Morning Joe - Supreme Court strikes down Trump tariffs

Episode Date: February 23, 2026

Supreme Court strikes down Trump tariffs To listen to this show and other MS podcasts without ads, sign up for MS NOW Premium on Apple Podcasts. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

And good morning and welcome to Morning Joe. It's Monday, February 23rd. We hope that everybody is staying safe and warm this morning as a massive winter storm is impacting millions with blizzard warnings stretching from Maryland to Maine, meaning gusts could hit over 60 miles per hour. New York City is under a travel ban right now. That lasts until noon today. This restricts most vehicle traffic on streets, highways, And bridges. Surrounding areas are also under travel bans, and some public transit services have been significantly reduced. Accuether meteorologist Bernie Rayno joins us just ahead with the very latest on this massive blizzard. And with us on this Monday morning, we have the co-host of our 9 a.m. hour staff writer at the Atlantic, Jonathan Lemire, staff writer at the Atlantic, Frank Boar, senior writer at the dispatch and a columnist at Bloomberg Opinion. David Drucker is with us and columnist and associate editor at the

Washington Post. David Ignatius is here as well. We have so much to get to this morning. I mean, we have a ton to get to. I will say this blizzard in the Jamaica, I was a meteorologist for 25 years

before getting into politics. No, but this is a, this is Jonathan Lemire, what we in the business would call a sneaky blizzard. Like, it, it It just started up last night, and man, it has continued, and it's just piling up. And I guess we have another five, six, seven hours to go, right? Yeah, the blizzard's got a lot of life left in it.

I will say here in New York City, there's less accumulation on the ground than I think had been anticipated, but there's plenty of snow out there, to be clear. And the wind is whipping. There's snow in the air. The roads aren't great. Visibility not great. Hence, the travel ban. Pretty rare event.

Mayor Momboni called for that last night. It's our first one here in New York since 2016. But we see here, I mean, the storm is just lingering. It started yesterday afternoon with some snow, and it's moving its way up the coast. New England's going to get pummeled, Joe and Mika. So certainly a day to stay indoors, and we'll note, a rare no school day, not even a remote learning day. We thought no school days were a thing of the past, but at least in New York City, nothing. No, nothing at all.

Go sledding. Okay. We've also got political and economic storms to talk about this morning surrounding Supreme Court, their ruling on President Trump's tariffs, and also some lower court rulings as well. Yeah. And Olympic news as well. What Olympic news.

John Lemire, the rivalry between two countries that have been longtime friends, it will be longtime friends long after this administration leaves the United States and Canada, you I remember 1980, Lake Placid when we beat the Soviets. It was extraordinary. It was a miracle. It was a Cold War battle. Here's a battle between people who play on the same NHL teams together. But man, what an extraordinary rivalry. And for the men yesterday and the women the day before, a big win for Team USA. Yeah, USA tops Canada in both. The women on Saturday and then the men's game yesterday. and I'm a big hockey fan, and this is one of simply one of the best hockey games I've ever seen. So much was on the line yesterday.

These are guys, these are NHL players, some of them are teammates during the season, but on opposing sides now. And we should note, you know, Connor Hallibuck, the U.S. goalie, pride of UMass Lowell, I will note, was simply a superhero yesterday, just a Canadian onslaught. It was historic. Yeah, they have some of the best players in the world. He turned away shot after shot after shot, and then Jack Hughes there, the hero, in overtime. The game was 1-1, and then a couple of minutes into that three-on-three overtime. He hits scores giving U.S. their first gold since, you just mentioned, the Miracle on Ice of 1980, a shot long since remembered. And though we should note that afterwards, Joe, a little bit of controversy crept into this as well.

FBI director Cash Patel was spotted celebrating in the locker room with the team. That's one thing, but the bigger issue is this comes days after his team, his spokesman Ben Williamson in particular, flat out said that Patel would not be going to Olympics, that he was in Italy for security reasons. He called out reporters who reported otherwise in deeply personal terms. But more than that, you know, this is Patel who, in his previous life, had called out FBI director Chris Ray saying, on more than one occasion claiming Ray abused taxpayer funds. by using the FBI jet for personal travel.

That's clearly not only hypocrisy here now, Joe and Mika, but just out and out lying, you know, and doing what he claimed he never would. We'll see if he reimburses the taxpayers for this trip to Milan. Yeah, and again, you know, you look at one more time, you have the administration, spokespeople screaming and yelling, calling the press liars for telling the truth. And I do wonder, it's a recurring theme, and I'm going to keep saying it.

Where do these, especially younger staffers, think they're going to go to get their reputations back when this administration is out of town? It is a short play for many people with a long career, possible long career ahead of them. It's just a bad play. David Ignatius really quickly, I know you remember 1980, like I remember 1980, extraordinary game for a thousand different reasons. It was a victory on ice in the Cold War that America bad. needed when it was at a low ab, far different than what happened yesterday. Again, between two friends, whether Donald Trump realizes it or not, the bonds are strong between America and Canada, but still a remarkable rivalry between two great longtime friends. It was an incredible game,

watching Hughes get clobbered in the mouth, knocking his teeth out, and then come back to score that amazing goal right at the beginning of overtime was stunning. Joe, like you, I can still hear the announcer's voice ring in my ears. Do you believe in miracles? Yes. This wasn't quite that level of intensity, but it was pretty, pretty sweet. You know, I know miracles on ice for Cash Patel, I'm afraid. But it was a terrific sporting event and ended Olympics that to me, although it seemed a little flat at the beginning, rose in intensity, certainly in the performances by Americans. And what an ending. What an ending, indeed.

Okay, a lot to get to. We have Bernie Rayno standing by. He's going to have a live report on the blizzard going on. But now to the Supreme Court. On Friday, remember, striking down. President Trump's sweeping global tariffs in a six to three ruling, saying the International Emergency Economic Powers Act does not give the president a third. to impose broad import duties.

Writing for the majority, Chief Justice John Roberts said the framers did not vest any part of the taxing power in the executive branch. The decision leaves open whether businesses can seek refunds on $133 billion already collected. President Trump blasted the justices in response, calling them disloyal and lapdogs and suggesting they were corrupted by foreign influences. The Supreme Court's ruling on tariffs is deeply disappointing, and I'm ashamed of certain members of the court, absolutely ashamed for not having the courage to do what's right for our country.

I'd like to thank and congratulate Justice Thomas, Alito, and Kavanaugh, for their strength and wisdom and love of our country. and love of our country, which is right now very proud of those justices. When you read the dissenting opinions, there's no way that anyone can argue against them. There's no way. You've got to do what's right for the Constitution.

That's why I respect so much Justice Thomas and Alito, Kavanaugh, because they not only dissented, their dissent is so strong. When you read their dissent, You know, a lot of times you'll read the dissent and it's like, well, you don't know, it could go either way. There's no other way. It's my opinion that the court has been swayed by foreign interests and a political movement that is far smaller than people would ever think. I think that foreign interests are represented.

All right. Well, you just get out of this. Actually, everything he is saying is wrong. It's like you can't just let lies continue. Everything is the opposite. I mean, literally, it's the most Orwellian. thing, I can't say it's the most Orwellian thing. It's kind of like the Wall Street Journal saying that was the low point of his second term. Please, seriously. I mean, Casey could count down the

hits, and this wouldn't be the top 40. We'd have to go to a year in 100 countdown for the top shocking things he said. That one may crack the top 10. That said, foreign influences, please, please, is this projection? Is this confession coming from the president? I mean, President Trump owes the Supreme Court an apology, says the Wall Street Journal, the individual justice he smeared on Friday, the institution itself, Mr. Trote, doubtless, won't offer one, but his rant and response to the tariff defeat of the court was arguably the worst moment of his presidency. Again, come on. If we're listening to on like Casey's countdown of the worst moments of his second term, you know, might hear number 14 and then you'll come in.

Maybe, maybe. But what he said about the three justices that descended, my God, they should be ashamed of themselves. They should be humiliated. Because as Neil Gorsuch pointed out, they had one standard for Joe Biden and they had another standard for Donald Trump. Now, you can say the same thing for the three liberal members of the court

who had one standard for Joe Biden and one standard for Donald Trump. The three justices in the middle on this case that actually made up the majority, Gorsuch, Amy Coney-Barritt, and John Roberts actually did something. Oh, my God, Mr. President. It's so shocking. They were consistent legally.

And let me just say, I may be a poor, dumb country lawyer, but even I understand, there was no room for dissent in this case. It was a 9-0 decision. It should have been a 9-0 decision. He clearly, clearly was abusing this process. I think more importantly than that, Frank Ford, though, was Neil Gorsuch's concurrence, which went around for good reason. Everything that everyone was saying about too much power being consolidated in the executive branch,

in the second branch, Neil Gorsuch, and we'll read some of it in a minute, Neil Gorsuch wrote such an extraordinary concurrence that really held Madisonian democracy up high. And I think offered a lot of people on the left, center, and right hope that we're in a bit of a quandary here. Because I really don't know how we're going to have room for the arch and all the other things Donald Trump's building. And then when he leaves, we're going to have to build a statue for Dan Kwell for saving American democracy, right? For telling Mike Pence, you've got no choice. You got to do your job. And then we're going to have to have a Gorsuch statue for saving Article 1.

So I don't know where we put. Maybe there's a reflecting pool or something that we have Gorsuch and Dan Quill staring at the center. But it is remarkable. In these remarkable moments that somebody like on January 6, it was Dan Quill that said, no, you got to do your job. Here you have Neil Gorson stepping. I'm going, you guys really need to read the Constitution again. And yeah, it's hard, but it's hard for a reason because our founders wanted it to be hard.

An extraordinary concurrence, I think people on the left, center, and right would agree. I think we're going to run out of space on the mall by the time we get to the Dan Quayle Memorial. So I'm not holding my breath on that one. But just to double back to Trump's response, it was kind of the economic equivalent of PizzaGate. I mean, he was extolling a conspiracy theory about the Supreme Court in order to undermine its legitimacy, which is taking his batting ram to American institutions to this next level, because of course the Supreme Court. court is the ultimate check on the powers of the president. And the Supreme Court to date had given Trump license to essentially pursue his executive authority in a maximalist sort of way. And here they finally started to impose limits. And by the way, Frank, if you don't mind,

Frank, just really quickly and then continue. The way they did that through 2025 through his first year is they would they would not overturn or they would not agree with lower court rulings that would check his powers. So everything was just in a holding pattern until the last day of the year when they said, no, actually, okay, yeah, you can't use troops to police American cities. That was the first time. This is another one. Go ahead. Right. But they have given him a blank check as it relates to immunity and the like over time. And here, there's pushback. And the reason that Trump needed to respond in the way that he responded is because the unmitigated exercise of executive authority is so essential to his self-conception

and his conception of the presidency. So when he's challenged in this eloquent way, where Gorsuch delivered this kind of rousing call for Congress to start, well, I read it as a rousing call for Congress to begin asserting itself again. This cuts to the very core of the Trump presidency, which is why he has to respond in the way that he does because it's an attack on his monomaniacal interpretation of the presidency. Well, and, you know, making the thing that he said afterwards, which again, it's so unfortunate that he thinks this way, but, you know, he's had no reason not to think this way because Congress is capitulated to him, and the court dragged their feet throughout most of 2025.

He was asked, so are you going to go to Congress? He goes, I don't need Congress. He said, I don't need anybody. He really needs somebody to read the Constitution to him. It's pretty simple. Maybe Cash Patel can make a cartoon book that has a first, second, and third branches, and explain. Or maybe, I don't know. Hey, Alex, if we could send over to the White House.

House, the afternoon rock, I'm just a bill. Schoolhouse Rock. We can send them Schoolhouse Rock and send them Schoolhouse Rock and send it attention to the White House and it can come from us. And it will explain to him that no, he can't do it by himself. And that's why he's so angry because nothing radical was done actually last week. The only thing that was done was Justice Gorsuch and five other members of the court. interpreted the Constitution as it was written by Hamilton, Madison, our founders. And to your point about Congress, Gorsuch, he warned against sidelining lawmakers in favor of

executive power, writing, quote, yes, legislating can be hard and take time. And yes, it can be tempting to bypass Congress when some pressing problem arises. But the deliberative nature of the legislative process was the whole point of its design. He added, through that process, the nation can tap the combined wisdom of the people's elected representatives, not just that of one faction or man. The opinion amounted to a pointed rebuke of conservative justices who were more willing to uphold broad presidential authority and a forceful reminder, Gorsuch argued, that the Constitution places the power to make lasting policy squarely in Congress's hands. Despite siding with the court's liberal judges, Gorsuch also criticized them for previous rulings

during the Biden administration. Descenting in past major questions cases, Gorsuch wrote, the court's liberal members have argued that broad statutory language granting powers to executive officials should be read for all it is worth. Yet now, when it comes to the Aipa simile broad language granting powers to the president, they take a more constrained approach. Well, and David Drucker, just really quickly, the consistency here, as David French pointed out over the weekend is, is real. You had the court, of course, throwing out Biden's student loan decision, his executive order. also the OSHA mask mandates under similar logic. And now they're doing again with Donald Trump's tariff.

So there is a consistency here. But as Gorsuch also said, you know, the very people today who are going to be critical of this opinion will be the very people four years from now looking back saying, thank God for that opinion. when a Democrat comes out and decides we're going to, and this question was actually raised in oral arguments, we're going to declare a climate emergency, and we are going to do an executive order that's going to do a lot of things from the White House that we couldn't pass through Congress. Or you can say the same with guns. You can say the same with trans athletes.

You can say the same with so many other things. Yeah, it's really so fascinating about the Gorsuch ruling was that he didn't spare anybody. He didn't spare the executive branch. He didn't spare Congress. And then he had some choice words for his colleagues, right, for the judicial branch, about constitutional consistency and playing the long game when you're talking about how these branches are supposed to operate, how they're supposed to relate to each other, and how important it is. that judges don't make choices based on who's in office.

You know, the real question here, Joe, is whether anybody is listening, right? Because we know the White House isn't listening. The White House doesn't want to listen, and the president's already made that clear. The silence on Capitol Hill from most Republicans has been extremely loud, right? There hasn't been a full-throated demand

to codify the president's tariffs. There have been a few of the president's allies that have said, we should do that. Some of the Republican leaders up there said, we're going to look at this. But most Republicans are not clamoring for this. But ultimately, this system doesn't work and will not work until Congress as an institution

between both parties gets jealous about its power and stops the executive branch from doing things, even things they agree with because the executive branch doesn't have the power to do that. Just one final thing about the court, it should give a lot of people confidence that a court came to this ruling in part because of two Trump appointees. And I think that's important. Yeah, it is important. And everybody always, and we'll talk more about this in a little bit with David Ignatius,

who's been around for as long as I have. and you see justices going in and people immediately go, oh, they're Republicans, they're Democrats. Some actually, sadly, become ideological. There are so many others, and we actually saw it his first year with Brett Kavanaugh, who surprised a lot of people. Unfortunately, he now seems to be little more than a vassal of Donald Trump on every decision. I don't pick out one decision or another because it's never as simple as you see people talking about on TV. But Amy Coney Barrett, John Roberts,

Neil Gorsuch, it's very interesting what he's done here. He also has had a couple other really fascinating decisions as well where he doesn't just go in a straight line. But yeah, and for the White House, if they want any legacy whatsoever, they need to pass legislation because what happens with executive orders? They're overturned on day one when the next president gets in office, legislate, do it the way of the Constitution. You have no other choice. You can't

strike out and then trot around the bases and jump up and down and say, I hit a home run. Because everybody in the stands, no, you didn't. So why don't we try it Madison and Hamilton's way and build a legacy? So as we mentioned at the top of the show, we've got a lot to cover this morning, the snow, of course, is piling up for tens of millions of Americans as a major winter storm moves across the northeast, making travel impossible for many. Some areas around New York City could see up to two feet of snow. States of emergency are in effect for New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut right now. Let's bring in acueather meteorologist Bernie Raynow. Bernie, how is it looking? Now, snowy. You know, I do the rain of fog corn, but the visibility is so low. It looks like fog, but it's actually heavy snow. Here's our what we call a bomb cyclone, a storm that deepened over 24 millibars and 24 hours, and that's why we're getting the bands of heavy snow. Backside of the heavy snow from Philadelphia, west of New York City. Boy, is it thumping snow. Central Eastern Long Island and up in the southeastern parts of New England here. We want to take you toward Philadelphia.

Well, we've had about a foot downtown, northeastern suburbs have 17, 18 inches, most of New Jersey over a foot. Snow's starting to let up here. But there is this band just west of New York City. We're picking up three inches of snow per hour. How about lightning with this snowstorm as well? We had a lightning strike at the Empire State Building a little after midnight. New York City still in some moderate snow, heavy snow eastern Long Island. towards southeastern parts of Massachusetts.

There's that heavy snow bend. Patterson Union Linden here. So we're picking up two to three inches of snow per hour. Still snowing heavily, though, central eastern Long Island. And once you get up in the southeastern New England, see that thunder snow around Brockton? It just shows you all of the upward motion.

Very heavy snow right now in southeastern New England. It's going to continue heavily. Central, eastern Long Island, into southeast New England, hours should start to taper down around midday New York City. Snow ends two, three o'clock, heavy snow about over for Philadelphia. But across southeast New England, Boston, Providence, Hartford, snow doesn't end until the late afternoon. And by that time, take a look at the snow accumulations. There they go. That pink area, over 18 inches of snow. Stormy in Washington,

stormy along the East Coast, Meeker and Joe. Wow. Wow. It is. And, You know, it has just kept going. Let me ask you, Bernie. A lot of people, obviously, not able to travel today are most likely tomorrow. What's the weather most likely going to be like on Tuesday and Wednesday? Would we expect the weather to be such that, that, first of all, the streets can be plowed, that the airports can start get working again?

What does Tuesday and Wednesday look like? I suspect it'll take till Wednesday to get the aviation industry across the country back to normal. Remember, Newark, JFK, LaGuardia, Philadelphia International, that's going to have ripple effects across the rest of the country. Make sure if you live in the Northeast, clear the slush, get everything treated because you know what's going to happen tonight? It goes below freezing and everything refreezes. I think it's going to take until Tuesday afternoon to get everything back to normal. All right. Thanks, Bernie. We'll be back in touch.

Thank you, Bernie. Thank you. Still ahead on morning, Joe, we'll be joined by someone with a little bit of experience arguing before the Supreme Court. Former acting solicitor General Neil Katyal joins us with his thoughts on the justice's tariff decision. Plus, we're digging into new polling that shows President Trump losing support on key issues like immigration and inflation. Ahead of the midterms will run through the new numbers. Also ahead, new reporting on President Trump's potential plans for Iran, including a possible target to strike, followed by a larger attack.

Morning Joe is back at a moment. All right, welcome back. We're just actually changing course here because some new polls came in. Some new polls that have come out. We're going, David Ignace is going to be talking about the ABC, Washington Post poll. And it's very much in line with a CNN poll that came out this morning. And the numbers, again, David Ignatius, are just pretty stunning. In one year, Donald Trump's support among Hispanics has dropped from 41% to 26%.

In one year's time, and I think that is troubling for a lot of states, but nationwide, this is a real troubling number. his support has dropped from 41% to 22%. So you're sitting there with 22% support among independence, from 22 to 25 Hispanics. There has just been an absolute cratering of support. And I think the most surprising thing is really no attempt to adjust the way they're approaching, how they're doing business. You know, Joe, he'll begin to adjust. He'll make it affordability day. And then that's blown out by return to another traditional Trump, MAGA theme.

It is striking in these latest polls. You see the constituencies that move right hard for Trump in 2024 in what was a striking election. All the arrows, as we remember. moving in Trump's direction, beginning to move the other way. And I've heard people who look carefully at polls say that everything they see suggests a broad movement across the country of distaste for what's going on. People just not comfortable as they watch ice agents on the streets of American cities,

as they watch tariff policies that they don't understand, but fear may be bad for their personal finances. So it's a real problem in part show because it goes to key constituencies he won over in 24. But I think more broadly because it's just across the spectrum, there's movement away. You see that in the special elections in the moments where we get to see voters actually voting. You know, I think the question Democrats will ask is, given all this, what's Trump and his team going to do to try to influence, arguably manipulate the, results in the midterms. If they see a big blowout coming, how are they going to try to prevent that? And John O'Meer, let me just a quick correction. With Latinos, the support is 22%. With independence,

it's 41 approved, 26% disapproved. 26 still terrible. His overall approval is 36% and he is up in the low 60s for disapproval. Those are numbers that Joe Biden had some of the worst moments of his presidency. And if you dig into the numbers, not only in this poll, we're going to be talking about the Washington Post ABC News poll. So much of it goes back to the economy. And Donald Trump is fearing the worst on the issues that I saw looking through that Washington Post ABC poll on the economy and specifically on inflation. That's the thing he goes. out in mocks. We have no affordability crisis, he says. But his handling of the economy, 37% approve, 62% disapprove. That's devastating for Republicans who have to run this fall.

But you look at inflation, and that seems to be the main driver. And again, as we've said before, 32%, only 32% in this Washington Post ABC News Zipsos poll approves of his handling of inflation. I mean, that's just as bad as it ever got for Joe Biden, and as bad as I remember it being for any president on this issue. What we're supposed to be, President Trump's strengths, the economy and immigration, are both now really hurting him. We are seeing, of course, Americans on poll after poll, broadly disapprove of these masked ice agencies,

surges into American cities, particularly what we saw in Minneapolis when two Americans were killed. And now we're seeing on the economy as well. President Trump dismisses the affordability issue. He's called it a hoax. He said he solved it. You know, voters simply in economic data disagree. That's not the case.

And now there's the issue of the tariffs where some Republicans in the wake of the decision on Friday quietly relieved, like saying, look, these tariffs have been a problem since his so-called Liberation Day last spring. Let's just let these go. he can blame the Supreme Court if he wants, and then walk away from it because tariffs are, of course, attacks on consumers, they can be inflationary. But Frank Ford, Donald Trump, well, he's not one for resets.

And he has said many times that tariffs is his favorite word. And that's clearly a very strange choice. But it reveals for a politician who has very few poor ideologies, his belief in tariffs is one of them. And amid his blasting of the Supreme Court of the weekend, And he's also vowed and says he's signing more global tariffs, going 10% already to 15 and more and more and more. And you can just hear some Republicans slamming their heads against their desks saying, no, don't double down on this. Right. It reinforces the Democrats' affordability message since tariffs are a form of a sales tax.

And I think, you know, just as bad for the underlying economic conditions is that you take something where business had made all of these careful. adjustments to kind of reconcile their strategies in their supply chains to the imposition of tariffs. They're now forced to deal with another period of uncertainty where they're going to have to make all sorts of other adjustments to a policy that's now just as fuzzy as it was on Liberation Day. And so that's going to have rippling consequences that will make his underlying economic numbers even more problematic for him. It is fascinating. Donald Trump has moved on so many issues, whether you talk about abortion.

I mean, I could go down a very long list. But John's exactly right. I mean, he has always believed in tariffs. He's always believed that, you know, in the late 80s, the Japanese were screwing us. You know, then it was Europe and now it's China. This is a core belief of his that he has had for well over 40 years. So him adjusting midstream because the Supreme Court told him he needed to, that should provide little comfort for Republicans because it looks like he's going to stay on this, right?

Yeah, he does. This is, I'll go to David here. This is something where Trump has made clear, David Drucker, that this is something he's not going to move away from, that he believes in tariffs, and they're going to find some other mechanisms to make this happen. His administration, they sort of saw this defeat coming, despite Trump's anger on Friday.

And the Treasury Secretary and others have said that they're finding other levers to pull to put these tariffs in place. To be clear, those tariffs will also surely end up in court and we'll see where it goes. But this is something that Republicans are simply going to have to grapple with as they barrel to the midterms.

Yeah, that's correct, Jonathan. Look, you know, if Trump believes in anything, and he's very transactional on most things, but tariffs and his views on trade are something that is a visceral belief of his, as Joe mentioned, for his entire public life. And in this second presidency, the other aspect of it that drives him

is that everybody has to come calling and asking for favors and handouts on bended knee. And he's really run this administrator like a personalist, right? And if he likes your attitude and if he likes the way you treat him, he's going to cut you somewhat of a deal, even though you never know how dry the ink is

with Donald Trump. Republicans that I talk to that have been doing this a long time know that they are in trouble in part because of the tariffs, because while it hasn't sunk the economy, it certainly hasn't unleashed growth and it hasn't inspired confidence

in a majority of American voters. And that's the problem, right? A year plus in now to the second term, if voters had confidence that this was headed in the right direction, their opinion of his handling of the economy and of his leadership would be different. And they'd be in a different place,

regardless of the stats. But they're not. And, you know, when Frank was discussing this a second ago, right below him on the Chiron, it said 32% of voters think that Trump's focused on the right priorities. that's a killer. The other problem he has is independence.

And in midterm elections, especially in all elections, but particularly in midterm elections, we've talked about this at this table. Independence are the whole ballgame. And so unless things change, and they probably have a good five, five and a half months before the cake is really baked, they're in for a world of hurt,

and you go from just monitoring the House of Representatives to see how many seats are going to flip, to watching to see if the Senate will follow that. house with it. All right, David Drucker, Frank Four, and David Ignatius. Thank you all very much for coming in this morning. If you can stay with us, which David. David Ignatius is at the top of the next block.

We're going to talk briefly about Iran. Yeah, we need to do that. Coming up, a federal judge in West Virginia has issued a scathing ruling against ICE, finding that agents violated the constitutional rights of an immigrant. They arrested while wearing masks, not wearing badges, and using an unmarked vehicle. We'll have those details. Plus, more on the massive gold medal win from the U.S. men's Olympic hockey team.

Pablo Tori, standing by with the highlights from the Winter Games. Morning Joe, we'll be right back. Welcome back. A few minutes before the top of the hour. We're going to get to the conclusion of the Winter Games in just a moment. But first, it was also an action-packed weekend in the English Premier League, with Manchester City. Now only five points away from catching Arsenal

in the league's title race. Oh, it's swinging right out the founder of Men and Blazers Media Network, best-selling author, and... A lot of other things. It's great dog slutter. Roger Bennett.

He took the dog sled to the men and blazers tower in Midtown, Manhattan. Roger, it's so good to see you. Liverpool, pull out a win and unlikely win, but I've got to say this story is poor, poor Arsenal. Will they once again collapse down the home stretch like they have over the past couple of years? Why do we watch other than for Shadenfreude, Joe, that's the honest two. Big game of the weekend, North London Derby, your league leading Arsenal, almost like Marv Levy's Buffalo Bills.

They've come second, agonized, three seasons on the run, desperate to win. Their first title in 22 years traveled to local rivals Totnam, game filled with the two greatest English motivators, spite, and hey, you know the good stuff. Arsenal, open the scoring, Everett GSE, going, Kung Fu Fighting. You're watching a man become unconcated on live television, WebMD style. Tottenham got right back into it, Calumwarni,

going like, oh, Sun Tzu in the Art of War, appear weak when you're strong and strong. when you're weak. Step up a man called Victor Yokorez. America, this is a big Swedish gentleman. He's really struggled here. Oh, my God, he kicked the ball harder than the head of his enemy and went all Bain, Sally, scoring the 4-2

to kill off the game and give Arsenal a 4-1 victory. An absolute delight. Living out, Rudyard Kipling, if you can keep your heads while all around you are losing theirs and blaming you. They win and keep five points clear at the top. They're being chased by Manchin. Manchester City, they believe they are the one who knocks.

They played Newcastle United. This was Abu Dhabi facing up to Saudi Arabia. Geopolitical, regional clash played out through footballing proxies. City took the lead early to Nicco O'Reilly. Young man looks like a one-man kid and play tribute band. Newcastle got themselves back into it to Lewis Hall. We've always said, haven't we, Joe? He's the best hall since Wolf.

but Manchester City would not be denied. They won the game through an O'Reilly second goal. This is actually stunning football. It's dazzling. It's what makes the Premier League almost as popular as curling around the world. United Arab Emirates 2. Saudi Arabia won. You know how it goes.

One more game of note. Defending champion Liverpool struggled against bottom feeders, Notting Forrest. But in the last second, Alexis McAllister prodded home. Look at him. It's like an Argentinian. Jack Hughes, delivering a victory. Liverpool didn't deserve,

but there'll be a whole true crime series of podcasts written about it imminently. Kids watching and Joe Scarborough in particular, when you don't deserve things in life, but they still come to you. Doesn't it make them all the sweeter? All the sweeter. All the sweeter, Roger. We've lost three or four like that already this year.

So we will take a win once in a while. Roger Bennett, as always, Thank you so much. Roger's new book. We are the World Cup. A personal history of the world's greatest sporting event comes out next week. Let's turn now to the final day of the Olympic competition, the winners games in Milan, and a thrilling finish on ice for Team USA, the U.S. men's hockey team. Ending things on a high note is Jack Hughes delivered a golden goal less than two minutes into overtime to lift the United States over Canada, two to one, and marks a nation's third men's hockey title at the games.

And first, since it famed, Miracle on Ice, said only a few of us are old enough to remember back in 1980, one of the most extraordinary sporting moments of our lifetimes. That was 46 years to the day that that upset happened over the Soviet Union. Can you just talk about how difficult this gold medal was to win? Unbelievable game by Hallibuck. He was our best player tonight by a mile. Unbelievable game. Unreal game by our team.

That's just a ballsy, gutsy win. That's American hockey right there. That's a great Canadian team, but we're USA. We're so proud to be Americans. Tonight was all for the country. What does this gold medal mean to USA hockey? It's everything. Like I said, the USA Hockey Brotherhood means so much.

Look at these guys. We're such a team. We've been to the guy over two weeks. We're such a team. USA Hockey Brotherhood is so strong, and we're so proud to win for our country. Let's bring you to host. Poblatori finds out MS. Now contributor to Poblatorian. And also, of course, John Lemire, who obviously knows more about hockey than, well, probably all of us combined. John, Lemuel, let me start with you.

You know, some of these guys skated through year old neighborhoods, some of the schools. on some of the schools, you know, very, very well. Talk about what this means for American hockey, for U.S. hockey, and also what it means, and I'm going to underline this, despite what the president may tweet from time to time. Talk about this incredible rivalry around two countries that have been neighbors and friends and brothers and sisters for such a long time. What an incredible rivalry we have between the United States and Canada on ice. Yeah, I agree with that, Joe.

These are two nations that will be friends long after the current president leaves office. But there's no doubt tensions have grown. This is a rivalry that has gotten white hot in recent years. Canada beat the U.S. in that four nations tournament last winter that sort of captivated the sports world. But this is a much bigger stage. In the United States, let's be clear, the women won also on Saturday, gold medal over Canada. And then the men yesterday. Carter Hallibuck, the goalie there, was the absolute standout facing an onslaught of shots,

making a couple of miracle saves. Also, Nathan McKinnon, we're seeing it right there, missed an open net, which should have won it for Canada. But, you know, Pablo, this game meant a lot for USA hockey. It is their first gold medal since 1980, the miracle on ice. No one's saying this is that. But this is still an incredible game. Jack Hughes, the hero. and two thoughts to you.

One, that there's already an iconic photo of Hughes, missing teeth, bloodied, holding an American flag. He's got his gold medal. He's celebrating. That's the symbol of the team. The other, though, their fallen teammate, Johnny Goodro, who was killed in a drunk driver accident a year or so ago. He was on the minds of so many of these players yesterday.

They held his jersey up after the game. They welcomed his children onto the ice. It was clear they were playing for country, and they're playing for family. Yeah, I mean, this was for Canada, a horror movie for the United States. It was the opposite on every possible level. Aesthetically, by the way, the three-on-three format, John in overtime. People were critical at first, of course, isn't true hockey.

And then you get one of the fastest, most beautiful, frankly, most entertaining games we've ever seen in hockey. And to your point earlier, yeah, the U.S. women, by the way, also won 2-1 in overtime in that same format. And then you get to the substance of it, the idea that USA hockey entering this game was the underdog, right? Like, there aren't many instances where, especially in sports, you get the United States as plausibly David against a Goliath. And here you have that. You have the emotional backstory, which was real carrying around Johnny Grewdow's jersey afterwards after the win. And then, of course, you have the mascot of the team, which is the FBI director, Cash Patel, which is, of course, something that is totally apolitical and something that he totally deserves as an unelected representative

who is certainly not using private money to, you know, actually fund his public lifestyle. So clearly something that everybody can feel good about. And after being so critical, as we mentioned earlier, of his previous FBI director for allegedly using a private, the public jet for private travel. So, Pablo, let's take a step back. Obviously, hockey is what we're thinking about right now because it was how these games concluded. But I think another really successful Olympics, which seemed to, damn, 10, 15 years ago maybe seemed to hit a little bit of a lull. People were wondering, are we kind of done with the Olympics? The answer, I think, is decidedly no.

We are seeing some of the biggest cities in the world, Paris, Los Angeles, vie to have the summer games. We have seen in a moment where there are so few things that people watch live on television, they're almost all sports. The Olympics really resonate with people. So give us a big picture take of your thoughts on the 16 days in Milan and region. The U.S. certainly did well, but there were storylines up and down to enjoy. Yeah, I mean, just to be very very.

sincere about why it is that the president and the FBI director are embracing this Olympics with both hands. It's because we always underestimate how popular these things are going to be, how moving it is to see a global village in which the United States can come off as what it is, which is a country that uniquely, seemingly, cares about this stuff, even when during the rest of the year, we're not Norway. We don't really care about ski jumping. We don't really care about the snow sports. But when it happens, you're reminded, oh, right, sports actually is this giant high school cafeteria. And on the basis of human interest, we can become invested. And so I'm thinking of the figure skaters. I'm thinking of Alyssa Lou. I'm thinking of the fact that

you can get these case studies in joy and how to win and how to win with grace and how to win with a version of yourself that can be apolitical, right? And so the more that you costume yourself in the fact that, oh, wait, when Team USA wins, the United States win, and this is something that is very popular, you get people who are coming to this for good reasons and for cynical reasons, and sports at its best can be immunized against the cynicism of people trying to use it for purposes that they are not intended for. Well, and I'll tell you, a couple other real standouts, of course, Alyssa Liu, and McKellie Schiffen, who, of course, early on, said,

said, hey, you know, I love my country. There's some challenges, some things I'm very concerned. about. I'm very proud to be on. And of course, she got attacked for speaking like an American. She wasn't attacking America. She was, she had said, hey, this is, this is a little complicated at times with all the things going on in America, but I'm proud of being on this team. I'm proud of being an American. And I've got to say of all the people I saw, I mean, she was, she was one of the most American of all the people there. It's not not because she was political. because she really wasn't, but because two truths could be held at the same time.

And, man, she was waving that flag when she won. She was great. A great representative to the rest of the work on, hey, this is what it's like to be an American. We can actually balance things in our head without totalitarian leaders taking us out back and shooting us. That's the key point. So, Michaela Schaeffer, one of the great skiers of all time, someone who dealt with their own psychological hurdle, someone who lost her father, her most fervent influence in her sport, doing all of that. And then, by the way, Contra, what J.D. Vance's sort of prescription was being

able to generally observe things about this country that she loves. And look, that is, Joe, to your point, the difference. When you're at the Global Village on the high school pageant stage, and you see how the other countries with actual autocratic governments are behaving, their athletes don't get to do that. The United States should be allowed. their athletes too for that same reason. Yeah, and they do. Pablo Tori, thank you very much.