up to him, they're all but gone at this point. Liz Cheney got routed in her primary last year. Mitt Romney in the Senate is on his way out. He's announced his retirement. Mitch McConnell's a diminished figure. There's just no very, very, very few voices of any stature at all who dare stand up to Trump,

including those who are trying to beat him for the GOP nomination. And also, I mean, he's doing a town hall. We're days away from that where a network is giving him, you know, full range. It appears unless he's actually questioned and held accountable. And we're a couple of days away from Iowa. This is this is incredible. George Conway, thank you very much for coming on this morning. It's always good to see you. The leader of Hezbollah is pledging revenge for the death of a top Hamas leader in Beirut. The man was killed in a strike on Tuesday. Several American officials believe

Israel is responsible, but Israel has not confirmed or denied that claim. The head of Israel's intelligence agency vowed yesterday to hunt down every Hamas member involved in the October 7th attack, no matter where they are. While Israel and Hezbollah have been exchanging fire since the war in Gaza began, this was the first time an attack was launched in Beirut. The move is now raising fears a second war front may open up on Israel's northern border with Lebanon. A senior U.S. official tells The New York Times this will also likely set back talks to reach another hostage release deal and temporary ceasefire in Gaza. Joining us now from Tel Aviv for more on all of this, NBC News foreign correspondent Raf Sanchez. Raf.

Mika, good morning. Israel's military says they are at peak readiness along the Lebanese border in expectation that there will be some form of retaliation to that Israeli assassination of the senior Hamas leader Saleh al-Aruri in Beirut. We have already seen fighting across that border since that drone strike. Just in the last hour, the Israeli military says there have been a number of rockets launched from Lebanon into northern Israel. They say they've responded with airstrikes and with mortar fire. And yesterday, Mika, nine Hezbollah fighters were killed by Israeli fighter, according to the group. That is the most significant casualties Hezbollah has suffered since October 7th. So this is a sign of how serious the friction is right now across that

border. But the expectation here in Israel is that there may be more to come, because as you said, that drone strike was not on the border in southern Lebanon. It was in Beirut, in the Lebanese capital. That is something that the leader of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, has said would be a red line for him. And the question at this point is how and at what scale does Hezbollah respond? The U.S. is saying it does not assess that either Hezbollah or Israel wants a full-scale war, but that doesn't mean that there might not be one, that one of the two sides could miscalculate, could edge into full-blown conflict. The U.S. has said since October 7th, since the Hamas terror attack, it does not want to see the war in Gaza spreading across the region, especially to Lebanon. Today, a senior U.S. official, Amos Hochstein, who is President Biden's troubleshooter when it comes to Israel-Lebanon,

is here in Tel Aviv. An Israeli official tells me he will meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later today to discuss the situation on the Lebanese border. His trip is coming just ahead of Secretary Blinken's visit to the Middle East. The secretary is leaving Washington later tonight. He is heading to a region, Mika, that is just on edge in almost every direction, from Yemen to Iraq to Gaza to Lebanon. But all of it made more complicated by the fact that Iran's leadership is reeling from that major explosion yesterday on the fourth anniversary of the killing of Qasem Soleimani, the Revolutionary Guard commander. Eighty-four people killed in those twin blasts, according to the Iranian government.

That is one of the deadliest attacks Iran has suffered since 1979. They are accusing Israel of being responsible for the attack. Israel, at this moment moment is not commenting. Mika. A lot of moving parts. NBC's Raf Sanchez, thank you very much for your reporting this morning. Live picture of the White House, Sun Knight quite yet up at 6.44 in the morning. The Biden-Harris campaign out this morning with its first ad of the new year

about the ongoing threat to American democracy. It comes ahead of a major speech set to be delivered by the president tomorrow, nearly three years after the January 6th attack on the Capitol. Here now, an exclusive first look at that ad. I've made the preservation of American democracy the central issue of my presidency. I believe in free and fair elections and the right to vote fairly and have your vote counted. There's something dangerous happening in America. There's an extremist movement that does not share the basic beliefs in our democracy. All of us are being asked right now, what will we do to maintain our democracy?

History's watching. The world is watching. Most important, our children and grandchildren will hold us responsible. The vice president and I have supported voting rights since day one of this administration. And I ask every American to join me in this cause. America is still a place of possibilities where the power resides with we, the people. That's our soul. We are the United States of America. There is nothing beyond our capacity and we act together. I'm Joe Biden and I approve this message. Political ad from the Biden Harris campaign. Joining us now, Maryland's Democratic Governor Wes Moore. He's a member of the Biden Harris campaign's National Advisory Board. Governor, great to see you this morning.

Happy New Year. So let's talk about the ad and the context around it. On the one hand, the president is going to go out this year and tout what he believes is a strong economy, that the numbers we've seen will continue into the new year. On the other hand, as we just saw in that ad, setting the stakes for this election in broader terms around democracy. I think that's right. And I think one thing we're seeing is the stakes of this election are important and on the line, but also the frame and what people are going to hear for the next 10 months, because we're going to watch Donald Trump, who's going to spend the next 10 months fighting for his freedom and fighting for his future. But one thing we're not going to hear over the next 10 months is him fighting for any of ours. You know, we know that the future of

our democracy is going to matter in all of this. And, you know, having this being announced and having the president going to Valley Forge, you know, having this being announced and having the president going to Valley Forge, you know, my old stomping grounds where I got sent to military school when I was 13 years old, and also being here right in front of the, in Annapolis, where George Washington resigned his commission for the first time, really letting the people know that the power does not belong to an individual. The power belongs to the people. So I think the president is really setting the stakes and really hoping to set the platform for what people are going to hear. From him, it's a vision for their future. For Donald Trump, they're going to hear a vision about his future. That's the difference.

So, Governor, let me ask you then, with all that said, and those are the stakes for this election as set out by the campaign. Some of these numbers that we've seen recently, knowing that we are still a ways out from from Democratic votes being cast here about the way the coalition, Democrats, young people, black voters, Latino voters are feeling about this president. Some kind of stunning numbers in a USA Today Suffolk University poll just a couple of days ago that show Donald Trump actually now for now leading among Latino voters. That's a group of voters that Joe Biden won by more than 30 points in 2020. Black voters, Joe Biden's support eroding there. They're not going to Donald Trump, but perhaps some voters looking at a third party candidate and notably young voters who seem to be fishing around looking for an alternative as well. How do you explain those trends? Well, I know over the next 10 months that the president

is going to be going around making the case and and also continuing to to work with all of us as surrogates to remind people about what's actually happening. If you if you look at what's happening, you know, here in the state of Maryland, the reason that we've been able to have so much momentum, the reason that in Maryland we have the lowest unemployment rate in the entire country, that we have made systematic impacts on being able to address the racial wealth gap, our ability to create a diverse administration that's making sure we're seeing every single part of our state, that's being done in partnership with the Biden administration. That's being done because we're able to have not just resources and guidance, but a true sense of partnership with the federal government in order to make sure that all groups, to include African-Americans and

young voters and Latino voters, are not just being seen in this process, but are advancing in significant clips. And so I think people, we're going to go out there and we're going to make the case and to show people that the actions that we're seeing from the federal government, the action we're seeing from the Biden administration are translating into the everyday lives of young voters who are watching everything from environmental protections that are being put forward in the strongest voice that we've seen in any administration historically, that we were watching abortion rights being protected all across the country. In the state of Maryland, we're now going to have abortion rights on the ballot to put as part of our constitution in the next election. All of these things that are happening that young voters are crying out

for us to be able to address, they're happening in partnership with the Biden administration, and we're going to continue making that case. Governor Moritz Jen Psaki, happy new year. I wanted to just raise, because you're a very effective communicator, happy new year. And one of the frustrations I know the president has or had when I was working for him is more, he wants more Democrats out there echoing his message.

You're doing that now. But I think the question I have for people watching right now, and they're ready to just like roll up their sleeves for election year, is what is like the 32nd pitch for why Joe Biden is better? Is it abortion rights? Is it economy? Is it democracy? It may be all of them, but give people kind of what is the pitch they should be doing to their neighbors out on their streets when they're doing volunteer phone calls right now?

I want people to remember that we have a president who sees us. You know, I asked the Jewish American to remember that we have a president who does not see good people on both sides when it comes to Charlottesville. I want to remind immigrants to this country, people like my mom, who was an immigrant single mom who raised three kids on her own, that we have a president who sees us and understands that we have a population that's looking to support this country and who believes in the future of this country and is not looking to tear it down. I want to say to all the young people and the young voters out there that we have a president

who understands that the future of our environment matters. And it understands the things like being able to address student loans and the cost of insulin for our seniors. That matters. And we have a president who doesn't just see us, but a president who's fighting for us. And we know what the alternative is. The alternative is someone who's going to spend the next 10 months fighting for his own future,

fighting for his own freedom. But the thing that makes me so excited to get out there every single day and campaign for this president is not because I'm scared of the alternative, but it's because I know what we can get done and what he has already gotten done on behalf of the American people. And if you can imagine, look at what we've gotten done just here in Maryland in the first year. Imagine if you can give me four more with this president. That's why I'm excited to get out there and do everything I can to make sure that Joe Biden gets another four years. OK, so, Wes, that was a minute and a half.

Just FYI. And actually, it's to my it's to my next point. It's to my next point. And actually, it's a really serious one, because you could go on for five minutes talking about the accomplishments of this presidency. I would agree with you. And you you you sound great. You're right. And you speak about the accomplishments. You make the case. I think there are some Democrats who are really worried. And there are some people who are asking, when is Joe Biden? When is Kamala Harris? When is anybody who runs the campaign going to actually take on Trump head on? Trump Republicans and Donald Trump himself don't play on a factual basis. There are people in America right now who believe that Joe Biden runs the Biden crime family and, you know, and that he colluded with

his son to steal money. And, you know, here you are talking about all the great stuff that this president has done. I believe that's falling on a lot of deaf ears and that there are Democrats who are really worried that Trump will win this dirty and ugly and any way he can. And no one is speaking to that. I do know that you're right, Mika, where, you know, we have, you know, Donald Trump will stop at nothing because everything is on the line, not just for the country, but for him personally. And he knows that. And we also know that this is about it. So this is something bigger than just one person. You know, whether you're looking at Maryland or Michigan, whether you look at Pennsylvania or Arizona, for each of the governors of all of the states, the one thing that all of us

have in common is we all ran against people who essentially said they will wait to honor the election results once they know the election results. This is about this is something bigger than just one person. The thing that that I know is that every single day we have an administration who's fighting on our behalf and who actually believes in a sense of partnership with our states and our locals and our communities. And we have to remember what is at stake on this. The president, the vice president, the administration, they are going to be working every single day to make sure that their message is heard and making sure that people understand the frame of the arguments. And hence, what we're seeing with Valley Forge, what we're seeing with this new ad. I also think that all of us as surrogates and frankly, all of us as citizens have to

understand our role, too, that democracy is not just going to be a spectator sport. It's not something that we just participate in on Election Day. Every single day, we've got to take that additional sense of ownership and making sure that we're putting in the same kind of work for our future that the administration is putting in for our future as well. All right, Governor, before we let you go, perhaps the most important and frankly, easiest question for you today. It's a two parter. Number one, is there any question in your mind that the Baltimore Ravens are the best team in the NFL or that Lamar Jackson is the MVP of the NFL? I don't think there should be any question in anyone's mind.

If you look at just what happened over the past couple weeks, the Baltimore Ravens didn't just beat two of the best teams in the NFL, in the Dolphins and also the 49ers. They dismantled both of them. This is the most complete team in football. It's the best defense in football. It's the best offense in football, best special teams. And also, until someone finds an answer for Lamar Jackson, there is no answer for Lamar Jackson. He is by far the league MVP. He's putting together a really special year, and we're preparing to head to Vegas

sometime in February for the Super Bowl, and we're looking forward to it. I thought that question might fire you up, Governor. We should point out, since Governor Moore was sworn into office, the Orioles' best record in the American League, Ravens' best record in the NFL. Coincidence? Who knows? Maryland Governor Wes Moore. I'm just saying. Governor, thanks as always. Good to see you. Nika.

Great to see you.