Morning Joe - Morning Joe 2/13/24

Episode Date: February 13, 2024

Trump can't remember saying he has a great memory

The footage of the president unable to recall simple facts must have been brutal to watch. James Webb. I don't remember the names. I don't remember the name. I don't remember ever buying something for myself. Do you recall what years you were married to Ms. Naples? I mean, I don't remember that. As good as my memory is, I don't remember that. Okay, as good as my memory is, I don't remember that. But I have a good memory.

So you don't remember saying you have one of the best memories? I don't remember. I'm sorry. That was the wrong footage. That's the high-functioning candidate from nine years ago, unable to recall if he has a good memory. Okay, you're going to have to rewind that because we're going to play that again. Willie, he doesn't remember.

Good morning, Willie. Welcome, everybody. Good morning. Don't want to go. He doesn't remember saying that he has one of the best memories. He doesn't remember who James Webb is. He doesn't. There's so many things the guy doesn't remember. And again, it's it's like everything else. The double standards are just are so egregious. And yet you have Donald Trump again over the weekend thinking he's running against Barack Obama and confusing it. Yeah. Yeah, I know. It's bizarre. He doesn't even know

the day of the week sometimes when he's at an event. He doesn't know who he's running against, doesn't remember the details of his time as president. It's it is. And the fact is, his gaffes, if you want to call them that, tend to be much weightier than Joe Biden's, which is to say he'll say something like, oh, yes, I would make the NATO countries pay protection money or I would let Russia attack them, for example, might be a little bit worse than a slip of the tongue. So the idea that these are somehow being presented as equivalent is preposterous. And by the way, it was nice to see Jon Stewart back in that chair for the first time. Oh, my gosh. Last night. No, it was great. He's going to be doing

the Monday shows through the presidential election. And ahead here, we have the very latest from Capitol Hill, where House Republicans will again try today to impeach the Homeland Security Secretary. Meanwhile, in a special election in New York today, it's an important one because it could shrink the GOP's majority in the lower chamber as Long Island voters decide who's going to replace George Santos. Along with me, we have the host of way too early White House bureau chief at Politico, Jonathan O'Meara, also co-host of MSNBC's The Weekend, former chairman of the National Republican Committee, Michael Still. We've got NBC News national affairs analyst John Hyland and congressional investigations reporter for The Washington Post, Jackie Alamany. I'm curious,

TJ, do we have it queued back up? Yes, sir. Cued back up. OK, for everybody Do we have it queued back up? Okay, for everybody now that you're here, watch this. The footage of the president unable to recall simple facts must have been brutal to watch. James Webb. I don't remember the names. I don't remember the name. I don't remember ever buying something for myself.

Do you recall what years you were married to Ms. Naples? I mean, I don't remember that. As good as my memory is, I don't remember that. But I have a good memory. So you don't remember saying you have one of the best memories? I don't remember saying you have one of the best memories? I don't remember. That's all right. That was the wrong footage. That's the high-functioning candidate from nine years ago,

unable to recall if he has a good memory. Yeah. If he has a good memory. Yeah, it's John Heilman. We've seen examples over and over again of Donald Trump just losing it on stage here. And you had the whole political world come to a stop, first of all, because for some reason you had the guy, the special counsel asking, hey, what what year year did your son die? And supposedly he didn't remember what year his son died. And this was the most damning thing. I said this yesterday and maybe, I don't know, maybe it's just older people.

We've lived a busy and active life, but nobody's closer to me. Nobody's been closer to me in my lifetime than my mom. If somebody asked me in the middle of the deposition, what year did your mom die? I go, I don't know, 2017, 2018, 2019. I don't know. I can tell you everything about it. I can tell you my final word. But but but again, that and same thing with Mika and her dad. So the fact, first of all, that he was asking that question. Secondly, that somehow that's the most damning thing. And the Trump people are now saying the White House is like

an old folks home. They need to look inside their own glass house because inside that glass house, if the Biden administration or the Biden White House and the political team know what they're doing, that's a glass house. The Trump glass house is going to come crashing to the ground because there's clip after clip after clip of this guy not even remembering, you know, the most basic things. Yeah. And I think I mean, look, I earlier Willie made some comment about how Donald Trump doesn't know what day it is. And I was like, you know, you simmer down over there like a lot of us here have a problem with what day it is, what day of the week. And I can I can sort of remember maybe that the Chiefs won the Super Bowl. But even that, even that's fading fast for me.

These the fairest thing to say about this, Joe, and this is, of course, our politics. So this nothing will be fair about this. But both of these candidates are over the optimal age at which we would want a president to be. They are. And if we had if we could rule this race by rationality, if we're going to say we're going to have Donald Trump, we're going to have Joe Biden, the two of them should we should acknowledge the fact that they are that they are they are, as the special counsel unfairly said, Biden kind of took a shot at him when he wrote it. But elderly gentlemen, they are. They're

elderly gentlemen. They're going to be, one of them is an octogenarian already. The other is going to be an octogenarian shortly. And they're not going to have the best memories. We're joking about it here. But the truth is, you and I don't have the best memories. Willie's memory is even worse than ours. Last time I checked, Lemire remembers things most of the time. I won't speak for Michael Steele, but but we're all, you know, we're not we're all imperfect. And the reality is, if we're going to have battles of videotape between these candidates kind of pointing out that each one is not at their it has lost a few miles an hour off their fastball from when they were at their best. That's a battle that Joe Biden ultimately is in a reasonable place to win because they have a lot of those same failings. But what Joe Biden doesn't have is propensity to lie pathologically about everything in the world,

nor does Joe Biden have propensity to say the kind of things that Donald Trump was saying on Saturday, where he threatens to have Vladimir Putin attack NATO allies and encourages them, et cetera, et cetera. All the democracy breaking things that Trump did. Right. So if you want to play the game on that battlefield, I would say Biden isn't as good a place as any place to take Trump on. I'll tell you what else is you're looking at those two pictures, Michael, still another big difference. One of those people actually know foreign policy. One of those people have no idea. One of those people have spent the past 50 years getting to know every leader across the world. The other guy just goes around blowing things up. And people

may go, hey, that's cool. No, it's not really cool. We have spent the past 75 years creating the American century. There's a reason why over 75 years, America is stronger now than it's ever been militarily, why our economy is the strongest in the world on and on. But you talk to both of those guys over an hour, both of those guys may forget a word, may forget, may stumble around. The difference, though, between those two people when it comes to memory, knowledge and their mental capacity is one of them doesn't know policy. One of them just blows things up and goes out ranting and plays Fat Elvis on stage because that's all he can do. You can't talk policy. Joe Biden, I've done it. You can sit down with him for an hour and you can go around the world and ask tough questions around the world about what's going on. And not only does he keep

up, he knows more about it than any senator on Capitol Hill. He knows the ins, the outs. He knows more about it than any senator on Capitol Hill. He knows the ins, the outs. He knows the players. And yeah, he doesn't talk to you like a 40-year-old woman or a 40-year-old man would talk to you. He talks to you like a guy who has been around a very long time and knows this stuff better than anybody else. And a good parallel is Warren Buffett, who has been around a long time and knows this stuff better than anybody else. And a good parallel is Warren Buffett, who has been around a long time and people still they hang on every word because, well, they'd like to get rich like Warren Buffett, who's still active and who who's still investing.

That's the difference between these two. And I will say it. I've said it before. I'll say it again with Biden. It's presentation. It's it's you know. And the question is, why was he allowed to talk for five hours the day after the Hamas terrorist attack for five hours? It just it didn't serve him well. It didn't serve the White House well. And I'd even say it didn't serve the investigation well. So there's a number of things to unpack there, Joe. I'll start with our friend John's point about we've passed the optimal point for having someone at this age as president. I don't know. This is the first time we've been here. I mean, we didn't seem to have too much of a problem with Reagan as an older presidential candidate and president. So I think there are a number of variables that go into that.

So I think we're now discovering for the first time what that limit may be. So having said that, here's where we are. So can we get over all the noise around how old these two men, because that's they are, because that's not changing between now and November. They're getting older, not younger. So let's live with what we got. Voters had a choice. They had a choice when both of these men stood on the stage and at their respective times running for president. And they were chosen by primary voters. So let's get over that. To the point about how these individuals are performing, you are spot on and you are making the most critical point that the Democrats continue to fail to make about their own candidate. And that is don't worry about whether or not he remembers something that happened 30 years ago. Listen to what he's telling you today.

Listen to how he's talking about and framing the arguments for this hour as we're confronting an explosion in Europe because our Republican Senate and House members want to light the fuse for Putin. Listen to how he's talking about helping the nation recover from COVID, from a downturn in the economy, from a loss of hope in jobs and opportunities. Listen to how he's trying to move the nation off of the authoritarian, anti-democratic behavior of the other party. And so you do have some very clear contrast. Hey, Michael. And as you said, yeah, go ahead, Joe.

Yeah. Look in their bank account. Why don't they do that too? For all these rich people that are bitching about how he's a socialist. And I heard another story about it last night. People around the table, this guy that's got millions and millions of dollars, all he's doing is bitching about, oh, Biden's a socialist. He's surrounded by socialists. And because he's a really wealthy guy, nobody at the

dinner table was saying anything to him. And this then a woman I know told me was telling me about how she said, hey, wait, wait a second. How's Biden a socialist? Well, he's just, name one policy. Well, name one person in his administration. Well, I just know he is. I just, well, he must just know he is because he listens to certain shows on Fox News or Fox Business or Newsmax or something like that. That's the thing, Michael, that Willie and I talk about all the time. You want to know how Biden's doing? Look at your 401k. And if you're one of these rich country club types that drive your Ferrari or your Maserati to the country club and bitch about how horrible the economy is, look at your stock app and see how much money you're making every hour, because there's not a

crazy lunatic in the White House. There's somebody who actually respects the rule of law. There's actually somebody who respects American democracy. And yes, there's actually somebody that respects American capitalism and what keeps it stable. But these freaks, I'm not exactly sure what they think they're going to get from Donald Trump, but they're going to get none of that. So just look right in front of you right now when trying to figure out, Michael, whether he's up to the job or not. Your 401k suggests he is. I couldn't agree with you more. And it is that type of evidence that still puzzles me that people blow past to score the point against Joe Biden on his age. And so the reality to the next part of this was the point you made about putting him in situations that do not help that narrative,

that in fact enhance the anti Biden narrative that Republicans are going to run with. I don't understand the politics still to this moment, the political operation that allows some of the things that have happened with Joe Biden to happen that do not take advantage of the things, the very things that you're just talking about. You sit the president down when Taylor Swift is the it girl for the for the Super Bowl. And you have not just a recognized recognized but a highly recognized sizable uptick of young voters, particularly women, tuning in to watch this Super Bowl because of her, that's a political opportunity to have a conversation with those voters. So you tell the president, we're going to put you in the car to get it. We're going to put you in. So we're going to have you looking

real cool and sit you down and have a conversation. I don't understand why they're so tone deaf to those moments, Joe. And, you know, you know, Jonathan Lemire reports on it. You know, Jackie reports on it. What's the I don't get the narrative here. I don't understand what is it they're not getting about this man. Let him be Grandpa Joe on Super Bowl Sunday. Let him be, you know, that comfortable sweater, if you will, to sort of just, you know, poke a little fun of himself, talk about the game and show that, yeah, he's got his cognitive abilities in place,

but he's also a guy who's trying to do things for people. And so that's going to be a critical test for this team going forward as to whether or not they can get on the other side of these narratives, because right now, Joe, they're just backing themselves into the corner and the Republicans aren't the ones necessarily doing it every time. Yeah, Willie, a lot of people saying that he should have spoken. You know, if he had time for an interview in the Super Bowl, he got one hundred and twenty three million people watching. That is an opportunity most politicians would not pass up. Yeah, we learned yesterday. We'll talk more about this. The largest single audience in the history of broadcast television, one hundred and twenty

three million. If you got even a fraction of that, it would have been a good place to push out that message. Let's turn to what's happening right now at this very moment in the United States Senate, where senators are voting on the final passage of the $95 billion foreign aid bill that includes support for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. The bill currently has the support of 60 plus senators, which should guarantee its passage. Some Senate Republicans are opposing the bill and gave hour-long speeches overnight to delay that inevitable passage. Why? Because the legislation did not include border provisions. Stronger than the border protection package they rejected last week. That was bipartisan, of course. Meanwhile, House Speaker Mike Johnson

already throwing cold water on this aid bill for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, saying Congress needs to address border security. In a statement issued yesterday before today's Senate vote, Speaker Johnson wrote this, quote, The mandate of the national security supplemental legislation was to secure America's own border before sending additional foreign aid around the world. Again, the Senate had a carefully crafted bipartisan border security and foreign aid bill that was killed by Senate Republicans last week at the urging of former President Trump, who hopes to run on the issue of the border. So, Jackie Alimany, we'll get into that in just a second. But what is the status of this vote? It's happening on the floor as we speak. Does it look like they do have the 60 to at least

get this through the Senate, even if it is dead in the House? Yeah, Willie, from one geriatric pillow fight to another on the other side of Washington, this is about to finally get through sans any border deal or border amendments. There are a few Republican lawmakers who actually flipped overnight. That was Senator Risch, Senator Bosman. These people are now supporting the bill. But at the end of the day, this is going to go to the House and either fail or get through and make House Speaker Johnson lose his job potentially. But there were a number of really interesting and illuminating comments that happened while you were sleeping over the course of the last 12 hours from frustrated senators, Republicans who are trying to navigate this

this month's long debate that has culminated with this overnight vote, who are really frustrated with their colleagues who have time and time again called for border provisions to secure the border, who worked for months to negotiate this bipartisan border package, which would have been the toughest in really modern history, if it had passed, and now are tanking it and furthermore voting against providing any aid to our foreign allies in a time when they need it most, when Ukraine is about to run out of ammunitions. So there are a number of isolationist people who ultimately didn't come around and didn't support the vote. But between Democrats and Republicans, there is enough support to get this through to the lower chamber. Joe, I hope you don't mind. I'm going to borrow one of your phrases.

This is so dumb. It makes your teeth hurt. Let's listen to Republican Senator Lindsey Graham now changing his position on foreign aid. He's long been a hawk, talked about how important it is to support Ukraine. Now changing his position. Guess why? Because Donald Trump said so. In a statement yesterday, Senator Graham announced he would vote no on the Senate's bill to provide that aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. Instead, express support for a new plan put forth by Donald Trump. The South Carolina Republican wrote in part, the supplemental aid package should be a loan to the countries in question, as suggested by President Trump. A loan on friendly terms allows America, who is deeply

in debt, he writes, a chance to get our money back and changes the paradigm of how we help others. President Trump is right to insist that we think outside the box, end quote, Lindsey Graham. In a social media post yesterday, Trump wrote, going forward, the United States should never provide aid to other countries unless there are, quote, strings attached. So there it is in a nutshell, Joe. A guy, Lindsey Graham, who's built his career on being a defense hawk, has talked a lot about how important it is to support Ukraine, to be a stalwart against Russia in Europe. Now, because Donald Trump puts out this post on True Social, has completely reversed

on everything he ever believed, and particularly on this bill, Joe, to listen to somebody like Speaker Johnson say, we are not going to pass it in the House until you do something about border security. Of course, as we just said, the Senate did something it hadn't done on a bipartisan basis in a generation, which is to provide over months of discussion and deliberation a bill on border security. Oklahoma Republican James Langford put together in a bipartisan way the toughest border security bill in the past 30 years. Some say the toughest border security bill ever. And they were going to pass it. And then Donald Trump told were going to pass it.

And then Donald Trump told them not to pass it. And so Lindsey Graham went from wanting to pass it to not wanting to pass it. Now, Lindsey Graham completely betraying his past, completely betraying the memory of John McCain, completely betraying the people of Ukraine, completely betraying the people of Israel, completely betraying the people of Israel, completely betraying the people of Taiwan. Why? Why? All because Donald Trump told you. Can you imagine being that weak? I can't. I can't imagine being such a political coward that you would betray everything you ever believed because a failed reality TV show host told you to. And let's just be really clear here, because Donald Trump is sounding like, as usual, a complete idiot. And Lindsey Graham knows better than to accept the idiot's argument on giving money to Ukraine, giving money to Israel, giving money to Taiwan to defend themselves. It was Lindsey Graham and other Republicans who always said, you give this money to help our allies because, you know, it's better to fight them over there than fight them over here, is what Lindsey would always say. And I'm not going to give you a history lesson, but this same type of idiocy was going around after World War I.

And so America retreated, wouldn't go in the League of Nations, ended up giving us Hitler, ended up giving us Mussolini, ended up, by America's isolationism, allowing Hitler to rise. And what did that cause? Caused a war. And America, because they didn't invest a little bit up front, because they didn't stay engaged, America had to start, had to go to war after being attacked. A war that millions and millions and millions of people lost their lives in. And so here we are after that war. Again, please forgive me, but this is important and is relevant to this moment. A lot of the same Republican isolationists wanting to just go home.

And that's when Harry Truman got together with a Republican senator who was a former isolationist, Arthur Vandenberg, and they worked together. And they passed the Truman Doctrine. They passed the Marshall Plan. They invested in Europe because communism was knocking on the door of Western Europe. And yeah, they gave Europe billions of dollars. And what happened? It created American Century, because guess what? Those countries built their economies up. They traded with America, and we were the first among equals. So, Richard Haass, let me bring you in here. It created the American century. And without getting ahead of ourselves, what does everybody think is going to happen at the end of the Russian-Ukraine war? Who's going to rebuild? Ecuador is not going to be rebuilding Ukraine if Ukraine is free and turns into a westernized democratic nation.

Venezuela is not. The United States will be there. United States businesses, United States contractors, United States, you name it. We will be in there helping rebuild Ukraine and Americans will be making a lot of money off of it. Let's just be really blunt right here. So when Lindsey Graham talks about betraying Ukraine and we need a loan because we ain't getting nothing out of it. That's the sort of Richard, the sort of backward thinking Donald Trump always had that would have meant if we followed the Trump playbook, there would have never been a Marshall Plan. There would have never been the type of foreign aid

that we invested across the world that allowed American businesses to grow and that created the American century, Richard. Absolutely, Joe. I think when historians look back at the last 75 years, they'll see it as a kind of golden era. And what the people on the Hill are doing, the Republicans on the Hill and Donald Trump, it's almost as if they're taking away the oxygen that has made this world possible,

kept it alive for 75 years. And we take so much of it for granted, Joe. There hasn't been a great power war. When else was that the case over the course of 75 years? Wealth has increased orders and orders of magnitude. The average person on this planet lives several decades longer. More and more people are democratic or living in partially Democratic countries than ever before.

It didn't just happen. It wasn't automatic. It's not the natural way of things. We didn't do it alone, but it happened because of American leadership. You mentioned it. The institutions we fashion, the alliances we buttress.

And people can disagree with Joe Biden about this or that policy, but he believes in this architecture. And what we now have with Donald Trump and his followers are people who want to destroy the architecture, who want to destroy the edifice of what has worked for 75 years, and they have absolutely nothing to put in its place. But when it's gone, it's going to be gone. And that's when people are going to notice the lack of oxygen. And Lindsey Graham is not alone. Republican Senator Ron Johnson says the United States needs to accept that, quote, Ukraine can't

win its war with Russia. In an interview yesterday for a far right website, the Wisconsin lawmaker was asked about an interview that former Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson did with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow last week. Take a look. Listen very carefully to that Tucker interview. I mean, understand, take things with a grain of salt. But a lot of the points that Vladimir Putin made are accurate. They're obvious. And so many of our people here in Washington, D.C., are just ignoring that, making people believe like Ukraine can win. Ukraine can't. Putin won't lose. Putin will not lose. He's not going to lose. You have to factor that into the reality if you're going to deal with this thing effectively to bring this war to an end. First, we'll note that Ron Johnson is President Joe Biden's least favorite senator. But Joe, think of the confluence of events here where we have Putin expressing real confidence in his chances to continue to make ground in Ukraine. We have Donald Trump speculating over the weekend, not only that he wouldn't support NATO, but he would encourage Russia to invade NATO countries and not come to their defense. And now we have

Republicans not just in the House, but in the Senate, parroting Putin talking points and abandoning the quest to supply Ukraine with aid. And even as that bill does seem likely to pass the upper chamber, it has now passed. It seems dead on arrival in the House unless Speaker Johnson reverses course, which if he does will cost him his job because he would defy Donald Trump. So you can safely bet he likely won't. Yeah, he likely won't. But John Heilman, this is this is a moment where we need to stop and realize that, yes, everybody has been desensitized by the insane ramblings of Donald Trump through the years, by his crazy actions. This is a time to stop, though, and for people to realize.

And, God, I hope people who once supported Donald Trump will move away from him and realize that this is Donald Trump is not talking about supporting Putin and Russia invading our European allies. It's not saying that for no reason. He's not he's not talking about how how great Orban is, a guy who attacks Western democracy. And Donald Trump says, you know what, I'm going to be a dictator from day one and America needs a strong man. These ramblings, they're made with a very clear intent to let voters know what they are going to get after he's president of the United States. And after he's president of the United States and he crushes constitutional norms and probably ignores probably ignores Supreme Court rulings. I think that's next. And and and and just completely trashes the U.S. Constitutional

say, well, this is what I ran on and this is what you all voted for. But this is a moment where you have Republicans parroting Vladimir Putin. You have the Republican nominee, likely nominee saying, yes, Putin, invade Europe. Russia, invade Europe. You have all of these things happening at the same time. And it's not an accident. And I've got to say, even I am shocked that that Republicans on the Hill haven't stood up to Donald Trump saying that that Russia should invade NATO allies. But they haven't. Which means, again, this is a moment in time. Everybody has to stop and recognize that not only is American democracy on the line, but freedom across the globe on the line. Donald Trump is siding with Xi. Donald Trump is siding with Putin. Donald Trump is siding with Kim Jong-un. These are the people that he wants to make alliances with, and he wants to turn his

back on a free Europe. Right. And read the writing on the wall, Joe, because those are not just that's that's all that's true about Trump. And we've talked down for the last six, seven years about the way in which the Republican Party has capitulated to Trump and become a party unlike unrecognizable from the Republican Party that you joined when you were a wee one in this in the northwest Florida and in Georgia and other places where you grew up. But look at, I mean, Ron, you hear Donald Trump saying the things he's saying about Putin. At the same time that that's happening, that Trump is saying those things, saying giving a permission slip, encouragement to Putin and saying, you know, if the NATO allies don't pay their bills, their dues, whatever, you'll have a, please, I would encourage you to go in and invade those countries. You have Tucker Carlson is over in Moscow,

sitting in front of Vladimir Putin, doing a softball interview with Vladimir Putin. And then you have Ron Johnson. These are just like the points that you kind of connect these dots. Here's Ron Johnson, who sounded in that clip like the senior senator from Yekaterinburg. He's like, basically, he says, well, no, you know, hey, we got to tell the American people the truth here. There's no stopping Vladimir Putin. He says it not even with a tone of regret. He's sort of in awe of Putin.

Why you can't stop him? There's no way Ukraine could win this war. This is like, you know, forget Neville Chamberlain and appeasement. This is like a guy sitting in the grandstands, not exactly cheering Hitler on, but sort of saying, wow, you know, that guy Hitler, man, he's got a lot of strength. He's got a lot of power. You can't stop him. We just got to give it up here.

You know, Lindsey Graham, an incredible spectacle of mendacity and buffoonery and self-abasement. You know, would you ever imagine that you would have ever heard Lindsey Graham, whatever you thought of him back in the day, saying as Donald Trump suggested, not only has he adopted the Trump line, but throughout that prepared statement, it's peppered with these bouquets that he's throwing to Trump along the way. It's not just enough to take Trump's position. You have to, along the way, every third sentence sort of acknowledge that it's Trump's position. And it's that the cultishness of the Republican Party towards Trump is on vivid display here. And what that amounts to in the context of world affairs is now increasingly something that comes close to being a cult to Vladimir Putin. I mean,

that's where we are drifting now. No, it is. It is. The cult is moving and it's moving. Well, a cult on the far right already started with Orban, a guy who hates Western democracy and says he hates Western democracy, hates everything that has made this country great. It's really unbelievable, Willie. And with Lindsey Graham, you have Lindsey Graham self-fulfilling his own prophecy from many years back when he said, if the Republican Party nominates Donald Trump, they will be destroyed and they will deserve it. Well, here we are with the Republican Party that cozies up to Vladimir Putin, the leader of communist China, the leader of communist North Korea, who wants to abandon an ally fighting against a Russian invader invader because they want freedom. They want to be like us. They want to look westward instead of looking towards Moscow. And Lindsey Graham is abandoning them.

Ron Johnson is abandoning them. Tom Cotton is abandoning them. Ted Cruz is abandoning them. All these so-called all these so-called conservatives who are anything but or abandoning the freedom fighters whose very not only lives are on the line, but whose country's freedom is hanging by a precarious thread right now. And it's the Republican Party of Ronald Reagan cutting that thread. And it's all in the service, obviously, of Donald Trump.

As John said, that three-sentence statement from Lindsey Graham had Trump's name in it twice. As Donald Trump said, as President Trump has said, he wants to make sure Donald Trump hears that to stay in his good graces, to become Secretary of State. I don't know what. But let's remind people what Republican senators are defending here, who they're getting behind. This is Donald Trump speaking at that rally on Saturday about what he would do if he were president to our NATO allies in their relationship with Russia, if Russia wanted to attack, followed by Senator Roger Marshall, a Republican, reacting.

One of the presidents of a big country stood up, said, well, sir, if we don't pay and we're attacked by Russia, will you protect us? I said, you didn't pay your delinquent. He said, yes, let's say that happened. No, I would not protect you. In fact, I would encourage them to do whatever the hell they want. You got to pay. You got to pay your bills. Yeah, I just encourage people not to overreact. I learned a long time ago not to overreact to what President Trump says or what he tweets. I think that people should take everything he says seriously, but not literally. Vladimir Putin is scared to death of Donald Trump. He treats Joe Biden like his boy, like his puppet. We are from Holland, sir, and those comments really caused shockwaves in our country and

in other countries in our region. How can we rely on a president who claims that he will let Russia do whatever the heck they want? Yeah, I think that's totally inaccurate reporting on what President Trump was saying. What would you say to those countries who are now kind of panicked about what he just said? Yeah, they need to get over it. They need to stand up and be tough. Unclear what he's talking about, inaccurate reporting. We just played the bite. You heard it for yourself. You heard what Donald Trump said. And if anything, Michael Steele, these last couple

of days have reminded us and really put the spotlight on the fact that these Republicans will do anything for Donald Trump. Doesn't matter who they are. Doesn't matter what the issue is. They find themselves scrambling to defend him, even when he's talking about allowing our allies to be attacked, which tells you if he is put back in the White House, it is a blank check. It is carte blanche. There is nobody who's going to stand in his way. Yeah, Willie, I mean, you play those clips back to back and you hear the idiocy because what else is he going to say? He's not going to

sit there and do what, you know, a senator from 25, 30 years ago in the Republican Party would do if a president said, I'm just going to let Russia just roll over Europe, in which there would be outrage up and down and in and out of the party. Now it's applauding the idiocy of Donald Trump. As Joe put it, you know, basically a two-bit shoe salesman who got lucky and got a television show and suckered everyone into believing that he was an actual businessman. That's what we're dealing with here. The basement of the Republican Party by its own members is stunning. The humiliation from the humiliation of the RNC chairman to the absolute embarrassment of the words coming out of Lindsey Graham's mouth and others. You sit here and you wonder if you're an American citizen who's about to vote. OK, yeah, I don't think I really want

that. But that's not the case, is it? Poll after poll is showing Donald Trump beating Joe Biden because they think this lunacy, this lunacy that you just played, the idiocracy that is now in the Republican Party is going to be a better solution for whatever problems they think they have or may really have than what Joe Biden is doing right now, trying to hold the course for the country's economy and protect the nation from having to get into a larger are feeding this are going to be are the best leaders for this country right now. And so the American people have to do a lot of deep soul searching here, folks. Y'all got to get your heads out of wherever it is and understand what's in front of you. The man told you he wants to be a dictator. What the hell do you think that means?

It's not that he's going to provide you with popcorn or that he's going to make life better for you. Dictators don't do that. Pick up a damn history book and read it and understand exactly what he's telling you he's going to do. And the people who are around him that are perpetuating this and that are

pushing this out, they need to be unelected. Do not risk the future of your children and grandchildren to this stupidity. It's not worth it. We are better than this. But here we are, Joe and Willie. Here we are. Yeah. Right. Well, listen to those senators. They're all prepared to go along for the ride. By the way, speaking of supporting our allies, that foreign aid bill we've been talking about in the Senate just passed by a vote of 70 to 29. Jackie Alimany. So it does clear the Senate about ninety five billion dollars between Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan, humanitarian aid to Gaza as well. It is through the Senate. The threshold, of course, was 60. They got to 70 votes there. But now it moves to the House,

where, as we said earlier, Jackie Speaker Mike Johnson says, forget about it unless we do more about the border, which the Senate just did last week. Yeah, Willie, it's unclear when the House is exactly going to bring this up or whether they'll bring it up at all. As House Speaker Mike Johnson said in a statement yesterday, he does not want this to make the floor. And he realizes that his job is on the line if he does bring it up. People like Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene and other parts, the faction of the America First wing of the party that makes up a significantly larger portion of the House GOP conference in the House than it does in the Senate has threatened to initiate a motion to vacate yet again, repeating this cycle that we already saw with House with former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. moment. And actually, some senators were talking to my colleagues overnight about the potential to work around Speaker Johnson, help him keep his job and work with Democrats to have Democrats have a discharge petition, which would require four signatures from Republicans who were supportive

of this funding in order to introduce it and get it onto the floor. Ultimately, that would require 218 votes. Unclear whether or not those votes exist, as we also know that there are a handful of Democrats who are opposed to this funding. You had people like Senator Welch, Bernie Sanders, and one other Democrat in the Senate who ultimately joined with the 29 to vote against this package in the Senate who ultimately joined with the 29, um, to vote against this package in the Senate. And that number might be a bit bigger in the house, um, with some of these, uh, anti-Israel far left, uh, Democrats. Um, so we'll see what happens. There are a number of options, uh, and it could go any which way with, with a house this, um, divided.

All right. The Washington Post, Jackie Alimany, thank you so much. And of course, we're going to also be following the possible impeachment of Secretary Mayorkas later today. Again, as Jackie said, now that it's passed the Senate

in overwhelming manner, now it goes to the House. And there is something called the discharge petition. Four Republicans sign it. And believe me, there are four Republicans who want to get aid to Ukraine and Israel. And then that's a discharge petition, puts it on the floor. And then you have the vote on the floor. And that's something that Johnson can do nothing to stop. And so there is that possibility for it to pass. And let's hope there are four Republicans who have the courage to actually stand up to this pro-Putin yammering we're hearing from certain quarters of the Republican Party.

Richard Haass, I just want to end with you. And first of all, let's just I mean, I just I just got to we got to bring up the absolute hypocrisy of Donald Trump lecturing anybody on paying their bills. Talk to anybody that's worked with Donald Trump in New York City. They never pays his bills. He'll sue you and always try to pay 50 percent of what he's owed. He's that's been his life plan to never pay his bills. And so he's lecturing Europe on paying their bills. But then you had Marshall, Senator Marshall, say that Europe needed to do something, that they needed to get over it or whatever.

I mean, I've got to say it is I mean, that that's Tommy Tuberville territory right there. And that's not a positive thing for Senator Marshall. I'm surprised anybody would would say something so ignorant because Europe's already passed a bill. The EU has already sent Richard fifty four billion dollars to Ukraine. And now it's our turn to send 60 billion dollars to Ukraine. So Vladimir Putin and Russian troops don't march into Kiev. Yeah, Joe, it's almost hard to know where to begin with this because it's so ignorant about how an alliance works. But when you unpack it, it's almost as if none of these people is either able or willing to understand that we get more out of this than we give.

The Europeans, by helping maintain security in Europe, this is something that we get. You know, foreign policy isn't philanthropy. It's not all give, no get. We get an enormous amount from this. By the way, what's going on in Ukraine is, last I checked, Joe, not one American has lost his life in Ukraine. And Ukraine can more than hold it. Well, Richard, not one American has lost their life. And the Russian military has been degraded to such a point that it will take them a generation to rebuild. And the Russian military was still ranked as the second most powerful military in the world behind the United States before this war began.

They have been destroyed as a fighting military unit in a significant way. And not one American has died. Absolutely. This has been a real accomplishment for American foreign policy. The Biden administration deserves credit here. But what's also interesting to me, Joe, is all these characters stand up and they talk about the threat from Iran, which is real, or they talk about the potential threat from China. Well, guess what? Iran and China are watching what is going on here. Ukraine is not somehow in a different universe. What is at issue here is American willingness and ability to be reliable, to be predictable, to essentially be there for its friends and allies. And guess what?

If we show that we are unwilling to stand by Ukraine, which is only defending itself, no more than that, if we show we're unwilling to do that, our friends are going to basically come up with alternative. They're going to have to appease or they're going to decide they need nuclear weapons of their own. How's that going to work for us and for the world? And what will China and what will Iran do? They are going to press against us. So all these people who claim to be responsible national national security hawks, guess what? They are putting in motion trends that will increase the amount of violence and conflict in the world dramatically. That is the consequence of pulling the rug out from under Ukraine.

Well, for now, anyway, that bill, the foreign aid, ninety five billion dollars has passed the United Senate just moments ago by a vote of 70 to 29. Speaker Johnson again says it has no chance in the House, so we'll keep an eye on this. Richard Haass, thanks so much. We appreciate it. And still ahead this morning on Morning Joe, the latest on Donald Trump's legal troubles, including the Supreme Court's new involvement in his immunity fight and another closed-door hearing today related to Trump's handling of classified documents. Also ahead, Nikki Haley launches a new attack against Trump after he questioned the whereabouts of her husband. We'll show you her new remarks. And New York's third congressional

district is holding a special election today to replace ousted Republican Congressman George Santos. Steve Kornacki will join us to break down the national implications of that vote today as the rain and now snow begin to fall in Times Square, New York City. You're watching Morning Joe. We'll be right back. A live picture of Reagan National Airport, 6.53 in the morning. A little bit of precipitation, some snow on the way, we're told. Donald Trump's legal team yesterday asked the Supreme Court to put on hold a ruling from a federal appeals court. Last week, the three-judge panel rejected the argument that Trump has presidential immunity for his actions in the lead-up to and on the day of the January 6th insurrection. If the Supreme Court denies Trump's request, the case would go back

to Washington-based Judge Tanya Chutkin. Earlier this month, she delayed the March 4th trial date until the question of Trump's immunity is decided. Let's bring in former litigator and MSNBC legal correspondent Lisa Rubin. Lisa, good morning. Good to see you. So Trump's team going to the Supreme Court with this question. What's your sense of how it'll play out? Well, first of all, the question, as you correctly noted, was that Trump wants a stay from the Supreme Court, which would mean not letting the case go back to Judge Chutkan for pretrial proceedings in preparation for a trial that would take at least several more weeks. My inclination is that that's not going to happen for a couple of reasons. One is that in order to get a stay from

the Supreme Court, you have to make a very specific showing. You have to show that you have a likelihood of winning your appeal and you have to show that you would be irreparably harmed by the case going forward. And in both cases, I think Trump will fall short of the five votes that he will need to get a stay. It's ordinary Supreme Court math that you need four justices to grant review, but five justices to grant a stay. And it's hard for me to see how he gets that, particularly given my review of this petition. And Lisa, what would be the timeline on this here? Timeline is anything that the Supreme Court wants it to be. This is a Supreme Court that can move with all deliberate speed when it chooses to. Time between Florida Supreme Court decision and Bush v. Gore and the United States Supreme Court decision is four days, and that includes briefing and oral argument. On the other hand, this Supreme Court could hold

on to this case for some time. They could grant a stay, for example, and then ask for briefing on a cert petition, taking weeks and weeks, schedule oral argument far out, perhaps even beyond June. I don't think that's going to happen, but the timing here, John, is entirely in the Supreme Court's own hands. Certainly the Trump team rooting for delays. Let's turn to some of the other Trump legal matters. There are so many. There's going to be a new closed door hearing in the Trump classified documents case down in South Florida this morning. What's your sense as to what's going to happen there? So yesterday, Judge Cannon heard from both sides but separately.

And she had heard even last week from the special counsel's office. They had three hours alone with her to talk about what classified information in particular they wanted to withhold from former President Trump and his two co-defendants. Yesterday, she seems to have heard a lot from the Trump side and then from the special counsel. Today, she's bringing together the special counsel's office with lawyers only for Trump's co-defendants, Walt Nauta and Carlos de Oliveira. The government was expected to argue that neither Mr. Nauta nor Mr. de Oliveira, who are ordinary citizens, should have access to any of the 5,000 plus pages

of classified information in that case. And lastly, Georgia. Tell us the Fulton County case there. Tell us what the judge decided yesterday. There's another hearing scheduled now for Thursday, previewed with that as well. And is there a chance that the district attorney might have to relinquish the case? There's a possibility that she does. And I think it all depends on a name that our viewers and you will not recognize as a household name. His name is Terrence Bradley. He was Nathan Wade's close friend, business partner and later divorce attorney. He will be the first witness at that evidentiary hearing. Depending on what he says, Judge Scott McAfee has said he might rule to keep out testimony from Willis and Nathan Wade, but he might allow it because Terrence Bradley is expected to testify.

He knows that a relationship between Willis and Wade was going on far longer than either one of them has admitted and the state has admitted in its papers. He also says that they were cohabiting something that they denied in a safe house paid for by Fulton County. Some of those things will be relevant to Judge McAfee. He said he couldn't decide yesterday before hearing from Mr. Bradley whether or not their testimony ultimately will be relevant to whether there was a financial conflict of interest that would disqualify District Attorney Willis.

MSNBC legal correspondent, Lisa Rubin, keeping it all straight for us. Lisa, we appreciate it always. Thank you.