Morning Joe - Trump wants Dulles Airport and Penn Station renamed for him

Episode Date: February 6, 2026

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Why is Tulsi Gabbard there? I don't know, but you know, a lot of the cheating comes from, it's international cheating. You have people, they say, from China. We have a director of national and international intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, who's doing a great job with Tulsi. She took a lot of heat two days ago because she went in at Pam's insistence. She went in and she looked at votes. President Trump yesterday explaining that Attorney General Pam Bondi sent Tulsa Gabbard to Fulton County, Georgia last week for the FBI's raid of an election office. Okay, that's one, okay, that's one take on it.

But on Wednesday, he told NBC News he didn't know why the Director of National Intelligence was there, the shifting stories. That's two. They're about four, five, six. There are several. different stories on why she was actually there. Look at this. I'm seriously, are you guys kidding me? Tulsi Gabbard, down in Georgia, seizing voting.

Are you really? Are you this stupid? Are you this stupid that you think you're going to get away with it? Are you this stupid? Why are you so stupid? Why do you do things that hurt Republican? candidates in the state of Georgia, hurt Republican candidates across the country, and are

always overturned by judges. I've got to say, and you know, Ali's last story was about the president saying, okay, well, we'll give you that funding. Will we start the funding for desperately needed transportation between New Jersey and New York to help people on both sides of the Hudson, be able to commute better? If you rename Dolos Airport and Penn Station, I mean, and seriously, who would want their names on either one of those? I didn't even say, why don't you just ask them to rename the New York Jets after you?

It's really, I can't imagine it. But again, Jonathan Lemire, I just, the fact is that Donald Trump seizing those fines was one part of Mikey Cheryl waiting about like 15 points or 14 points or however many points you won in New Jersey. The Republican candidate was gaining ground. This happened. And then poof, he spent the rest of the campaign talking about that. Now, John Ossoff, this is a gift for John Ossoff in Georgia. You look at New York State. It's going to be, again, critical for the Democrats taking over the House of Representatives. And here's Donald Trump saying, yeah, I'm going to destroy, keep destroying your morning commute,

keep you away from your loved ones and your family and your children, even longer, because you won't rename really two of the worst infrastructure projects in America after me. Again, all of this is so self-defeating. And if you don't believe me, just look at the poll numbers. Yeah, President Trump telling on himself there, clearly revealing doesn't travel by train very much. Otherwise, he might want to stay clear of having his name splashed on Penn Station. But you're exactly right. First of all, the Gateway Tunnel, which is what New York and New Jersey officials have wanted for decades, desperately needed link under the Hudson River, helping commuters in both states.

And certainly, now governor, Cheryl, was grateful for that in-kind campaign donation that President Trump made late in that race this last fall. because he took away that funding and in a moment of a fit. And, you know, it was a gift to her because it hurt people in her state. And you're right, though, this is also what Republicans have been saying to me. I wrote about it this week. We've chronicled it a few times now.

The President Trump, he's just taking his eye off the ball, they fear. Like, lock in on the economy. Lock in on rising prices. Like, do something about inflation or health care costs, whatever it might be. Things that voters are likely could to have front of mind this coming November at the midterms. And instead, Trump, first of all, didn't travel this week as his team had promised, these weekly trips to talk about the economy

and campaign for Republican officials. But more than that, he seems to really care more about these legacy projects, whether it's the ballroom or the Kennedy Center. He's on a building spree throughout Washington and Willie. This would be the next, the idea that he would suddenly want to have his name on Dulles and Penn Station and threatening to keep federal funds. away unless that happens helps no one. I mean, in normal times, this is a massive scandal. The president won't allow a state, a municipality to have funds unless you name something after him.

And as you say, you might want to pump the brakes or choose something else on Penn Station. Though the new Moynihan Hall is very nice. We'll stipulate that. It's nice. But guys, back to Georgia for a second, we don't really have to wonder who directed Tulsi Gabbert to go there because Tulsi Gabbard wrote in a letter to Congress, that it was President Trump himself who ordered her to go to Georgia on that FBI raid. And then you'll recall after the raid, she called the President of the United States,

put him on speakerphone so he could celebrate with the FBI agents who conducted the raid. So there is a pattern Donald Trump doing something. And then when it goes bad or the reaction to it or the polling is bad, say ICE in Minneapolis, for example, he runs from it. And yesterday, as you just showed it, the prayer breakfast said, yeah, that was Pam Bondi who did that, not me. Yeah. Well, and speaking of the prayer breakfast, there's another extraordinary lost opportunity. Here's something that, you know, I know the people who run it, have been a part of it. When I was in Congress, it was a wonderful time, even when Bill Clinton was going through impeachment.

I mean, it was we would come together. We would talk. We would, we would, it was, it lessened the tensions. The president, other people would talk about their faith. And it was a good time. to come together. Yesterday you had the president attacking Republicans that voted against him. Thomas Massey especially attacking Democrats saying, I don't know why any Christian would vote for Democrats when in fact, you know, because they opposed me all the time. But in fact, there are a lot of people that actually were raised in the church asking, why would anybody support so many of these Republican policies that run completely counter to Jesus' direct unambiguous teaching. You get Mike Johnson, like Christ explaining the Bible to the Pope,

because the Pope dared to actually quote Jesus's words, you could go on and on. And then, you know, Willie, Donald Trump's coalition, the Republicans coalition is not crumbling from the edges. It's crumbling from the center. He's losing the independence. He's losing, of course, Democrats that may have voted for him. He's losing working American. that voted for him in the past. And everything he's doing is causing that collapse in the center to continue and drive his numbers and Republican numbers down. And, of course, overnight he put out a truth social post that was a racist, racist post

depicting the former president of the United States and First Lady as monkeys, as primates. And, you know, that's only going to hurt that. You know, they're sitting there thinking, oh, we're going to own the libs. Oh, we're going to make the libs, man. That'll be so triggered. That's not what happens. I mean, at this stage, all you're doing is hurting the Republican Party. All you're doing is hurting your support in the center.

All you're doing is making sure Democrats have a great off-year election. All you're doing is making yourself look pathetic Republicans for not standing up to this open racism and bigotry. All your, again, in normal times would end to somebody's political career that day. And every Republican in normal times would have come out and attacked this racism and this bigotry. But the thing is, they think Democrats are going to get angry. Now Democrats just look at it. And they're saying it the Republicans going, really?

You're not going to say anything about this? Because this doesn't own the libs. This destroys. It's just all of this stuff. destroys Republican support among the very voters they need to win elections. Yeah, unambiguously racist posts amplified by the president of the United States about a former president of the United States and a former first lady of the United States. And I think it's safe to say we can predict this well that Republicans will say either I didn't see the post or sometimes he just retweets or re-truths or whatever. And we can't hold him accountable for all the crazy things he does.

And that's just the pattern. But he should be held accountable for that. It's disgusting. It's appalling. And people can go look at it for themselves. And you're right, Joe. I mean, again, normal people look at this stuff. They look at the post last night or they look at what's happening in the streets of Minneapolis.

You can go down the list and they go, this is, I don't want this. This is not. And so I think you saw it, even in that poll, we saw yesterday about the shooting death of Alex Pretti where you only have 22% of Americans saying, yeah, we agree with the administration's point view on this that it was justified. He was an agitated 22%. I mean, that's below the magas lights of whatever you want to call it. The diehard is 30 to 35%. So he used to have or often sometimes still does the president good political instincts, but to continue to do this stuff and to shed voters, to shed support Caddy Kay as we embark here on this election in the fall. And maybe there's a reason

he doesn't want to talk about the economies because there was another bad jobs number yesterday or that as Steve Ratner showed us in his charts yesterday, just the data that they're putting out, the numbers, the things he's claiming about how strong the economy simply aren't true statistically, factually, and also that most people in the country are not feeling that way about the economy. Yeah, and the truth is the president can't do very much about the economy.

I mean, he can bring in a new Fed chair who could bring down interest rates to try and make things cheaper to some extent for Americans, but there isn't a whole lot that he can do, and he's still running because he still has this fundamental belief, this confusing tariff policy, which is one of the things that has made life increasingly expensive for Americans. So the things he is wedded to, he's refusing to let go like tariffs and putting up a fortress wall around America in terms of trade, and the other

things he can't do very much about. So I think that's why he won't talk about the economy. And then he tries to make a joke out of affordability, but it's a joke that doesn't land because people are still feeling that there are high prices. Again and again, the president goes back to his original playbook. Let's go back to 2020. Let's go back to immigration, because these are tactics that seem to have worked for him before in terms of owning the libs. But even not, we had the numbers earlier this week, right, guys. Even on immigration, you look at the numbers, 51% say America is less safe because of the immigration policies and only 22% of Americans, that's smaller than we think his MAGA bases, think that the

killing of Alex Preti is justified. So the policies he thinks are working for him are turning people away, the policies he would like to change, there's not much he can do about. Well, yeah, and you know, it's one thing for Americans to oppose Donald Trump's immigration policies, and that makes sense from what they're seeing in the streets of Minneapolis and St. Paul. It's quite another. I was really struck by the poll. Did Donald Trump's immigration policies make you safer or less safe? And the majority of Americans say makes Americans less safe. That's just an absolute stunning, almost shocking turnaround from over the past year. I mean, obviously, you look at the killings, you look at the brutality that Donald Trump's,

Christy Nome's forces are engaging in, the secret police. Get the masks off, please. Get the masks off, please. Get the masks off and tell them to stop brandishing their guns whenever they get out of their cars. But Americans feel less safe about that when, in fact, the issue that matters is the issue he monks, which is affordability. And just a couple of quick facts. First of all, jobless numbers came out yesterday. Private survey showing jobless numbers are spiking, skyrocketing. Secondly, you look at grocery prices. The last measurement we have is from December. Grocery prices jumped up were more inflationary in the month of December than any time since 2022. 2022. And so that's what Americans want to talk about, not renaming crappy airports and lousy railway stations or racist tweets or Greenland or, you know, Venezuela or all this other stuff, insults at prayer breakfasts that are meant to bring people together. That's, that's, I would say you're only speaking

to your base, but now it looks like in a lot of these polls, you're not even speaking to your 35%. That 35% is becoming 25, 22%, more and more Americans really shocked by what they're saying. Also, this morning people in Minnesota say aggressive ICE operations are still happening, despite a withdrawal of hundreds of federal officers. We're going to go through that new reporting that, for many, nothing has changed. And Hillary Clinton calls out how, oversight chair James Comer, after agreeing to give public testimony on the panel's investigation into Jeffrey Epstein. We're going to look at what this could mean in the political game of chicken. As President Trump continues to come to the Clinton's defense, he also says...

Let's say that again. Let's say that again. President Clinton is being defended by Donald Trump. By good reason, what I've been saying, you know, what comes around goes around. The presidents, Republicans are setting right now. All the horrid presidents they're setting right now will be picked up, unfortunately, by Democrats. If Democrats get elected, I hope not. But here, Donald Trump knows if they can do this to Bill Clinton, they can do this to Donald Trump.

He wants no part of that. Yeah. And Donald Trump actually says it's time to put the Epstein files behind us. It's not happening, and it's not happening because now the investigations, because what we found actually, you've got to say far more expansive than so many people believe. So much to look into. There is, but you now have other countries looking into this. You're going to have investigations all across the world because now, a lot of people especially in Poland, they're trying to figure out the connections between Jeffrey Epstein and Russia because there seemed to be a lot of connections between. Jeffrey Epstein and right but I have one question yeah and Willie I'm curious what your thoughts are

there's so many extraordinarily deviant emails that are sent to Jeffrey Epstein oh my god from unnamed people who are making uh not only jokes but saying things that would make you think they had sex with underage girls and the justice department has redacted their names why is a Justice Department redacting the names of rich and powerful men who appear, who appear to be telling Jeffrey Epstein that they had some kind of contact with underage minors? Boy, that's a great question. It's the question of the hour. Why did it take so long to get all these documents out? Perhaps because the Justice Department was deciding whose name should be revealed and whose name should not. The idea of redactions, they said, was to protect the victims. Well, they failed at that

on several counts, as we know. Right. So a lot of the victim's names now are out in the open because they did such a poor job. But they didn't do such a poor job, as you say, Joe, of protecting powerful men, presumably whose names are under those black lines. And you're right about this, the Clinton's testifying, I mean, James Comer, who's running this, the instinct among congressional Republicans is to please the boss, do what they think Donald Trump wants to do. That's their guiding philosophy. Well, they've got it completely upside down here. As he pushes this further and further, Donald Trump now saying in public,

boy, I always liked Bill Clinton and Hillary, she was tough on me, getting that sort of chummy Donald Trump version where he said, I don't know, I feel bad that they should have to go do it. He does not want this because of the point you just made. This is going to turn against him and potentially very soon. Well, I appreciate any investigation into it, because there are so many questions raised in those up to three million documents. And there are still more documents to be released.

And for these victims who are being retramatized, let's get to justice. Yeah. Shall we? Let's get to justice for the victims of Jeffrey Epstein. And show us the names of the men that you've redacted Justice Department. Show us the names of the men who sent those obscene and foul emails to Jeffrey. Epstein. Do what you say you were going to do. About underage girls. And they're not doing it. They're still. And here we are in 2026. We're talking about this more than a decade ago, asking why

Jeffrey Epstein was out on the list. Why was everybody protecting rich and powerful men? The question remains a decade later, Mika. Why are the Justice Department, whether it's a Republican or a Democratic Justice Department, why do they keep protecting these rich and powerful men? Get rid of the redactions. Show us who those men are who are talking about underage girls with Jeffrey Epstein. Pedophiles. Okay. We're going to talk about this again a little bit more in our four hours, but let's get to one of our other top stories of the morning.

The Desperate Search for Nancy Guthrie has now entered day six as investigators work through scores of leads. and today's show Co-ancher Savannah and her siblings are renewing pleas for help in finding their beloved mother. The family issued a new direct appeal last night to any possible captors. This is Cameron Guthrie. I'm speaking for the Guthrie family. Whoever is out there holding our mother, we want to hear from you. We haven't heard anything directly. We need you to reach out and we need a way to communicate with you so we can move forward. But first, we have to know that you have our mom.

mom. We went to talk to you and we are waiting for contact. That plea came from Savannah's brother Cameron. And it comes after the first deadline and apparent ransom note passed yesterday with a second deadline set for Monday. According to the FBI, the notes haven't been substantiated and there's been no communication or proof of life. But investigators say they're taking them seriously. One person was arrested for a different message it turned out to be fake. Authorities yesterday also providing a new timeline, new details of the disappearance blood found on the porch of Nancy's home belonged to her, and a front doorbell camera that was disconnected on the night of the apparent abduction is missing, despite the difficulties. And a lack of a suspect, the Pima County Sheriff is holding

on to hope, saying he believes Nancy is still out there. The FBI is offering a $50,000 dollar reward for information leading to Nancy's recovery or the arrest of anyone involved in her disappearance. So, Willie, you know, the thing is, it is awfully frustrating, obviously looking from the outside for those of us who love Savannah and care for her so much. And I know other people are saying, well, I don't understand why they're not communicating any more than they are. But if I were running an investigation, I wouldn't be communicating with the public.

My responsibility is not to the press. It's to getting Nancy home. It's to the Guthrie family. So we get all of that. I do, I do, though, I do, I do wonder and worry this far into it. Why there's no lines of communication? Why the Guthrie family saying, come on, we're here. We're here.

Talk to us. It seems that every day that goes by, more questions are raised than answered about about what happened that night. Yeah, if there's someone who has abducted Nancy, Guthrie and wants something in exchange for her return, where is that person? Why haven't we heard from her? And as you say, there may be things that we don't know. Presumably there are many things that we don't know. And we saw that at the press conference yesterday with the sheriff, but also the FBI that is now on the scene from the special agent who was there speaking.

There was a lot he wasn't saying. So I think the hope is that there is something happening behind the scenes. But it appears in the public messages we've seen from Savannah and then last night from her brother Cameron, that they are making an open appeal for communication, which would lead you to believe maybe they're not hearing from anyone now five days plus into this. Let's bring in former senior FBI official Christopher O'Leary. He served in the FBI's Counterterrorism Division and is the U.S. government's director of hostage recovery, also now an MS now, National Security and Intelligence Analyst. Thanks so much for being with us this morning. So just, again, to your trained ear, what did you hear at that press conference from the sheriff,

but particularly from the special agent in charge there in Arizona of the FBI when he came out? Lott's not said. Having been through cases like this, what did you hear? Yeah, I think it's, you highlighted it. There's a lot not being said, and that's intentional. There's a delicate balance between informing the public and soliciting their, assistance because there's millions of eyes in the United States. I can share leads with the FBI, which is desperately needed, but also not tipping your hand. So everything that's being said is

being engineered by the crisis negotiation unit, which is specialized unit out of Quantico, Virginia. Unfortunately, they have a ton of experience at that there are really kidnapped for ransom almost every week that they deal with, usually in places like Mexico, Central America, South America, across Africa, but they're used to these rapidly evolving crises and engaging with the captors. The one concerning thing is we don't have a line of communication established with the captors right now, and that needs to change because you cannot negotiate this release, and certainly with the serious concerns about Mrs. Guthrie's advance. years and medical conditions that have been stated. Those are things you want to get ahead of,

and time is of the essence right now. So, Chris, without speculating too much about what may be going on here, I mean, just the facts that we have in front of us now over these five-plus days, the police, the sheriff's office, says, an apparent abduction, but we haven't heard from anybody from the alleged abductor in these days. When you start to put pieces together of things you know publicly and maybe people you've talked to behind the scenes. Are you able to make any sense of what we're watching here? Well, I think there's two things, you know, some other outlets have alluded to. Maybe it's somebody close to Mrs. Guthrie, a family member or a close associate. Those things should be pretty easy to rule out pretty quickly. Number one, they should be cooperative.

If they're not, that's a tell. But if they are cooperative, what's their alibi? You know, they should have been at home at 2 o'clock of the morning? Can their cell phone establish their presence in their home? Can their vehicle, which is also a geolocation device these days, can the FBI say that their vehicle was at their home? Can their spouse or their family members corroborate that and are ring cams, their ring cams in the area, able to say that they were at their home? So that could rule out a lot of potential, you know, personal connections to Mrs. Guthrie. Then you look at the MO here. The doorbell camera was disabled, which shows a or suggests a certain level of sophistication here from the captors.

So who, you know, in the history of kidnapped for ransom has that capability, is it somebody that we think is local? Or what the concern is amongst some colleagues that I've talked to is with the proximity to the border, is this potentially, and not suggesting it is, but something investigative. is we'll look at, that she was potentially taken by a Mexican kidnapped for ransom organization who do this fairly routinely. And so the FBI being brought in here, and number one has the authorities to do this, both domestically across state lines, but internationally, and they also have the reach and the connections and the bandwidth to do it. So they are most certainly discussing things with intelligence partners and our Mexican counterparts as well. ran kidnap and operations and hostage rescue operations for the U.S. government, do you have any

doubt in your mind, given what you said about the cameras, given what we know about her, where she was at what various times, that this was an abduction? Are you starting from the certainty that Mrs. Guthrie was taken from that home was kidnapped? Or do you see any other possibilities? I think that's where I would be leaning if I was inside the investigation. I think that's where the agents on the ground are. I mean, listen, at the end of the day, 84-year-old grandmothers and mothers don't just disappear in the middle of the night. She wasn't abducted by aliens. There are indicators that somebody entered the home. She has blood there. Her medical condition didn't suggest that, you know,

she had any dementia or a reduced level of consciousness. So it's just not like her. It doesn't fit her pattern of life. And the other thing is, did somebody have a personal grievance against her. There's nothing to suggest that. She sounds like a wonderful woman who is beloved, so who would have a personal grievance against her. And I do think NBC corporate security, which is staffed by a bunch of former FBI and Secret Service, are working with the team on the ground to determine if Savannah had any previous threats or stalkers or anything, and they couldn't get to her but are looking at Mrs. Guthrie

as a target of opportunity. We're also not aware, at least investigators have not said that anything was taken from the house, like any sort of robbery there. So Chris, drawing on your experience in this, if indeed there has not been any real contact from the kidnappers, it has been silence since this happened nearly a week ago.

What could that tell you? It's not unusual, unfortunately. I mean, they're in control here. And they will do this on their timeframe. So they might be in a position where they need to get to a safe place. They need to be comfortable with secure communications and very deliberate because the FBI is looking to exploit everything that they do. You know, the initial email of the ransom, though, if it turns out to be authentic,

the FBI is scrubbing all the metadata to try to determine, you know, the origin of it. you know, was it run through any filters, was anonymized? Is there a language in there that could suggest that somebody is from this country, a certain region, a certain education level, or does this suggest maybe they're from somewhere else? So all those things are being ascertained. But the other parts of the investigation out there, there's concern that there was no, you know, vehicle traffic or foot traffic around the house. Well, you'll expand that search.

This is during a period of darkness where there's, very little activity on the streets. So you just look a little further out. Any vehicle on the road at 2 o'clock in the morning, in the vicinity, you'll start pinpointing on and then start trying to determine who owns that vehicle. You know, is there something we should be concerned about? So all those things. And then normal intelligence, going after sources and questioning them, what do they know, people who are in these kidnapped for ransom kind of circles? Is there anybody you have contact with. Yeah, Mr. Alarii, you know, it's interesting.

The thing that hasn't made sense to me from the beginning, it's been the fact that this is 2026, we have cameras everywhere. This doesn't seem to be like a smart, calculated move. Forget the immorality of it and how horrid it is. Because in America, this just doesn't really happen that much anymore because we do have cameras everywhere. But you just mentioned something about the possibility. of Mexican cartels and how it does happen there all the time.

And so is that for you? Is that a concern that possibly somebody who does this regularly to make money for their businesses may have been a Mexican cartel that came across the border and had an opportunity 50, 60 miles away? And maybe that's who we're dealing with here. It certainly is something that if I was still running hostage recovery, we would be looking at. Again, there's nothing that's been shared yet that indicates that, but just given the proximity and the MO of what's gone on here, it would certainly lead investigators to be looking in that direction. And the one thing I will add to that is, you know, there is concern about Mrs. Guthrie-Selt and her medication.

If this is a professional kidnap for ransom group, although it seems callous, you should take comfort in the fact that they deal with these things all the time, and as callous as it sounds, Mrs. Guthrie is currency to them, and they will want to keep her healthy so they can make the exchange. Most of these kidnaps for ransom ends successfully. The money is paid. It's negotiated down,

but often there's a success. successful resolution and she'll come back safely. So hopefully that's what we're seeing right now. So if it is a professional Mexican organization that's doing this, in a certain way, that's almost comforting because they do this regularly and they'll want to resolve it and get paid. Yeah. It seems to me, this is so horrifying and such a nightmare. But as we drag on today four and day five and we know nothing about it, the great fear is, that somebody did something really extraordinarily stupid and then panicked. And now this many days in, the situation is even worse.

So, again, a lot of things just say, no questions asked. Just not lining up right now. And so we'll see what happens. And, of course, our prayers stay with Savannah and the family. It's unspeakable. Former senior FBI official MS now National Security. and intelligence analyst Christopher O'Leary. Thank you very much for your insights this morning.

And still ahead on morning, Joe, President Trump says he ordered hundreds of ICE agents to leave Minnesota, but local residents there, so they haven't noticed a difference at all. We'll dig into that new reporting from the New York Times. Plus, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton tells House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer to stop the games. We'll have the latest in their back-and-forth fight. It sounds like Hillary's ready for a fight and cheap. Pretty much said, Let's go.

Girdier Loins, brother. We're going to war. And we'll get our picks in for who will win. This Sunday's Super Bowl matchup between the Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots. As we go to break, a look at the travelers' forecast this morning from Aqueweathers, Aurella Scalise. Ariela, how's it looking? Well, it's snow that moves in from the Midwest to the northeast, but doesn't get to Philadelphia, D.C., New York City to tonight, and mostly lighter amounts coating to an inch

but enough to make roads slippery. The southeast, lots of sunshine and some more warmth building in from west to east, and a pretty good way to wrap up the week. The Accuather Exclusive travel forecast here doesn't show any weather delays, so flights should be good to go, to this morning and the afternoon. To help you make the best decisions and be more in the know, make sure to download the Accuether app today. So Super Bowl 60 between the Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots kicks off this Sunday at 6.30 p.m. Eastern at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, California. Let's bring in right now the host of Pablo Tori finds out in the MS contributor Pablo Tori. Pablo, a couple days away from this game, and it is intriguing. You've got the Seattle Seahawks that only nobody's talked about that much this year, but now that we've got this far, they're saying this may be one of the most complete teams in the NFL. They deserve to be there. And then you have the Patriots and people are still saying, oh, easiest schedule, this, that, the other.

They've played a couple good defenses over the past several weeks. So this is one of those games you don't know which way it's going to go. I'm curious, what are your latest thoughts on it as we go into the big weekend? Yeah, so look, the Seahawks are favored. That's what the experts, that's what the algorithms, the more high production value robots in Vegas say. Of course, we here at Morning Joe, as I sit alone in your name, New York Studio, have none of that technology, but you got me. And so I'll tell you that the guy on screen right now, Sam Darnold, the quarterback of the Seahawks, he has an opportunity, Joe, to excise,

to exercise demons. The Patriots are the team that made him see ghosts. And he's with the New York Jets. And he was, at that point, basically doomed to be a bust. And now he's piloting this offense that is the undercard on his team to a defense that might be as good a defense as we've seen in the Super Bowl. And I say that because historically, analytically, statistically, all the numbers say that the Seahawks defense is incredible. And so you now have, as I hear and feel the vibes emanating from Jonathan Lemire and Willie Geist as they stare at me as a guy who's been on the Patriots for the last couple months because allegedly I'm trying to reverse jinx to them, but I just know that they're the obvious, obvious dynasty that we're reviving, Willie. Clearly the Patriots must deliver with Drake May and his clearly healthy shoulder. Well, yeah, he says it's healthy. There is a parallel, is there not Pablo?

I'm not comparing Drake May to Tom Brady, but a young Tom Brady, 24 years old, gets control of the team. They win the Super Bowl in 2002. The rest is history. Drake May is even younger. He's 23 years old, incredibly talented. Stafford won the MVP last night, but you could make the case for Drake May. Should have won the MVP.

I feel like, too, Pablo, do you that the Seahawks, despite the fact they arguably were the best team in football this year, flew a little bit under the radar because they're not flashy. Maybe it's because they play in Seattle on the East Coast doesn't pay attention to them too much. Are the Seahawks actually much better than we think they are? Absolutely. They are. And the pass rush is incredible. The offensive line of the Patriots, the guys tasked with protecting and directing the offense for Drake May. that's the matchup that is going to decide this thing.

We say this every time in retrospect after the Super Bowl. This thing was won in the trenches. That's like always the post-game analysis, but pre-game we talk about the quarterbacks. The trenches are where I would be terrified. And I hear, and I saw a wry smile from John Lemire. When you compared Drake made and Tom Brady. And the question is, can he stay upright?

Will he stay in the pocket? Will he hang in there like Tom Brady used to as those Seahawks pass rushers, DeMarcus Lawrence and those guys, they, you know, they put their hand in the dirt. Yeah, and you know, as Pablo said, Jonathan, the Seahawks have flown under the radar. That's why you and I have been dealing with rage from Don Rickles' third cousin over the past several weeks. Now the computer never picked up to Seahawks. Steve Rickles, very angry. Our computer has led us down once again.

man is still better than the machine. But that said, I'm just curious your thoughts about what Pablo was suggesting that if the New England Patriots don't win the Super Bowl, then everything that's happened this year is for naught. It's a bust. It's like if the Yankees don't win the World Series in five games, you might as well have not even, like, you know, gone to practice in the fall, right? Don't play preseason games.

Don't even inflate the footballs, because a lot of, loss in the Super Bowl makes the entire year away. What do you say to Pablo's assertion? First, I'll say I'll be relieved that on Monday when this bit goes back to me about the Yankees and not the Patriots. So we can shift to baseball season. How do you do that? BIT! Yeah, that's analysis.

I'm excited about that, first and foremost. I mean, look, Pat's offensive line is a concern. Drake May will have to make some plays with his legs, which he did. He otherwise did not play well in the game against Denver. but he did make a couple of key runs. I'll say this, that the Pats have faced three top five defenses already in this playoff run. Seattle will be the fourth. Seattle, in fact, number one.

I also know that the Patriots defense is, I think, really underrated. That's the unit here that's also flown under the radar. And to be clear, the Seahawks are very good. They deserve to be favored. But the Patriots defense does one thing really, really well. And that's to stop the run. So if they stop Kenneth Walker, who's a great battle, for Seattle. It's like, okay, that's our priority. Sam Darnold, can you beat us? And that's a lot

on Sam Darnold. I was in the stands for that Pat's Jets game, Pablo, when Sam Donald saw his ghosts. You know, that he's been terrific the last two years. He may be terrific again on Sunday, but Sam Darnold is also someone who has come up short in some big games. Oh, okay. So over 100. Wow. Wait, no, I got to get a Pablo. We're making picks. We're making picks. Here's it. No, here's the difference.

We're going to make picks. But here's the difference between somebody from the South going into a big game. And at least from my school, the Verbe Ryan school of poor talking. And somebody from the Northeast where he's talking about Sam Darnel's weaknesses. You know, what we say in the South is, if you're a New England fan, you're like, I'll tell you what, we'll be lucky to still be in the game after the first quarter. I don't even think we're going to get in the first quarter. I'm glad we're there.

Really? Is this not the case? I'm just glad. We made it to the Super Bowl. We don't belong there. We're probably the fourth best team in our own division. We've been lucky time and time again. If we can just make it to the end of the first quarter by not being down by 34 points, that's a win.

That's how you do it, Willie, right? Yeah, you show up, you get off the bus with your suitcase, you look up at all the tall buildings, and you're just so excited to be there with all the bright lights, and the media day is a lot of fun, and maybe you stop and see Bad Bunny at halftime. And if that's all you get out of it as a football team, then it was worth it to say you once played in a Super Bowl. But winning the game, now that's not going to happen. No. No.

All right, let's do predictions. Pablo, who wins? Let me throw my Mary Tyler Moore hat into the air in the big city here and to show you. Please do. Number one, of course, according to the exclusive New York studio, Power Rankies. The Pats. The Pats. Of course.

You pick him the Pats. Of course. Of course I am. Championship or bust. And how dare you accuse Yankee fans like me and Willie Geist of doing anything resembling trying to, again, sandbag John Lemieux. That's ridiculous.

It is the Pats underline, the Pats. Willie, I guess the question to you then is, how many touchdowns are the Pats going to win by? First of all, we need to update the evil team in baseball. It's the Dodgers now. Thank you. The Yankees having a one of children. That is true.

Months old. That is true. But I am actually genuinely going with the New England Patriots. The line is four and a half. I think they're going to win the game outright. I believe in Drake May. He's one of those just he's always in here, despite his age. He's got the calm and cool of Joe Montana.

I'm going Patriots 31, Seahawks 27. Good game. Whoa. Okay. Jonathan Lemire, what say you? Well, we all remember the last time the Patriots and Seahawks played the Super Bowl, the Malcolm Butler interception at the one-yard line. But Willie actually said at the top of this segment where I was going to go,

Tom Brady, second-year quarterback, 2002 against the heavily favored Rams team. Drake May, second-year quarterback against the favorite Seattle Seahawks team. I'll pick that exact score again. So I'm going to say hats 20 to 17. Hard to say what's going to happen here, Sam Darnold. We'll see. The guys just had an extraordinary story. He's fought back time and time again.

Somebody has to pick the Seahawks. I am. Okay, well, good. You'll pick the Seahawks. So I think the Pats will at the end of the day because of their coach. Coach of the year. What we saw from Drake May last week when he had to get a first down, he just changed the play, got it himself. It's pretty extraordinary.

It's going to be a close one, but I'm going with the Pats. Seahawks. Okay. So Mika has just doomed to the big. Mark money as always. Yeah, exactly. One of the funny stories coming out of this Super Bowl is actually not just been about the Super Bowl. It's been about the fact that some people in Maga World are rushing as far as they can to their safe space.

Right, I know. They want to be so isolated from reality. They don't even want to watch the halftime show. And I think that's really cute. And, you know, you hope they have a warm blanket and some cocaine. because the world out there is just so cold and harsh. They can't handle Bad Bunny. They can't even sit through and listen to the most streamed artist in the world

because that would trigger them, poor people. So they're going to create their own safe space. So they'll have that audience, but over 100 million Americans are expected to watch Bad Bunny, headline the Super Bowl halftime show. And the Grammy winner knows it, revealing yesterday he's a little bit nervous. MS Now's Nick McCool has more on what's in store for the 13-minute performance. He's one of the biggest musical performing artists in the world. Now about to take one of the world's biggest stages on Sunday.

Bad Bunny set to headline Super Bowl 60s halftime show as questions grow about whether he'll make a political statement during his performance. after this viral acceptance speech at the Grammys last weekend. We're not savage. We're not animals. We're not aliens. We are humans and we are Americans. His selection is the halftime show performer, the latest milestone in the meteoric rise of a Puerto Rican superstar.

And throughout his career, not afraid to speak out. The Trump administration and its immigration policies have been a frequent target. Journalist Julisa Lopez has covered him for years. He was very intentional. about saying that he didn't tour in the U.S. because he didn't want his fan base targeted by eyes. It wouldn't be the first time artists have used the halftime stage to make a statement. At Super Bowl 54, Jennifer Lopez showed kids in cages, a jab at Trump's border policies. Even outside the Super Bowl, the Dixie Chicks faced a firestorm after a 2003 London performance

calling out the Bush administration's invasion of Iraq. This time, the back. backlash from the Trump faithful has been swift. I didn't even know who Bad Bunny was, but it sounds like a terrible decision. Conservative group Turning Point USA announcing they'll counter program the performance with a halftime show of their own, headlined by Kid Rock. Bad Bunny even joking about the criticism during his SNL monologue in October. All the Latino and the Latina in the world in the... And if you didn't understand what I just said, you

have four months to learn. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell was asked this week about a possible political message from Bad Bunny after his Grammy speech. This platform is to use to unite people and to be able to bring people together with their creativity, with their talents. I think Bad Bunny understands that and I think he'll have a great performance. And when he previewed his performance Thursday, Bad Bunny struck a less political tone. I know that I told him that they, they,

had four months to learn Spanish. They don't even have to learn Spanish. They just, it's better if they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, there will likely be some kind of statement. Vanessa Diaz wrote a book on how bad bunny became the global voice of Puerto Rican resistance. I think everyone needs to be looking for the messaging in the symbols in the Puerto Rican flag. Is it the light blue one? That's the one that's known to advocate for independence. In an interview with the New York post, President Trump said, he was not happy with Bad Bunny's selection as the halftime performer or the pregame performance of Green Day. Their lead singer Billy Joe Armstrong has also been critical of him. Trump's telling the

paper, quote, I'm anti them. I think it's a terrible choice. All it does is so hatred. Back to you. Yeah, that's fascinating. MS now is Nick McCool with that report. I love Mike Johnson. I don't even know Bad Bunny is. Really? I don't even know who Margot Robbie is. Please. Please. Please. Don't even admit. Don't even admit that if it's true, Mr. Speaker. Just to go back to Bible-splaining to the Pope. So, Caddy, I'm curious. Let's go around favorite halftime shows. What's your favorite halftime show at the Super Bowl?

Okay, this is going to date me. Prince singing Purple Rain in the Rain. Do you remember that one? Amazing. 2009, 2009, 2008, something like that, 2007. Anyway, that was knocked out. Just make sure I'm right here. I think that was very good.

Lady Gaga, also amazing, but Prince. Oh, my God, Lady Gaga. That was remarkable, too. Willie, your favorite halftime show. I was going to go, Lady Gaga a couple years ago, just blew the roof off the place. But I have to go back to you two after 9-11 when he opened his jacket to the American flag

and the names of the dead scrolled up behind it. I'd still get chills thinking about that. Also, just this is not a halftime, But the anthem, you got to go Whitney Houston, one, obviously, when she was in the track suit. And I will say a couple of years ago, Chris Stapleton gave her a run for her money. He's 1A or 1, depending on how you rank these. Yeah, no doubt about it. Jonathan Lemire, your favorite halftime show.

Yeah, Prince is right up there. But I'm also going to go, like with Willie, you two in 2002. The country was so fragile at that moment. And it was such an emotional performance from them. That was also, I'll note, that aforementioned Pat's Ramp, Super Bowl. You don't have to say. Let's do good vibes there, too. Good vibes, good vibes.

Pablo, Pablo, your favorite halftime show. I'm going historical, Joe. I was just thinking as I was listening to DJ Mike Johnson talk about musical acts. The NFL is so good at popularity now. It's like you think you know better than the only organization that has the attention of everybody. It's kind of a metaphor for this administration, not understanding the poll. of like actual mainstream America at this point. But Super Bowl halftime shows were not always this fancy.

I'm going Super Bowl 1 because Super Bowl 1, we did an episode of this on my show, Pablo Tori finds out. We found the hidden tapes because they've been lost to history. Super Bowl 1 so long ago. It was a bunch of dudes with like jet packs. It was like a marching band. It wasn't always big business. And so to see the evolution in the NFL controlling the evolution

has been fascinating for that reason. Jet packs. I've seen the tape of the jet packs. That was the only fascinating thing that happened in Super Bowl 1 because history book shows. Vince Zimbardi just absolutely crushed the Chiefs. I've got to say, Prince was extraordinary. Next level.

Next level. I will say for those of us who remember, I remember wiping tears from my eyes repeatedly throughout the YouTube performance as they're singing where The streets have no names and the names of those who died on 9-11 flashed on the screen behind him. It was a transcendent moment that I think brought sports fans, Americans the world together. It was, it was just extraordinarily epic. I totally agree. Guess you're not asking me, but I'm going to say anyway.

All of those are next level. I agree. Bruno Mars 2014 was so incredible. And I think I'm going to love bad money. Anyhow, MS now contributor, Pablo Tori. Thank you very much.