So, you know, they are seeing him as a good ally in this fight. Also, you know, echoing the message we heard from joe biden in that Rare Oval Office address. You know, i think those lines of communication remain open, but i think this is something that Mitch Mcconnell just believes in a similar fashion to joe biden, and theyre happy to have someone from the other party be a spokesperson and advocate for this significant aid package. All right. Well see what happens in the capitol today. White house reporter for the Washington Post, tyler pager, thank you, as always. Thanks to all of you for getting up Way Too Early on this tuesday morning. Morning joe starts right now. Welcome to morning joe. It is 6 00 on the east coast, oz yau take a live look at washington, d. C. It is tuesday, october 24th. This morning, for the first time, were hearing from a hostage freed by hamas. Well play for you comments from one of the elderly women released yesterday by the Terrorist Group. Meanwhile, the efforts to free more hostages appears to be the main factor in delaying israels Ground Invasion into gaza. Well go through that new reporting. Also ahead, the very latest from capitol hill on the speakers race, which now stands at eight republican candidates, all of whom in the past supported overturning the 2020 Election Results. Terrific. Along with joe, willie, and me, we have the host of Way Too Early, jonathan lemire. President emeritus on the council of Foreign Relations, Richard Haass. Special correspondent for bbc news, katty kay. Before willie launching into the top story, cant they come up with someone who believes joe biden won the election to be speaker of the house. Eight Election Deniers, seriously . Now its down to six, so a healthy margin in 2023. Six of eight, healthy margin. We thank god for Tender Mercies. Speaking of thankfulness, two more hostages released yesterday. Of course, so many still held. Axios reporting this morning that israel is willing to hold back on possible invasions while these negotiations still move forward. You know, well take whatever good news we can get out of this grim, grim situation and story. Its just extraordinary that this Terrorist Group is Holding People in their 80s, releasing these women, and leaving their two husbands in their 80s behind. So brutal. Yeah, thats reportedly been the counsel from the United States government to israel, too, is wait a little bit. Lets see if we can get the hostages out before you go in. Hamas did release two more civilians who had been held the last two weeks and more now in gaza. Two elderly women freed yesterday. They were handed over to Israel Defense forces, taken to the hospital, and then reunited with their families. The womens husbands, as joe said, who are both in their 80s, are still being held captive. They were kidnapped from their homes when hamas first attacked on october 7th. In a Press Conference moments ago, one of the women, with the help of her daughter, shared details of her capture. Shes saying that many, many people, a swarm of people came through the fence. The fence cost 2. 5 billion she can shackles, and it didnt help even a little bit. My mom was taken on the back of a motorbike with her legs on one side and her head on another side. She was taken through the plowed fields with men in front, on one side, and a man behind her. While she was being taken, she was hit by sticks, by yeah, people. Until they reached the tunnels, there, they wanted for a few kilometers on the wet ground. There are huge network of tunnels underneath. It looks like a spider web. So this is the second hostage release since the war began. An American Mother and daughter were freed on friday. Still, israeli officials believe more than 200 people remain captive inside gaza. Hamas, qatar, egypt, and israel have been Negotiating Proposal to release a larger group of hostages in exchange for a steady flow of humanitarian aid into gaza. Thats according to three officials familiar with the talks who tell the Wall Street Journal. Hamas is demanding israel allow Fuel Deliveries into gaza, but israel fears the Terrorist Group may divert the supply and use for their own Military Purposes or to launch attacks into israel. Lets bring in nbc news chief Foreign CorrespondentRichard Engel, live in jerusalem this morning. Richard, what more do we know about the release of these two women, one 79 and one 85, and this broader strategy by hamas . Reporter so you just played some of that extraordinary Press Conference that we just heard. An 85yearold woman, tough woman, who just was released last night and is already speaking to reporters, describing her experiences, speaking through the help of a Family Member. She described how she was taken on the back of that motorcycle after hamas fighters broke into her kibbutz, started looting. She was thrown on the back of this bike and then taken into these tunnels. She said she was kept there with other prisoners. That hamas seemed well prepared. They had shampoo and other toiletries ready. They replaced and cleaned the toilets. They chose not to discuss politics with her. She even shook their hands when she left, not because she liked them or enjoyed this experience, of course not, but because they treated her decently. An extraordinary account of her ordeal. Of course, israel says there are about 220 hostages who remain in gaza, still in captivity, including the husbands of these two women. I know that negotiations to free more hostages are ongoing. There had been some hope yesterday to free a larger group, and those discussions are continuing through the mediation of qatar and egypt. Overall, the military and humanitarian situation is still heading toward escalation with israel continuing its air strikes, talking about 400 targets, more than 400 targets struck in the last 24 hours in gaza. Aid workers in gaza say unless they can get that fuel in of course, there is a concern itll be diverted to hamas but aid workers from a variety of organizations are saying unless some fuel can get in, generators are going to run out of their Reserve Supplies at hospitals, then incubators, respirators and other equipment wont be able to function. Diplomatic efforts under way. French president macron arrived, so we are seeing diplomatic activity. So far, no breakthroughs. Richard, publicly anyway, the Biden Administration is saying the idf, Prime Minister netanyahu, they make their own military decisions. At nbc, were reporting Behind The Scenes, the Biden Administration is advising israel to hold back on its Ground Invasion, to get these hostages out first and to get humanitarian aid in there. Whats your sense of those negotiations, and how long will israel really wait . Well, i think were seeing a bit of posturing here. The israel military, if it wanted to go in and was fully determined that it needed to go in, it would. It would not listen to the United States. It would not be held back if it had a plan and it felt the time was right to execute it. It would go ahead. I think the United States as its closest ally is urging caution, is doing so in a way that is publicly acknowledged. That does give the Israeli Government a little bit of breathing room. The people here are angry. They are furious. They want to see a Military Response, and they want to see it now. Now, if this government can say, we are attacking, we are working, we are freeing hostages, and our allies are pushing for time, it does give them a bit more space to come up with a plan. Going into gaza the not going to be easy. Just going back to the tunnel story, where these hostages are being held. I spoke to a senior hamas official yesterday who said the hostages are being held in multiple locations. I personally have been in tunnels in gaza, not these Fighting Tunnels and smuggling tunnels, but the entire gaza strip is flat. Its along the sea. The ground is quite soft and sandy. For years, palestinians have been Digging Networks of tunnels. They are extraordinarily deep. You have one tunnel leading to another. There are many different layers to them. It is an entire labyrinth under gaza. In order to deal with that, it is going to take not just two weeks of planning, like israel has had right now in response to these attacks that took place on october 7th. Theres nothing quit and easy about this. Thats for sure. Nbc news chief Foreign CorrespondentRichard Engel in jerusalem. Thank you so much. Mika . As richard reported, the Biden Administration is advising israel to delay a Ground Invasion of gaza to allow for more time for Hostage Negotiations and humanitarian aid to reach there. Thats according to four u. S. Officials. However, officials stress the u. S. Is not dictating operations for the Israeli Defense forces. Yet, the pentagon has sent a three Star Marine General and other officers to help advise the israelis on the challenges in fighting an urban war. This comes as Senior Administration officials tell the New York Times, the white house is concerned there is a lack of military objectives in gaza and the idf is not yet ready to launch a Ground Invasion with a plan that can work. Of course, thats the key, richard, a plan that can work. Weve been hearing so much about how difficult it would be for israel to go into gaza, to achieve what Military Goals they end up having, which takes us really back to your Wall Street Journal oped, where you talk about a twophased approach. The fact that theyre not quite ready to do that, the fact that negotiations continue to move forward, the fact that joe biden went to the region and said, hold on, dont make the same mistakes we made after 9 11, it really whats happening right now, thus far it could change in an hour fits into your twophased approach, which is, first, stabilize the situation, make sure that a bad situation doesnt deteriorate further. Secondly, you do that with peace in mind. Do it in such a way, David Ignatius has also said this, where peace with the saudis is possible, peace with palestinians who want to turn their back on terrorism also possible. So given what you wrote this weekend, where we are today, how do you think things are moving forward . Its interesting, joe. Things have slowed down a little bit. What were seeing is that the hostages by the way, the hostages were not somehow a sideshow for hamas. Hostages were an integral part of their strategy. What were seeing is the slow release of them. Hamas is trying to buy time. Thats one situation. Obviously, israel is loathe to go in while hostages are being released in decent health. The United States is worried about american hostages. That slows things down. Theres all the negotiations, as you said, about aid. But i think what quietly is happening, as u. S. Defense officials are spending a lot of time with their israeli counterparts, theyre saying, do you understand how hard this is . Theres two phases, and youve been talking about it here, the military phase of urban, closehand combat. Its a nightmare, particularly since hamas will know the terrain better than anybody. Then what The Americans are saying, its a little from our experience in places like afghanistan, just say were wrong in youre right. Say things go a little better than we anticipate. What then . To whom do you hand off authority . Theres no other authority right now other than hamas. Theres no one else in gaza. The idea that the people who cant run the west bank are going to run gaza is preposterous. The egyptians dont want a part in it. The u. N. Is feckless. The idea you can walk in, hand it over, and walk out, its a pipe dream. Thats the israel problem. My hunch is, emotions are intense, but whats happening, i think, is the hard thinking of Foreign Policy has kicked in. Think about it. Could you imagine anything worse than israel than it went in big, then three weeks or three months later, they said, this isnt working . That would almost add a failure on top of a failure. I think youre having a little bit of slowing down here. Well, i mean, the guarantee, even if they have a, quote, successful Military Operation in gaza, theyre guaranteed to find themselves back in the same situation they were in in 2005 where they said, we dont want to govern this place. Theyll have to leave. Again, this goes back to what we have been talking about, fight the war with peace in mind. Right. They have to fight the war against hamas in such a way that other arab countries will come in with the United Nations, with the United States, with other parties, and have a Peacekeeping Force there if thats possible. Katty, there is a real give and take, though, here. Lets say a push and pull. You have the israeli people, rightly, enraged by the rapes, the mass atrocities, the beheadings, the execution of babies, the burning of children. You have that. Where the israelis dont want to sit back and wait, they want justice. Then you have on the other side the World Community thats sort of pulling back at israel, telling them to wait, telling them to be patient. Things, obviously, are going to get even more frayed right now, arent they . Yeah. I mean, it is interesting. You have president macron of france flying into israel today, the latest in a string of World Leaders to go and try to do two things. Talk about hostages and try to put some restraint on the israelis, particularly when it comes to those images in gaza. I spoke to General Petraeus last week, and you discussed him on the show yesterday. He lays out that challenge of, you know, clear, hold, build. Each one of those three steps in the case of gaza is infinitely harder than it was even in mosul for General Petraeus. Clearing gaza is really difficult. Holding it, again, what do you do with this . They dont want to hold on to this. Building it. I think its interesting, you have a coordinated message publicly and privately coming from The Americans at the moment. That statement by barack obama last night was very clear to the israelis, that, you know, we stand with you, but if you have all of these images of, you know, potentially, im hearing, Tens Of Thousands of people being killed in gaza during a land invasion, then that could set back the israeli cause, echoing Tom Friedmans column. President biden himself saying, listen, are you really ready . Are these achievable aims . The message from The Americans and the europeans at the moment, be careful, as you plan your next steps. Right. Quick followup on that, katty. It seems that, obviously, europeans have always been further away from the israeli position than americans have taken. That said, post isis, isis attacks in paris and whats happened in the uk, i find it fascinating that you actually have rishi sunak, the british Prime Minister, actually pushing hard to stop pro hamas demonstrations in london that are chanting, jihad. Things that, you know, weve all seen. I know youve seen when youre in london before, but it seems to me that at least that government is moving a bit more aggressively toward the israeli position. Yeah, and the brits have moved naval assets into the region, as well, so theyre very much in lock step. The government is very much in lock stop. There is some disconnect between the governments and the people. Youve had very Big Pro Palestinian demonstrations in france. Youve had Big Pro Palestinian demonstrations in london. If you look at the Domino Effect of this, of any kind of big scale invasion of gaza, even the atrocities, you know, the killings were seeing and the suffering were seeing in gaza at the moment, it gets much ive just come back from london. It gets much more play in the European Press than it does in the American Press even. The americans are trying to cover i